Which brings us to cappellacci, big hats, the big brothers of cappelletti (little hats). This plump and generous shape is typical of the city of Ferrara, where the filling is a velvet purée of pumpkin and cheese, the sauce butter and sage. Just writing their name makes me want to jump on a train and spend the day in Ferrara, half red-brick

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Busiate is still a homemade shape, one which varies according to the cook. At the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school, for example, rather than a pierced rope busiate is more like a ringlet or a ribbon round a maypole. It is also a factory-made shape and one worth seeking out, the long spiral the most magnificent sauce-catcher imaginable, especially

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Green crêpe lasagna with pesto & ricotta

It is the way they pleat and fold that makes them so satisfying. First on the plate and then again in your mouth. Pappardelle are typical of all the central and central-northern Italian regions, each one boasting a slightly different width, anything from 2.5 to 6cm. The Tuscans gave it the name; it comes from pappare, the colloquial, to eat. Fresh

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