AS I put together a quick pasta for his tiffin this morning, my husband was busy ticking of some of his favourite pasta meals made by me.

It struck me, then, that pasta - usually drenched in white sauce and smothered in cheese - is everywhere these days.

Pasta has the potential to be the base for an amazing spectrum of dishes from soups and salads to whole meals in one. However this incredibly easy to cook versatile ingredient has barely been explored. 

I always use imported Italian dried pastas. They do cost somewhat more than local options but a 500 gm packet will usually stretch  to accommodate 6 portions so dinner stretches into tiffins.

Any Italian dried pasta is preferable to a domestic equivalent because not only do Italians do pasta so well they would never sell an inferior product but Italian pastas are also made from Durum wheat Semolina which is high in protein and gluten. Local pastas like Bambino and others of its ilk are usually just maida, with no nutritional benefit. They also fall apart on cooking!

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