Who doesn’t love pasta? It’s easy, healthy and fulfilling. There are endless ways to make pasta – just play with your imagination and be inspired from the vast variety of pasta dishes.
Nothing stands for Italian food like pasta. An Italian tradition for hundreds of years, pasta is at the heart of Italian cooking and a favorite for many Italian chefs.
Wherever Italians have immigrated they brought their pasta with them, and so today it is part and parcel of everyone’s lifestyle. Hence, it is hardly surprising that Italian pasta has become one of the most common dishes all around the world.
Pasta comes in all shapes and sizes; long pasta such as spaghetti, linguine or cappelli d’angelo, tubular pasta like penne, elicoidali or cavatappi, ribbon pasta such as fettuccine, tagliatelle or pappardelle, stuffed pasta like ravioli, tortelloni, or cannelloni, special pasta shapes such as gnocchi, farfalle or radiatori and pasta that is ideal for soup like farfarelline, risoni or tubetti.
Cooking pasta only takes a few minutes, but it’s the sauce that is the hardest to cook. While some sauces take hours to make, some can be prepared in a matter of minutes.
One fantastic, simple and quick pasta sauce is all’arrabiata. The name means angry-style, due to the large quantity and heat of red chili.
Once a staple of Rome and central Italy, it is nowadays a popular sauce all over the world. It’s just impossible to beat the taste of tomatoes, chili, garlic and basil, all cooked together in olive oil.
A spicy tomato sauce such as all’arrabiata is typically served with penne, tube-shaped pasta with diagonally cut ends.
Alfredo sauce is a great alternative to the traditional red pasta sauce. Alfredo sauce is a famous Roman dish made with cheese, cream and butter.
According to legend, the sauce has its name from its creator, Alfredo Di Lelio, the original owner of Alfredo’s Restaurant in Rome.
The rich and creamy white sauce not only tastes delicious, but is also one of the easiest sauces to make. The sauce is traditionally served with fettucine, a flat, thick type of pasta.
Pasta alla carbonara is a classic Italian pasta sauce made with eggs, pancetta (or any other form of bacon), cream and black pepper. Alla carbonara comes from carbone, which is Italian for coal.
Legend has it that the dish has its name because it was once popular with charcoal makers. Others believe that the dish is called carbonara because of the liberal use of black pepper. Pasta alla carbonara is a simple, yet delicious recipe that is incredibly easy and quick to prepare. The dish is traditionally made with Spaghetti, although it also works well with penne.
An all-time favorite that never comes out of fashion is pasta Bolognese. Bolognese is a meat based sauce originating in Bologna in Italy. Bolognese sauce is traditionally served over tagliatelle (long, ribbon type pasta) or rigatoni (fairly large tubular pasta).
Pasta puttanesca originated in Naples, Italy. Puttanesca sauce is a thick, flavorful pasta sauce that is made from tomatoes, onions, capers, black olives, anchovies, oregano and garlic, all cooked together in olive oil and served with spaghetti.
The name puttanesca derives from the Italian word puttana, which means “prostitute”. According to one story, the sauce has adopted its scandalous name because of its intense fragrance, which would attract men from the streets into the houses of these “ladies of the night”. Spaghetti puttanesca is a quick and easy recipe to make, with ingredients easily kept on hand.
