Cestini is a type of pasta that originated in the south of Italy. This type of pasta can be used for many pasta dishes and is therefore very popular. We tell you all about this type of pasta.
What is cestini?
Cestini is a short, shell-like type of pasta. Although the pasta looks a bit like a shell, it gets its name from something else. Cestini means “basket” in Italian.
The cestini is a kind of pasta you can use for different pasta dishes. Our advice is to use this pasta with a dish that has a lot of sauce. The sauce creeps into the cavity of the cestini and makes your pasta dish even tastier.
How is cestini pasta made?
Like most types of pasta, pasta is made from durum wheat and water. Kneading these two ingredients together creates a pasta dough. Then the pasta is pressed through a bronze mold which gives it its final shape. In this case the shape of Cestini. As a final step, the pasta only needs to dry and then be packaged.
Of course, making pasta is a lot more elaborate and involves a lot more than what we have described now. In order not to make this blog too long, we wrote a whole blog about pasta making. You can read all about it in the blog: “How is pasta made?”.
Recipes for cestini
During the Palio festival in Siena, the pasta is combined with Pecorino cheese, cherry tomatoes and arugula. A delicious combination if you ask us!
We also often see cestini processed in pasta dishes with Mediterranean ingredients such as tomato, anchovies, capers, salted ricotta and Calabrian sausage. In short: you can do anything with it!
Whatever dish you choose, the pasta sauce goes into the cavity of the pasta which makes the dish even more delicious! For more inspiration you can always take a look at our pasta recipes.
How should you cook cestini?
Cestini needs about 10 to 12 minutes on average to cook until tender. It is therefore important that you take your time here. If you are short on time, we recommend using a different type of pasta.
We have listed all the tips and tricks that will help you cook lumaconi faster. You can read these tips in our blog ‘How to cook pasta quickly’.
Below are a number of steps that you can use to cook the cestini. Stick to these steps and you’ll see that the cestini are cooked just right.
Cestini are cooked in the following 6 steps:
Use a large pan to cook the cestini in
Take a large pan, the bigger the better. The cestini must be able to move in the pan. This prevents the cestini from sticking together. Fill the large pan for 75% with hot water, by using hot water you save time because the water needs less time to boil. Do you want to save a lot of time? Then use a kettle so the water is already boiling.
Add some salt to the water
Make your pasta dish more delicious by adding a little extra salt to the boiling water. The salt gives the flavors in a dish an extra boost. This makes all the flavors more intense and delicious! Be careful, because too much salt can ruin your dish. We keep a guideline of about 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water. You can read more about cooking pasta and salt in our blog: ‘Cooking pasta with or without salt?
Do not use a lid when cooking cestini
By not using a lid the cooking water will not foam. For this reason, we always recommend not using a lid. It is also easier to keep the pasta moving. Read more about this in our next tip.
Keep the cestini moving
Like any pasta, cestini have a tendency to stick together. By keeping the pasta moving you can prevent this from happening. Stir every minute with a spaghetti spoon in the pan. In this way you keep the cestini moving sufficiently.
Taste the cestini before pouring.
If you want to know whether the cestini is good, then it is wise to taste the cestini. You do this before draining, so you can determine whether it is necessary to cook the pasta longer. In addition, you immediately taste whether you have put enough salt in water. You can choose to add some more salt to taste.
Add the cestini to the pasta sauce at once
In Italy, they always add the pasta to the pasta sauce right away. This makes it less likely that the cestini will stick together. By doing this you never have to deal with sticky pasta. A good tip we would like to give you!
How long should you cook cestini?
You cook cestini on average in about 10 to 12 minutes. So you need quite some time for this. We recommend always looking carefully at the packaging of the pasta to know the exact cooking time. If you stick to this, you will see that the pasta cooks just right.
Do you want to cook the pasta ‘al dente’? Then you have to cook the pasta one minute shorter than stated on the package. Taste for yourself when you think the pasta is good enough to use. You can read more tips on how to do this in our blog: ‘How to cook pasta al dente!
How many cestini do you need per person?
Depending on the type of dish you want to make with the cestini, decide how many grams you need. We use the rule of thumb of 100 grams of pasta per person.
This applies to a pasta dish with a common sauce. If you choose a hearty, well-filled sauce, we recommend choosing, say, 80 grams of pasta.
Do you find it difficult to choose the right amount of pasta? We have written an extensive blog about it. You can read everything on our blog: How much pasta to cook per person.