Pasta, the Mediterranean, and the Colosseum are just a few of the many things that make Italy famous. Italy is well-known for its pasta. It is a symbol of the peninsula and no trip to Italy would be complete without trying its many pasta dishes.
As we’ve stated before, Italian food has a regional. This is also true for pasta! The pastas from Florence are different to those from Rome, Milan, and Palermo. Every region has its own pasta recipe with a unique shape, length and size. Italians swear that every pasta comes with its own sauce. You must match each pasta with the right sauce to enjoy authentic pasta. These little shells are delicious! They are great with cheese sauce. A long, flat tagliatelle. A classic ragu is the best. Short, twisted Ligurian trofie? Naturally, covered with homemade pesto!
Bucatini and spaghetti are just a few of the many types of Italian pasta. Each one has its own name and sauce. Are you unsure where to begin? These are our top picks for pasta, along with their Italian names
Dry Pasta
You can find two types of pasta in Italy: fresh pasta made with egg and flour, and dry pasta ( pastasciutta) made without eggs. Dry pasta is typically the most mass-produced Barilla-style pasta, while fresh pasta is what you will find in restaurants. Fresh pasta is also available in dried form, such as tagliatelle and spaghetti. Both are delicious and deserve a place in the hearts of Italians.
Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a staple of Italian cuisine and the holy grail among pastas. It is a skill that children learn from an early age. Spaghi are also called “twines”. Spaghi are also called “twines”. This sauce is the base of almost all tomato-sauced pastas. It’s made from fresh plums or San Marzano tomatoes. Of course, it is homemade.
Penne
Penne pasta can be used with hundreds of sauces. This pasta is actually the most versatile of all pastas. This pasta’s name is easy: “Penne” means “pens”. Next time you have a bowl, look closely at the end. It looks like a fountain pen tip.
Fusilli
The name fusilli, or “fucile,” is a reference to the spiral-shaped inside barrels of guns or a fuso or spindle. Fusilli can be used in a variety of dishes. They are great for capturing the flavor of rich, complex sauces, but they also work well with simpler dishes. You can make a classic, creamy ricotta sauce or experiment with a pistachio-pesto pesto. Or you can keep it simple with marinara, sausage, and other ingredients.
Cannelloni
These large tubes of pasta are usually stuffed with pasta and baked in the oven. Although they can technically be stuffed any way you like, most of these are made with a ragu and stuffed with cheese and spinach.
Farfalle
This pasta may have the most beautiful name: “butterflies”. The bow-tie pasta is often called in the United States. In Italy, the pasta is poetically referred to as a butterfly pasta. Farfalle taste best when seasoned with extra-virgin oil. For a delicious salty dish that is perfect for warm days, add high-quality tuna and capers to the farfalle and drizzle olive oil.
Fresh Pasta
Dry pasta is well-known for its ability to withstand heavy, meat-based sauces. Fresh pasta is more delicate and softer. This pasta is best used in simple, fresh sauces, especially those that are dairy-based. Ragu is an exception to this rule. Ragu alla Bolognese, a rich and homemade meat sauce, is best paired with fresh pasta.
Bucatini
Bucchini is a popular pasta in Rome. They look similar to thick spaghetti, but they have a small hole in the middle. Think Twizzler! What does bucatini actually mean? “Little holes!”. (Buco is a word that means hole. An -ino or -ini plural means “small”. The most classic bucatini dish is bucatini all’amatriciana. The amatriciana sauce, which is said to originate from Amatrice in Lazio and contains sweet guanciale with salty pecorino cheese and spicy red bell pepper flakes. It’s also topped with tomato sauce. This dish was sold in large quantities as a fundraiser for Amatrice, which was almost destroyed by the earthquake of 2016.
Tagliatelle and Pappardelle
Tagliatelle and Pappardelle both have long, flat pasta ribbons. Tagliatelle is the sexier of the two. Pappardelle, on the other hand, are thicker pastas from Tuscany. Tagliatelle come from Emilia-Romagna or le Marche and are delicious with a traditional bolognese sauce, cream, prosciutto, and peas, tomato sauce, mushrooms, and oil, as well as oil and shrimp. They are always delicious! Pappardelle is best when paired with wild boar ragu. The wide, flat noodles pair well with a rich, rustic sauce.
Linguine
The name of this flattened, long pasta comes from “little tongues”, lingue’s lingue. This pasta is wider than spaghetti, but not as large as fettuccine. Try linguine with shrimp and scampi or warm butter and prawns. Our favourite? Fresh linguine with vongole or clams.
Orecchiette
This pasta is unique to Puglia and means “little ears”, after its shape. The best-known artisanal pasta from Puglia is the orecchiette. Because of its concave shape, this pasta can be served in a variety of ways. However, it is best served with turnip greens or broccoli and seasoned with anchovies and garlic.
Strozzapreti
This pasta is from central Italy, particularly Emilia-Romagna Umbria and Tuscany. It might be called “priest-strangler” because no one knows where it came from. Legend says that the name is because priests loved the pasta so much they ate too fast and choked it!
