Crisp up that pizza! Photo by Moi Cody | SXC.

Do you reheat your pizza in the oven? In the microwave?

We’ve got a better technique, courtesy of Chef John of FoodWishes.com.

Refreshing a pizza on the stovetop delivers a much crisper pizza, in a fraction of the time it takes to heat the oven.

You can use this method for reheating day-old pizza; it’s also useful for crisping up pizza that was just delivered, to restore the fresh-out-of the-oven texture.

Let us know how you like it!

Find our favorite gourmet pizza recipes in our Pasta & Pizza Section.

Ramen are Japanese wheat noodles. In Japan, ramen dishes are fine cuisine, and innovation is the name of the game. Ramen recipes are closely guarded secrets.

In the U.S., most ramen dishes comprise packaged ramen noodle soups. Known best as inexpensive fare for college students, there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. The hot, chewy noodles can provide almost as much comfort as a hug from mom. In these recessionary times, ramen is more than a hug: It’s a deal of a meal.

The bad rap of packaged ramen soup comes from the spice packet used to flavor the broth. What’s so bad about it? More often than not, beyond the dried soup ingredients, it includes an unconscionable amount of sodium, a cocktail of unpronounceable ingredients and a kick of MSG. Yikes.

The next time you come across a package of ramen soup, take it home, ditch the shady silver spice pack and improvise. There is no end to what you can add to the broth, so get creative and turn your ramen into “fine cuisine.”

Turn instant ramen noodles into something special. Photo © Olga Nayashkova | Fotolia.com

 
Ditch The Broth, Keep The Noodles
Feel free to eliminate the broth altogether; after all, ramen is simply pre-cooked egg noodles.

How about a little Ramen Carbonara? Render a quarter pound of diced pancetta in a pan. Cook the ramen according to the package instructions, using boiling water with a half a teaspoon of salt stirred in. When the ramen is cooked, add it to the pancetta with the pan on medium heat, and add one uncooked scrambled egg.

It’s important to stir constantly once the egg is in the pan, as this will allow it to coat the noodles rather than simply turning into scrambled eggs.

Finish with some grated Parmesan cheese and coarsely ground black pepper. And even though this sounds like dinner, it is more or less bacon and eggs, so feel free to eat it for breakfast.

FOOD 101: TYPES OF PASTA

Ramen is one of the many types of pasta made worldwide. Check out our Pasta Glossary for photos of many types of pasta.

Make or buy pumpkin ravioli for this recipe. Photo © Liddy Hansdottir | Fotolia.

What do you do the day after Halloween? Plan for Thanksgiving!

If there’s room on your menu, make pumpkin ravioli: You can serve four pieces as an appetizer. Otherwise, serve this tasty dish during November and December as a seasonal specialty (though you can enjoy pumpkin ravioli year-round).

You can make pumpkin ravioli from scratch, or buy it. Either way, top it with a simple brown butter-fresh sage sauce. The recipe below is from Wisconsin chef Tony Mantuano, who uses Wisconsin-made Parmesan and Provolone cheeses.

If you buy the pumpkin ravioli, this recipe is truly easy: boil ravioli and melt butter with sage. Top with Provolone and crumbled amaretti cookies. You can also garnish store-bought ravioli with chopped dried fruit, which is included in the filling of the homemade ravioli.

If you don’t want the sweetness of the Amaretti (or want to avoid the almonds in the Amaretti), substitute toasted bread crumbs.

PUMPKIN RAVIOLI WITH DRIED FRUIT & AMARETTI

Makes 10 servings.

Ingredients

Ravioli Filling

 
Ravioli

 
Brown Butter Sauce

 
Preparation

1. For the filling, combine the filling ingredients, reserving 1/2 cup of Amaretti crumbs for the topping.

2. For the ravioli, moisten a wonton skin with water. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle. Place another skin on top, moisten the edges and press to seal.

3. Make sauce (see next step). Cook ravioli in a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water for about 3-1/2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the warm sage butter.

4. For the sauce, in a sauté pan, heat the butter on high heat until the foam subsides. Remove from the heat and add the sage leaves. Set aside and keep warm.

5. On warm plates, divide the ravioli and top with grated Provolone, the reserved crushed Amaretti and a few pieces of the sage chiffonade.

FOOD 101: PUMPKIN PASTA FOR DESSERT

Pumpkin pasta with a sweetened filling is not far removed from a pie crust with pumpkin filling. Check out this dessert pumpkin pasta recipe.

*If you can’t find Amaretti in your regular market, check at an Italian deli or buy them online.

†For more flavor, get provolone piccante, an aged, spicier version of mild provolone.

Enjoy delicious ravioli as you contribute
to breast cancer research. Photo courtesy Pasta Prima.

Ravioli (and its baked cousin, lasagne) is one of our Top 10* comfort foods, even though it isn’t on any published list we’ve seen.†

While cheese ravioli can be bland, we never turn down butternut squash or pumpkin ravioli. (INSIDER FOOD TIP: Butternut squash, which has a smoother texture and a similar flavor, is often substituted for pumpkin in prepared foods—from ravioli to “pumpkin” pie.)

Enter 100% Natural Pasta Prima Butternut Squash Ravioli. A delicate balance of sweet and savory flavors including imported Parmesan cheese, sage and cinnamon, each pasta pillow sports three pink stripes for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with $20,000 pledged to cancer research.

Who can resist? Add your favorite white sauce or a mild red sauce, or simply toss with extra-virgin olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

The family-owned business is one of a number of fine companies to produce a special edition for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Every pink package purchased from Pasta Prima supports The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Pasta Prima is a good corporate citizen in other ways, too. One-third of the company’s energy is powered by Green Energy. The company has also made the move to renewable packaging: compostable plastics made from corn instead of petroleum.

 
*For those who care enough to read this footnote, the others on our personal Top 10 list include bagels (with lox and cream cheese, pickled herring or whitefish salad); bundt or loaf cake; Chinese dumplings; gourmet mac and cheese; the ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt group; mashed potatoes (with basil, goat cheese or truffles); pain au chocolat; PB&J with a glass of milk; and scrambled eggs with a toasted English muffin.

†Comfort food lists typically include beef stew, biscuits, chocolate, cereal, fried chicken, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, meat loaf, pot pie, soup and spaghetti.

If you’re Italian American, you may know what a spaghettata is (pronounced spa-get-TAH-tah).

It’s like a cookout, but it takes place indoors, with spaghetti.

It can be an impromptu lunch or dinner, following a card game or board game, or after a soccer match (or your favorite American sport). The key word is casual.

In Italy somebody says, “Facciamo una spaghettata”—let’s have a spaghetatta—and the meal is on.

Everyone migrates to the kitchen. A big pot of water is put on the stove for the spaghetti (or any other pasta cut).

The rest of the ingredients include what’s in every Italian pantry:

Angel hair spaghetti with tomatoes and fresh
basil: ready in minutes. Photo courtesy BarillaUS.com.

 
Everybody helps out, and soon the spaghetti feast is on the table.

Tips from Barilla for giving your spaghettata a special Italian flare:

 
You can toss in “anything in the kitchen,” such as fresh, frozen or jarred veggies (artichoke hearts, peas, roasted red peppers), tuna or anchovies. If you have chicken, seafood, sausage or bacon to toss in, do it. If you don’t have Parmesan or other grating cheese, add blue cheese, goat cheese or feta.

Recipes
Barilla has a large selection of pasta recipes on its website. We’ve picked these three easy recipes for your spaghettata:

 
The difference between Parmesan and Parmigiano Reggiano.
The different Italian grating cheeses.

A plate of mini wheels (rotelle)—smaller
than half a cherry tomato. Photo courtesy
Barilla. Here’s the recipe for this pasta salad.
Find more recipes at BarillaUS.com.

We recently tried Barilla Piccolini, a new miniature pasta line.

Piccolini is the Italian word for “little ones,” referring to small children. The miniature versions of five classic pasta shapes (about half the conventional size) are perfect for small mouths—and for large ones as well.

The smaller size cooks faster (in 7 minutes) and keeps the same al dente texture. Try Mini Farfalle (bow ties), Mini Fusilli (spindles), Mini Penne (quills), Mini Wheels (rotelle) and Mini Ziti (bridegrooms).*

We especially like the miniature pasta for pasta salads. The smaller pasta shape is more in proportion with the other ingredients, so one forkful is likely to include pasta plus bell peppers, capers or whatever you add to your pasta salad.

If you can’t find the miniature pasta locally, it’s available on Amazon.com.

One cup of cooked pasta contains 200 calories and has 1g fat, 42g carbs and 7g protein.

*The shape doesn’t look like a bridegroom, but is traditionally served at Italian weddings, and is called “bride’s pasta.” Question for Barilla: Why are four of the five varieties labeled with their Italian names, but the rotelle are called Wheels (their English name)?

Fusion cuisine combines ingredients from different food cultures for a new take on the ingredients and the recipes themselves.

In the case of Dave’s Gourmet Masala Marinara pasta sauce, the result is a delightful fusion of Italy and Southeast Asia.

Marinara is the classic Italian tomato sauce served with spaghetti and meatballs, atop pizza, veal and chicken Parmigiana, and as a dipper with fried zucchini and mozzarella sticks. A good sauce will be made from lush tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, onions and oregano.

Masala is the Hindi word for a mixture of spices.*

*While “masala” is an Indian word, the predominant flavors are both Indian and Thai.

A nifty new pasta sauce, flavored with Indian
spices. Photo courtesy Dave’s Gourmet.

Dave’s Gourmet uses a base of tomatoes and tomato paste, seasoned with southern Asian flavors including coconut milk, garlic, ginger, lime leaf, lime juice, lemongrass, onions, Indian spices and vinegar, among other ingredients. Evaporated cane juice is listed as an ingredient, but thankfully, there’s no prominent sugar flavor.

The sauce is versatile, pairing well with chicken, lamb, pasta, pork, rice, seafood and vegetables.

We also tasted Dave’s Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce, the first sauce we’ve come across made from squash. If you’re a butternut squash fan (we are!), try it and let us know what you think.

While it provided an interesting change of pace, THE NIBBLE tasting team wasn’t keen on the change—and we don’t know why. We really enjoy pumpkin ravioli, where the squash is inside of the pasta. So why didn’t we like a purée of squash atop our pasta?

We have no idea. We’re going to get another jar and try it as a sauce for chicken and fish.

You can purchase Dave’s all-natural sauces online at DavesGourmet.com.

How about curry-flavored pasta? Photo by
Angela Foto | IST.

Versatile, economical and a classic comfort food when topped with a tasty sauce and grated cheese: No wonder pasta is at the top of the list of foods beloved by Americans. What is traditionally served as a first course in Italy is most often served as a main course in the U.S.

Colored and flavored pastas have long been available. The most popular are flavored with spinach to create a pale green pasta; with red bell pepper, which results in a pink-colored pasta; and with squid ink, which creates a black pasta.

Flavors/colors have traditionally been combined to make a more interesting presentation. Paglia e fieno (straw and hay) is a combination of conventional yellow pasta and spinach pasta; tricolore pasta is a combination of conventional, spinach and red pepper flavors.

Over the last thirty years, as chefs and pasta manufacturers have become more creative and consumers have become more adventurous, many different flavors of pasta have appeared. You can find everything from chocolate- and strawberry-flavored pasta to chipotle and wasabi pasta.

Al Dente, a pasta company based in Michigan, embraces flavors with some 26 different options in three varieties of ribbon pasta: fettuccine, linguine and pappardelle.

The company also makes some of the best pasta sauces out there. Many commercial tomato sauces—even specialty brands—are loaded with unnecessary sugar, which compensates for less flavorful tomatoes and a lack of more expensive spices. Al Dente pasta nails it by using the most flavorful, quality ingredients, eliminating the need to sweeten.

The line is certified kosher. Read the full review.

A Brief History Of Pasta
Pasta dates back to ancient times. Flat sheets of pasta were made by the Romans, who called them laganum, referring to the vessel in which the dish was baked. The word evolved to lasagne.

The Romans lacked tomatoes, which originated in Peru. They did not reach Europe until about 1529, when Spanish Conquistadors returned from Mexico. Initially used as houseplants, they were not eaten until the 1830s!

Romans flavored their pasta with honey or tossed it with fish sauce (garum). By the Renaissance, pasta was baked into pies and served as a sweet dish with sugar, cinnamon and other spices (noodle pudding). There were butter sauces, olive oil sauces and cream sauces plus plenty of grated cheese, but only since the 1830s have there been tomato sauces.

Continue with a the history of pasta.

See the many different different types of pasta.

 
Enjoy these fun pizza facts from Grande Pizza Co. of Boca Raton, Florida. Our favorite discoveries? Toppings in Russia include sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon and red onions, and a popular Chinese pizza is topped with eel with thousand island dressing.

Find lots of pizza recipes in our Pasta & Pizza Section.
 

Pizza with Greek toppings: Greek-Italian
fusion cuisine. Photo courtesy zpizza.

Although Pizza was founded in Laguna Beach, California, we’re lucky enough to have two zPizzas here in New York City (three, if you count the one in JFK Airport). zPizza is all about natural, quality ingredients. Their crusts are made from organic wheat flour and they use fresh produce and additive-free sausage. We had fun perusing their website for international pizza recipe ideas: Mexican- and Thai-style pizza among the 12 options.

Sometimes the toppings take some creative license: The Tuscan pizza, for example, starts with roasted garlic sauce, mozzarella, cremini and button mushrooms, truffle oil and fresh thyme—very Italian and very tempting. But we don’t understand the addition of shiitake mushrooms (Japanese) and more particularly, feta cheese (Greece and other countries, but not Italy).

But there is a feta-topped Greek pizza. We love a Greek salad so were inspired to try this recipe.

Grab a pizza crust and your favorite red sauce. Top with chopped or halved Greek olives, crumbled feta, sliced tomatoes, red onion and oregano. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese—yes, it’s Italian, but this is Italian-Greek fusion.

Those within nibbling distance of zPizza (there are locations all over the country) can take advantage of their “Passport to Pizza” promotion. Purchase any three of the Casablanca, Greek, Napoli or Provence pizzas by April 30, 2011 and you’ll get one extra-large pizza for free.