Pasta Dishes

Italy

Rome claims carbonara, and the version served in the city's trattorias runs on four things: guanciale, pecorino romano, egg yolk and black pepper. Cream belongs to the export version. Guanciale is cured pork jowl, fattier and more strongly scented than pancetta, and the fat it renders is half the sauce, so the substitution most home cooks make is the one that changes the dish most. The origin is contested. One account credits the carbonari, charcoal burners working the Apennine woods; a better-documented version places it in Rome around 1944, when American rations of bacon and powdered egg met local pasta and pecorino. The first printed recipes date from the 1950s, which is late for a dish now treated as ancient.

The whole difficulty is temperature. Egg yolks set at around 65°C, so the pan comes off the heat before the pasta meets the eggs, and the emulsion is built from rendered fat and starchy cooking water rather than direct flame. Cut the guanciale into short batons about half a centimetre thick, start it in a dry pan, and render it slowly until the fat runs clear and the edges go glassy rather than brittle. Beat the yolks with a heavy hand of grated pecorino, roughly one yolk per person plus one for the pan, until the mixture is a thick paste. Drain the pasta a minute early, toss it in the fat off the flame, wait a moment for the pan to drop below scrambling heat, then stir the egg through and loosen with cooking water until it coats.

A good carbonara is glossy and moves on the plate; it should pool slightly rather than sit in a solid mound. Scrambled curds mean the pan was too hot. A thin, watery sauce means the emulsion never formed at all. The pepper wants to be coarsely cracked and present enough to register as heat, not just as black specks. Spaghetti and rigatoni are both standard in Rome, and rigatoni carries the sauce better. Watch for the tells of a shortcut kitchen: pancetta or bacon in place of guanciale, parmesan standing in for pecorino, cream added to stabilise the sauce, or a raw yolk dropped on top for the photograph. Each is worth marking down, though the cream is the one Romans will argue about longest.

Carbonara

Cavatelli al sugo di maiale

Cavatelli e fagioli

Cavatelli ‘ncatenati

United States

Chicken riggies is an Italian-American pasta dish from the Utica area of New York. Most often, it consists of rigatoni pasta, hot or sweet peppers, chicken, and a spicy, flavorful cream and tomato sauce. Almost every Italian restaurant in the Utica area serves the dish. Its story starts in the late 1970s at the Clinton House restaurant in Clinton, NY. The lawyers, doctors, and union workers would come in to play cards and eat the "riggie dish" with chicken, tomatoes, and cherry peppers, but without the sauce. Since they wanted the same dish every week, chicken riggies quickly gained popularity with other customers, and a new American classic was born. A simple dish that has yet to reach the peak of popularity, chicken riggies even has its own annual festival in the city, where the cooks change up the recipe by adding ingredients such as steak, shrimp, and heavy cream.

Chicken Riggies

Chitarrine alla Teramana

Ciceri e tria is a traditional Apulian dish with Arabian and Sicilian origins. Today, it has become an unofficial symbol of the Salento region in Apulia. The dish consists of pasta and chickpeas, and is usually served as a first course in Italian restaurants. Additionally, the dish can be enhanced with onions, carrots, garlic, or black pepper. One part of the pasta is fried in olive oil, a process that was originally done in order to create a feeling of meatiness in the mouth during the times when meat was scarce. This simple and inexpensive dish is a true symbol of the Mediterranean diet and the ingenuity of Apulian cuisine.

Ciceri e tria

Čikovi is a traditional Bosnian dish of small pasta squares or rectangles topped with sour cream or sauteed beef. The pasta is typically made with just wheat flour, salt, and water, although nowadays eggs are often added as well. The pasta is rolled and cut to the desired size, then cooked and topped either with a mixture of sour cream, butter, and salt or a mix of sauteed beef and onion. Čikovi is also popular in Serbia.

Čikovi

Conchiglie al cavolfiore is a traditional pasta dish originating from Italy. Although there are some variations, it's usually made with a combination of conchiglie (shells) pasta, cauliflower florets, onions, parsley, grated cheese such as pecorino, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The onions are saut&eacute;ed in olive oil, and then mixed with the florets and salt. The mixture is cooked until the florets are tender, and parsley and black pepper are added to the mix. The conchiglie are cooked until al dente, and then added to the skillet. The dish is finished with grated cheese and a generous amount of black pepper before serving.

Conchiglie al cavolfiore

Crawfish Monica is an American dish consisting of rotini pasta, crawfish tails, garlic, Creole seasoning, butter, and cream. The dish was invented in Louisiana by Pierre Hilzim, who named it after his wife, Monica Davidson. The recipe is kept a secret, and the name of the dish is trademarked. In the 1980s, Davidson and Hilzim started to sell their dish at Jazzfest, and it didn't take a long time for crawfish Monica to become one of the most popular dishes at the festival.

Crawfish Monica

Dutch macaroni is a classic pasta dish originating from the Netherlands. Although it might seem weird, the Dutch absolutely adore macaroni, especially the children. This comforting, easy-to-make dish is usually prepared with a combination of elbow macaroni or fusilli, ground beef, leeks, red bell peppers, tomato sauce, optional pickles, oil, and spices such as smoked paprika, oregano, basil, salt, and black pepper. If desired, mustard and Worcestershire sauce can also be added for even more flavor. In order to make the dish, ground beef is browned in oil, mixed with red peppers, sliced leeks, tomato sauce, and spices. The mixture is simmered for a few minutes, and it&rsquo;s then mixed with cooked pasta. Dutch macaroni are served warm, usually as a comforting dinner.

Dutch Macaroni

Farfalle con salmone e mascarpone is a traditional pasta dish originating from Italy. The dish is usually made with a combination of farfalle pasta, mascarpone, butter, smoked salmon, lemon zest, salt, and dill. The salmon is cut into strips and placed into a bowl with mascarpone, butter, lemon zest, and pasta cooking water in order to make a sauce. The sauce and salmon are seasoned with salt and mixed with al dente farfalle pasta. The dish is garnished with chopped dill before serving.

Farfalle con salmone e mascarpone

Fettuccine a la huancaína

The dish that's known in the United States as fettuccine Alfredo is just an extra-buttery version of pasta al burro, an Italian classic made with fettuccine, butter, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. The story of fettuccine Alfredo dates back to 1908 in Rome. Chef Alfredo Di Lelio first created this dish for his pregnant wife out of a desire to create something simple, yet tasty and nutritious, and he subsequently began serving it at his restaurant. He added more butter and cheese to the original recipe for pasta al doppio burro, and created a hearty triple butter sauce in the process. Legend has it that the American silent movie stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks discovered this dish in the late 1920s during their honeymoon in Rome. They loved it so much that they started serving it to their friends upon returning to Hollywood. Soon afterward, fettuccine Alfredo was on its way to becoming an Italian-American classic, and it is incomparably more popular in the United States than in its homeland - it's served in Rome, but usually to tourists, while most Italians don't accept the dish as their own. The American version known as fettuccine Alfredo is usually much richer and heavier than its Italian counterpart (fettuccine al burro).

Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine con la ricotta

Bahamas

Fettuccine Nassau is a pasta dish originating from Nassau, the Bahamas. The dish is usually made with a combination of fettuccine pasta, shrimp, lobster or crawfish, garlic, olive oil, fish stock, basil, parsley, and almonds. The garlic is saut&eacute;ed in olive oil with the shrimp and lobster or crawfish. The fish stock, basil, and parsley are then added to the pot, and the combination is simmered for a short while before it's served over cooked pasta. As a final touch, the dish is garnished with parsley and almonds, if desired. It's recommended to serve fettuccine Nassau with a fresh green salad on the side and pair it with a glass of white wine.

Fettuccine Nassau

Spain

Fideu&agrave; is a colorful Valencian and Catalan dish often described as an interpretation of the popular paella. Similar to its more popular counterpart, fideu&agrave; employs a variety of seafood ingredients, but instead of rice, it combines them with thin and short pasta called fideo. The choice of seafood can include many fish and shellfish varieties such as cuttlefish, monkfish, and shrimps. To prepare the dish, pasta is shortly fried, and only later added and cooked in the flavorful saffron-spiced seafood broth. Like paella, fideu&agrave; is cooked in a shallow iron pan and it is typically not mixed in order to allow a crispy crust to be formed on the bottom. It is believed that this Valencian classic originated in 1930 in the city of Gandia, on one of many local fishing boats. In restaurants, it is often served in a pan in which it was prepared, and it is usually shared among a group of people. Before serving, the dish is often topped with chopped parsley and lemon juice, while some prefer to pair it with an aromatic aioli sauce.