Pasta Dishes

Bolivia

Aj&iacute; de fideos is a spicy Bolivian dish originating from Cochabamba, prepared with a combination of pasta noodles, potatoes, ground chilis, ground meat, peas, carrot and fresh herbs such as cumin, oregano, and parsley. The dish is quite easy to prepare and it can be made in a single pot, which makes it quite popular at festivities and celebrations.

Ají de fideos

Älplermagronen

Italy

Amatrice sits in the mountains of Rieti province, and the sauce named after the town is guanciale, tomato, pecorino and chilli. The municipal recipe, given a local designation in 2015, is explicit about the omissions: no onion, no garlic. Amatriciana is the middle term in Rome's sequence of four sauces. Cacio e pepe plus guanciale gives gricia; gricia plus tomato gives amatriciana; gricia plus egg gives carbonara instead. The tomato arrived last, some time in the late eighteenth century, which makes this the youngest of the four despite being the one most people assume is oldest. Rome serves it on bucatini, Amatrice on spaghetti, and both sides consider the other slightly wrong.

Render the guanciale in a dry pan over moderate heat until the fat runs and the meat colours, then lift the pieces out and set them aside. This is the step that separates a good plate from a mediocre one: guanciale left to simmer in tomato for ten minutes goes soft and loses the crackle that gives the dish its texture. Deglaze with a splash of dry white wine if you follow the Amatrice version, let it cook off, then add peeled tomatoes and a whole dried chilli to the rendered fat. Fifteen minutes over a low flame is enough; the sauce should tighten but stay loose enough to move. Return the guanciale at the very end, off the heat, and finish with grated pecorino so it melts rather than seizes.

The colour tells you a lot. A proper amatriciana is orange rather than red, because the pork fat has emulsified into the tomato instead of sitting on top of it. If there is a slick of orange oil pooling at the edge of the plate, the sauce broke. The guanciale should still resist the tooth. Pecorino romano is the standard outside Amatrice, where the local pecorino is milder and less salty, so a Roman version tastes sharper by design. Onion is the most common addition and the one worth deducting for, since it sweetens the sauce and blunts the pork. Cheese melted into a paste rather than dispersed usually means it went in over direct heat.

Amatriciana

United States

This American comfort food dish consists of various types of pasta such as egg noodles or macaroni, along with ground beef or hamburger, tomatoes, onions, paprika, and garlic. Typically served as a main meal, the popularity of American goulash lies in the fact that it is easy to prepare and inexpensive. The first written mention of the dish was found in a cookbook from 1914, but the only connection to the traditional Hungarian goulash is the addition of paprika. Today, the dish is often garnished with grated or melted cheese, and it is often prepared with leftovers.

American Goulash

Amish pasta salad is a traditional dish originating from Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where the Amish people live and work. Although there are variations, the pasta salad is usually made with a combination of macaroni, scallions, bell peppers, hard-boiled eggs, and celery. The ingredients are mixed and dressed with a mixture of mayonnaise, cr&egrave;me fra&icirc;che, mustard, sugar, white wine vinegar, celery seeds, salt, and pepper. Once all the ingredients have been coated with the dressing, the pasta salad is placed in the fridge to cool before serving. Amish pasta salad is usually made for large gatherings and pot luck suppers in the area.

Amish Pasta Salad

Anellini alla pecorara is a traditional pasta dish originating from Abruzzo. It's made with a combination of anellini pasta and a hearty vegetable sauce. The ring-shaped anellini pasta is made from durum wheat flour and water, while the sauce is made with a combination of tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, olive oil, eggplant, red bell peppers, zucchini, and ricotta. Before serving, the pasta is mixed with the sauce, and the dish is usually topped with grated pecorino cheese and strings of ricotta.

Anellini alla pecorara

Greece

Astakomakaronada

Baasto iyo suugo

Bebbux mimli

Bigoli con l'anatra

Bigoli in cassopipa

Bigoli in salsa is an Italian pasta dish and one of the emblematic dishes of Venice, although its variations can be found throughout the Veneto region. It consists of whole wheat bigoli pasta in an anchovy and onion sauce. Bigoli is a traditional Venetian pasta, a bit thicker than spaghetti, with a rough texture that allows the sauce to be absorbed more easily. It is made using a special press called bigolaro, originating from 1604. The nutty flavor of bigoli pairs well with anchovies, creating a unique, rich flavor of the whole dish, which is sometimes made with sharp-tasting salt-cured sardines instead of anchovies. Every local seems to have their own way of making the dish, and some cooks also add pine nuts and raisins to the sauce as a nod to the Venetian period during the Renaissance when raisins and pine nuts made their way to Venice. Bigoli in salsa was originally consumed during fasting days such as Ash Wednesday, Christmas Eve, or Good Friday, and over the years it became a dish that is best consumed the night before a big feast, since it is both substantial and light enough to leave some space for the next day's feast.

Bigoli in salsa

Black truffle pasta is a category rather than a fixed recipe, and the single question that decides whether it is worth ordering is which truffle went into it. Tuber melanosporum, the winter black truffle from Périgord, Norcia and Spoleto, runs from December to March and carries a deep, slightly fermented aroma. Tuber aestivum, the summer truffle, is cheaper, paler inside and considerably milder, and it is what most kitchens are shaving when the menu says nothing more specific than black truffle. Neither is the same thing as truffle oil, which is usually a neutral oil dosed with synthetic 2,4-dithiapentane. That compound is one note out of the hundreds in a real truffle, which is why oil-based versions smell aggressive at the table and taste flat after three forkfuls.

Truffle aroma is fat-soluble and volatile, so the sauce is built to carry it and the truffle goes in as late as possible. The standard base is butter emulsified with starchy pasta water into a thin, glossy coating, sometimes with a little parmesan, sometimes with cream in richer versions. The pasta is usually a long fresh egg cut such as tagliolini or tajarin, whose porous surface holds the butter better than a dried extruded shape. Cooking truffle destroys most of what you paid for, so shavings belong on top of the finished plate, cut thin enough to be translucent. Some kitchens infuse the butter with truffle trimmings for an hour beforehand, which is a legitimate way to push the aroma into the sauce without heating the good slices.

Judge it on aroma first, before the fork moves: the smell should arrive as you lean over the plate and should read as earthy and mushroomy rather than sharp or petrol-like. That chemical top note is the tell for oil. Look at the shavings — real ones have a marbled white vein structure through a dark interior, and they should be cut to order rather than sitting pre-sliced. A plate that arrives with visible black flecks stirred through the sauce is usually truffle paste or carpaccio in preservative, which is a legitimate cheaper option but should be priced as one. The sauce itself should coat without pooling, and the parmesan should stay in the background, because too much of it buries the truffle entirely.

Black Truffle Pasta

Blecs al Tazzelenghe

Bucatini alla calabrese

Bucatini alle triglie

Bucatini al sugo di suri is a traditional dish originating from Giulianova in Abruzzo. The dish is made with a combination of bucatini pasta, mackerel, tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and salt. The mackerel is cooked in olive oil until golden. The tomatoes and basil are added to the pan and cooked with the fish until the sauce thickens. Once prepared, the contents from the pan are simply mixed with cooked bucatini pasta, and the dish is ready to be enjoyed.

Bucatini al sugo di suri

Spain

Canelons a la Catalana is a traditional dish from Catalonia, consisting of cannelloni pasta tubes filled with a rich and savory mixture. The filling typically includes a combination of ground meats (often a mix of pork, beef, and sometimes chicken liver), which are cooked and finely minced. This meat mixture is often flavored with onions, tomatoes, and various herbs and spices, creating a deeply flavored filling. Once the pasta tubes are filled, they are covered in a bechamel sauce, a creamy white sauce made from butter, flour, and milk. The dish is then topped with grated cheese and baked until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Canelons a la Catalana

Capunti con ragù d'agnello

Caramelle ricotta is a traditional pasta dish originating from Italy. The caramelle is stuffed pasta with the ends twisted so that it looks like a cellophane-wrapped candy. It's usually made with a combination of flour, eggs, olive oil, salt, and water. The dough is filled with a mixture of ricotta cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, nutmeg, parsley, and salt. Once stuffed and shaped, the caramelle are cooked in boiling salted water until tender. They're drained and then served with different sauces, usually based on tomatoes or butter. This unusual pasta dish is often made and enjoyed on Christmas, birthday parties, and similar festive occasions.