Do Not Pasta Go Trivia Quiz

Answer: Toasted Ravioli

Toasted ravioli was originally created in Saint Louis, Missouri. It is ravioli that has been crumbed and then deep fried, before serving usually as an entrée or appetiser. I dislike pasta dishes for the most part, but this one sounds rather mouth watering. Ravioli itself looks like small lumps of dough covered in a sauce, with each lump of it containing various fillings. As straight ravioli, only one or two of those is enough for my taste buds - I don't like the squelch - but perhaps covered in breadcrumbs wouldn't be so bad.

Note: As I'm not a cook, these descriptions will be in layman's terms for the most part. Oh, and if you need help to research the answers, they're all listed in Wikipedia under "List of Pasta Dishes".

Answer: Timballo

Timballo originated in Italy and can be either made from pasta, rice or potatoes, to which assorted fillings have been added, depending on which version is ordered. Perhaps made from rice or potatoes would taste rather nice. Although the dish was created in Italy, the name for this dish was borrowed from the French word, timbale, which was a type of kettledrum. If you were really hungry, you may enjoy this dish.

Answer: Tetrazzini

Tetrazzini was created in the United States and actually sounds quite delicious. It is comprised of diced chicken (or seafood) and mushrooms mixed in a parmesan and butter (or cream) sauce - and then poured over cooked thin strands of pasta. Nice thin ones such as spaghetti and not the thick gluggy sort. Tetrazzini also comes topped with a yummy almond and parmesan cheese covering. I wouldn't mind tasting that at all - as long as the pasta is thin.

Answer: Pastitsio

Pastitsio comes to us from the Mediterranean area and consists of big chunky bits of gluggy pasta combined in a ground up beef and béchamel sauce, whatever that is. Better look it up for those with the same non-existent cooking skills as myself. Aha! Béchamel sauce is made from flour, butter (or fat) and milk. Sounds really off-putting is it's made with chunks of fat, I don't mind telling you.

They call this a roux. It probably should be called a "rue" instead. Think of the hips, people. Pastitsio can also be made with fish instead of beef. How horrible - chunks of fish mixed in with lumps of fat and globs of pasta. No, thank you. I'll just have a carrot instead.

Answer: Pasta Primavera

Pasta primavera was created in Canada and is basically just pasta - any sort you fancy - with vegetables - also any sort you fancy. You can make this with thin pasta if you don't fancy the thicker sort in any shape of form, and, one supposes, the taste must come with the enhancements and flavourings added to the vegetables. One of my daughters is a vegetarian.

She loves all those vegetarian kinds of meals, but without any flavouring at all. Her pasta primavera consists of that horrible curly thick pasta, only half cooked (it could break a tooth) through which half raw broccoli or asparagus or brussels sprouts have been mixed. You have NO idea how hard I try to get out of her dinner invitations.

They're trials of endurance for anyone's taste buds. I have to come home and eat a sausage.

Answer: Macaroni Salad

Macaroni salad is my idea of horror. The macaroni is that horrible curved one called elbow macaroni that looks like those artery advertisements on television, and if that isn't bad enough, it's served cold. Cold and gluggy pasta. My idea of culinary hell. Fortunately, you'll be delighted to know, this is served as a side dish usually, and not as a main course, so you can always pretend you're trying to lose weight by skipping extra dishes.

The salad inclusions, what there is of them in the pictures of this dish, can be anything you fancy.

But why ruin a good salad? Leave the cold elbowing macaroni out altogether.

Answer: Lasagne

Lasagne was created in Italy, the home of the pasta delight. It consists of several layers of flattened out dough sheets which are piled one on top of the other with alternating layers of sauces and meats sandwiched in between. This dish is usually topped with cheese of some kind as well. If lasagne is prepared by a good cook using lots of meats and sauce (and not piles of thick indigestion-provoking tomato paste), it can be tolerable. Unfortunately though, most cooks tend to lather on that tomato paste and pasta sheets instead, so this dish doesn't send the digestive processes into paroxysms of delight - unless you have a cast iron stomach.

Answer: Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo was created in Rome. The word fettuccine translates to "little strips of pasta", and that's precisely what it is, except the pasta isn't terribly thin, and can, instead, wrap its thick tentacles around your tonsils until you choke to death. Through these life threatening strips of dough is mixed parmesan cheese and butter.

These melt together to form a tasty enough sauce to cover the strips of fettuccine. Unfortunately, and speaking from sorrowful experience, you can't just order the sauce by itself sans the tentacles of dough. I think it would be lovely in fact if you could, and dip small slices of toasted garlic bread into same, but alas, this appears to be akin to a mortal sin if requested.

Answer: Rigatoni

I detest these small tubes of pasta with the ribbed sides, no matter how they're presented. They're basically just the same as that penne pasta, only sliced at a different angle, and somewhat thicker than ziti pasta - but they all taste the same, or rather, have no taste at all.

The flavour comes in their accompaniments. Those accompaniments, like most pasta, can be anything that takes your fancy - and the thicker and more flavoursome the better, in order to disguise the pasta. If that is the case, and if you're really lucky, rigatoni can sometimes slide down your throat as quickly as possible so you don't have to do much chewing into its gluggy content at all.

Answer: Spaghetti Bolognese

Everyone's favourite, I imagine, spaghetti bolognese, or bolognaise if you prefer, was created in Italy. In its very basic style, this is a cooked sauce meat mix of tomato and mince which is served in several scoops over nicely arranged rings of properly cooked spaghetti.

It is usually also topped with heaps of grated parmesan cheese on top, and, though very messy (NEVER order this dish on a first date), is quite, quite yummy. Many families now, in order to make the grocery budget stretch further, mix in cooked vegetables such as peas, corn and carrot with the mince and tomato (or tomato paste) as well.

This gives the family a more balanced meal. Either way is sinfully fattening, but who cares.