15 Essential Pasta Recipes That Everyone Should Know How to Make   (2024)

FAQs

15 Essential Pasta Recipes That Everyone Should Know How to Make  ? ›

Always bring water to the boil before adding pasta. Otherwise the exterior will start to turn mushy before the center softens. Once boiling, add plenty of salt: about 7 grams per liter of water; this doesn't just flavour the pasta, but also shortens its cooking time.

Always bring water to the boil before adding pasta. Otherwise the exterior will start to turn mushy before the center softens. Once boiling, add plenty of salt: about 7 grams per liter of water; this doesn't just flavour the pasta, but also shortens its cooking time.

The iconic quartet of carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana and gricia make up the four most famous and beloved Roman pasta dishes.

In Italy, the golden rule for cooking pasta is 1, 10, 100 or 1 liter of water, 10 grams of salt for every 100 grams of pasta.

There are four classic Roman pasta dishes: cacio e pepe, carbonara, amatriciana, and alla gricia. Each one is a variation on the other — alla gricia is cacio e pepe plus guanciale, carbonara is gricia plus egg, and so on. These four dishes are famous in all of Italian cooking, not just in Rome.

Don't pour all the pasta water down the drain.

Take a ladle of the water—a quarter cup or so—and set it aside before draining your pasta, then add that water to your sauce. The way you drain the pasta can also affect the flavor and texture.

We reached out to pasta pros to settle the boiling question once and for all. Turns out, your oil is better used to flavor your finished dish, not to add into the water when it's still cooking.

Su filindeu, or "threads of God," is the rarest pasta in the world. For a century, it was made by a single family in the Sardinian city of Nuoro for religious celebrations. Today, there are fewer than 10 people there who know the secret to making the pasta as thin as a strand of hair.

According to a survey conducted in September 2023, 19 percent of Italian respondents reported Barilla as they favorite brand of pasta. Rummo followed, chosen by 18 percent of respondents, while De Cecco had a following of 12 percent of Italians.

What is the oldest Italian pasta dish? ›

Spaghetti alla Gricia is one of the oldest pasta dishes in Roman history! It uses pecorino romano and guanciale to create a mouthwatering flavor. My favourite way to describe it is as the love child of Carbonara and Cacio e Pepe.

Carbonara. The Carbonara we know today is made by tossing spaghetti with guanciale (cured pork jowl), egg yolks, and Pecorino Romano cheese. Despite its simplicity, this dish remains one of Rome and the world's favourites. There are a lot of questions about Carbonara when you first start making it.

The general rule for cooking pasta in boiling water is for 1 pound of pasta, use 1 gallon of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of oil. For 100 servings of spaghetti, 6 gallons of water, 2 tablespoons of salt, and 2 tablespoons of oil are needed to cook 6 pounds of dried spaghetti.

The pasta should be “al dente”, which means it should be “firm to the bite”, yet cooked through. It's better to taste the pasta before draining it. When it's ready drain the pasta but don't rinse it with cold water. The pasta should be hot when mixed with the sauce.