Urmaniac has answered in a nearly complete way. I can only add that the hardness of pasta often depends from hom much "tender" or "hard" grain (correct?) has been used in its preparation. I kow by sure that, till sixties, there were two different productions for italian pasta: one for internal use, and another one for abroad, depending from fact that abroad, people seemed to prefer a softer type. And this type was produced mainly with tender grain flour. Actually, I think it's no more so. In every way, please observe stricltly the times indicated on the box: if Grain is "tender", it happens that after 8 minutes pasta is too hard. After 8 minutes and 30 seconds is too soft. On the box you must find tha words "pasta di grano duro". A liter for every 100 grams is affectively too much, but, in everyway, abundant. And, PLEASE,
do-not-rinse! .
There is another type of pasta, not yet described : dried
egg pasta. This is more quick to cook, than normal pasta, but not so quick than fresh pasta. Be careful. It absorbes sauces very quicly, and it deserves a bigger quantity of them.
The last. a)Bolognese sauce. It's a simple (?) ragout. The minced meat is cooked fo several hours in sedan, carrots and onions, whit flavours and white wine. At the last, you can, if you like, add some tomatoes, but very little.
b)Tirami-su (letterarly: "get me up") is a cake, normal cake, made with a particular type of biscuits, drawned in coffe, brandy, and mascarpone cream, covered with powder of chocolate. It had so a great diffusion that many ice creams companies made an iced version, industrial.
Good appetite.