This is a new pasta to me, this perciatelli 8, which totally screws up my attempt to understand the meaning of pasta numbers. There is only one brand available in my grocery store, Colavita, which claims to be "From the fields of Molise, Italy and imported exclusively by Colvita USA, located in Linden, New Jersey", 800 telephone number and website, to boot. (While I'm at it, I might as well add that the store brand lasagne now has a number of 125.) I love this perciatelli, as it is a sturdy spaghetti-like pasta, except that it is hollow inside. When cooked, this hollowness absorbs sauce in a different way.
Perciatelli is excellent, as a base for seasoned and browned, ground turkey, ground beef, or Italian sweet sausages (I don't like sausage, but my guys do, so I cook them.) It doesn't clump together, as fettucine, spaghetti or angel hair pasta does (and yes, I cook them all the same, in boiling water with a bit of olive oil, then rinse with hot water.) I always cook at least two one pound packages at a time so there are easy leftovers, which is how I came up with my current favorite lunch:
Peanut butter and Perciatelli
Similar to cold sesame noodles, on the appetizers part of a Chinese take-out menu, which I alone love (in my family)...except I don't like cucumbers. Plus, I always wondered why cold? A few weeks ago, got the idea to take a small, microwaveable bowl and fill it with leftover perciatelli, scooped approximately 3 T. of reduced fat chunky peanut butter, tried to mix it together cold. That didn't work too well, so I nuked it for 30 seconds, still no go, nuked it another 30 seconds. Perfect. I mashed the peanut butter into the pasta, then added grated carrots and small chunks of Vidalia onion. Lord have mercy. Had to make a second bowl. This kept me going for hours!