16 Classic Italian Pasta Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Make (2024)

FAQs

What is Italy most famous pasta dish? ›

Spaghetti Bolognese

It is commonly served with parmesan cheese. The dish is one of Italy's most popular exports, and thought to have originated in Imola, a northern Italian city west of Bologna some time around the late 1800s - when the first reference to the dish's ragu sauce was recorded.

Italian Pasta Rule #4:

Al dente – signifying “to the tooth” in Italian” – is Italians' preferred pasta texture. Generally, this means your pasta will still have a little bite when served. No matter where you travel on the Italian peninsula, you'll be hard pressed to find a mountain of gluey, starchy goop.

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

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.

Italy. Commonly known around the world as spaghetti bolognese, in its authentic form 'Ragu alla Bolognese' is recognised as the national dish of Italy.

Italians believe we are to cook and eat pasta while retaining the shape in which it was created. This means not breaking the uncooked pasta before putting it in the pot and not cutting up a plate of cooked pasta with a knife. While this is not illegal, it is certainly in bad taste.

Spaghetti bolognese does not exist in Italy, and it's best not to try and convince Italians otherwise. Instead of spaghetti, ragù is served with tagliatelle and is principally made with veal or pork mince and red wine—no mushrooms or tomato. Similarly, carbonara is made with eggs and cheese, not cream.

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. Converted for American cooks, the rule should be 1/3, 3, 30, referring to 1/3 oz of salt, 3 oz of pasta and 30 oz of water.

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.

What pasta is Sicily known for? ›

Pasta alla Norma is arguably the best representation of Sicilian cuisine out there, making the most of local tomatoes, aubergines, garlic, basil and ricotta salata, salted ricotta. It's called Norma after the nineteenth century opera of the same name – both the dish and the music are regarded as true masterpieces.

Etymology. Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning 'thin string' or 'twine'.

That rich and meaty sauce you're used to is nothing real Italians would ever use to top their plates of spaghetti. "The most classic spaghetti in Italy is aglio olio, made only with garlic and olive oil. Although it doesn't have a real sauce, its deliciousness lies in its simplicity.

Number one on our list of the best traditional foods in Italy has to be pizza. Everyone knows what pizza is, it needs no introduction, but what you probably know as pizza isn't quite the same as in Italy.

Known as the 'Città della Pasta' (City of Pasta), the sleepy coastal town of Gragnano in Italy's Campania region became famous in the late 1700s for its 'white gold', or macaroni.

The word 'pasta' is an Italian word meaning 'paste', referring to the paste that pasta dough is made from with egg or water and flour. However, before Italian pasta as we know of, was all over the world, pasta was called 'maccaronaro'. This means 'kneading dough with energy'.

Italy's most popular and famous dishes worldwide have to be Pizza and Pasta. In almost every part of the world you can find these two dishes, or at least variations of them. But it's important to note that both Pizza and Pasta represent larger categories of dishes that vary from region to region in Italy.