Pasta Dishes

Greece

Pseftopetinos, meaning fake rooster or pseudo rooster, is a traditional local specialty from the island of Lemnos. It typically consists of sliced eggplants and a local variety of egg pasta called flomaria, which are simmered together in tomato sauce. Other ingredients used for the preparation of this dish include onions, olive oil, dry Lemnos white wine, garlic, and spices such as allspice berries, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper. The dish can be prepared with other similar types of pasta, and it is often served with lots of grated cheese on top.

Pseftopetinos

Italy

Rag&ugrave; di fasolari is a traditional seafood pasta dish featuring smooth clams, tender mollusks from the Adriatic Sea, particularly the Marano Lagoon. These clams are saut&eacute;ed with garlic, olive oil, white wine, and parsley to create a flavorful ragout. The clam shells are then ground to achieve a rag&ugrave; consistency and cooked with the reserved clam broth for depth. The rag&ugrave; is tossed with al dente pasta, and the dish is garnished with additional carpet clams and queen scallops. It's typically paired with Ribolla Gialla wine.

Ragù di fasolari

Croatia

Rezanci s pršutom

Rigatoni al cavolfiore

Rigatoni alla silana

United Kingdom

Rosto is a simple pasta dish that's nowadays especially popular in Gibraltar, although some suggest that the dish has very old Genoese origins. There are many versions of rosto, but it's most commonly prepared with a combination of pasta (usually penne), tomato sauce, garlic, mushrooms, stock cube, carrots, onions, white wine, and chicken or beef. The pasta is combined with the meat and the accompanying sauce, which should never be too liquid. It's recommended to top rosto with lots of grated cheese for extra flavor.

Rosto

Sagne e fagioli is a rustic Italian dish that's often enjoyed in Abruzzo and Molise. It's made by cooking beans in tomato sauce, while strips of homemade pasta are added to the pot near the end of cooking. The homemade pasta noodles are made with flour and water, while the sauce is usually made with tomatoes, celery, carrots, onions, chili peppers, and olive oil. If desired, the dish can be enriched with pancetta or pork rinds. It's recommended to serve sagne e fagioli with a glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine.

Sagne e fagioli

Scialatielli all'amalfitana is a seafood pasta dish prepared with scialatielli, a special pasta variety from the Amalfi region, nowadays popular throughout the coastal area of Campania. Compared to other Italian pasta shapes, scialatelli is a rather recent innovation, created in 1978 by the chef Enrico Cosentino, who has been developing his own pasta variety since the 1960s. He substituted a part of the eggs in the dough with milk, enriched his creation with basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, and Parmigiano, then shaped the dough in thick, short, linguine-like pasta with a rectangular cross-section. The invention was an instant success and it was even recognized at a local culinary contest. Nowadays, one of the most popular way to enjoy scialatielli is all'amalfitana - served with typical seafood from the Amalfi coast &ndash; usually clams, mussels, prawns, and cuttlefish. The dish is best enjoyed warm, decorated with finely chopped parsley.

Scialatielli all’Amalfitana

Scialatielli alla Sorrentina

Australia

Short for spaghetti bolognese, spag bol is one of Australia&rsquo;s national dishes. The dish is a uniquely Australian version of the classic Italian tagliatelle al rag&ugrave; alla bolognese. It is typically made with a combination of Australian beef, mushrooms, onions, carrot, celery, bacon, garlic, tomatoes, and spaghetti pasta. The usage of Australian beef and mushrooms gives the dish a truly Australian feel that differentiates it from other similar dishes. It is recommended to serve the pasta first, then top it with the flavorful meaty sauce.

Spag Bol

Spagetti biz-zalza tal-qarnit is a traditional dish consisting of spaghetti with octopus sauce. The dish is usually made with a combination of octopus, spaghetti, peas, black olives, tomatoes, onions, tomato paste, red wine, olive oil, lemon zest, mint, basil, salt, and black pepper. The octopus is cut into pieces, fried in olive oil, and left to cool. Tomato paste and herbs are added to the pot, along with chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, sliced olives, and lemon zest. The octopus is placed back into the pan with peas, wine, and seasonings, and the dish is cooked for about half an hour. Once done, the octopus sauce is served on top of al dente spaghetti.

Spagetti biz-zalza tal-qarnit

Four ingredients, and none of them expensive: spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, chilli. Parsley is usual and the full Neapolitan name, spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, includes the chilli as a given rather than an option. This is the dish Naples eats at one in the morning after everyone has come home, cheap enough to be the fallback in any kitchen and unforgiving enough that a bad one is immediately obvious. There is nowhere to hide: no tomato to cover a mistake, no cheese to add weight. What separates a version worth eating from a plate of oily noodles is entirely technique.

Garlic can be sliced thin or crushed whole and fished out later, and the choice changes the result more than it looks. Sliced garlic stays in and gives a sharper, more direct flavour; whole cloves perfume the oil and leave. Either way the target colour is pale gold, and the window is narrow, because garlic goes from gold to brown to bitter in under a minute over the wrong heat. Start it in cold oil over a low flame rather than dropping it into hot oil, and the browning slows enough to be controllable. Dried chilli goes in with the garlic. The step most people skip is the emulsion: the pan needs a ladle of starchy pasta water swirled hard into the oil so the two bind into something creamy, and pasta finished in that pan for the last minute rather than dressed after draining. Without it you get oil and spaghetti sitting separately.

Judge it on the sauce and the garlic in that order. The spaghetti should be lightly coated and faintly glossy, with no oil running to the bottom of the bowl. Brown garlic, or a bitter aftertaste at the back of the palate, means the pan ran too hot and the dish cannot recover. Chilli should be warm rather than sharp; this is not meant to be a hot dish. Parsley goes in raw at the end, chopped, for freshness and colour. Some Neapolitan kitchens add toasted breadcrumbs for texture, which is legitimate and traditional. Grated cheese is not, and a plate that arrives already dusted with parmesan has been made by someone covering for a broken sauce.

Spaghetti aglio e olio

Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare is a simple pasta dish consisting of spaghetti and sea urchins, technically sea urchin gonads that produce the roe. Since the urchin is delicate, it should be cooked shortly, in order to preserve its tender texture and flavors. Other elements in the sauce typically include olive oil, garlic, and salt, while parsley is occasionally used as garnish and lemon wedges can be served on the side. Although most varieties of the dish are prepared with spaghetti, sometimes linguine can be used instead. The dish is typically found in Sicily, Sardinia, and Puglia. It is recommended to enjoy this specialty during winter when the urchin is in season.

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare

Spaghetti al cartoccio is a traditional dish hailing from Abruzzo. The dish is typical of Chieti, and it's made with a special method called al cartoccio, where the ingredients are wrapped and baked in foil. It's made with olive oil, garlic, clams, squid, shrimp, prawns, tomatoes, white wine, parsley, and spaghetti. The wine used in the dish should, ideally, be Trebbiano d'Abruzzo. The seafood is cooked with garlic, and the rest of the ingredients are added when the liquid from the seafood has evaporated. The pasta is tossed with the sauce, and the combination is wrapped in foil, then baked until the pasta is al dente.

Spaghetti al cartoccio

Spaghetti al guanciale is a simple and easy to prepare Italian dish hailing from Abruzzo. In order to prepare it, the spaghetti are cooked in water, while the guanciale is cooked on lard. It's important to keep the guanciale from drying out by sprinkling it with white wine or vinegar. The pasta is drained and tossed with the guanciale sauce. It's recommended to garnish the dish with grated pecorino on top.

Spaghetti al guanciale

Spaghetti alla busara

Pasta alla carrettiera is a traditional dish. It's usually made with spaghetti, parsley, tuna, chili peppers, garlic, and porcini mushrooms. On Sicily, a simpler eponymous dish is made with spaghetti, parsley, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, chili peppers, and Pecorino cheese. Pasta alla carrettiera is believed to be what was prepared to cart riders who were carrying wine to Rome from the surrounding castles and took a break at the local osterias. It's recommended to serve the dish with a glass of good-structured white wine.

Spaghetti alla carrettiera (Rome)

Pasta alla carrettiera is a traditional dish from eastern Sicily, dating back to the 1900s. It's usually made with spaghetti, parsley, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, chili peppers, and Pecorino cheese. In Rome, a richer dish with the same name is prepared with spaghetti, parsley, tuna, chili peppers, garlic, and porcini mushrooms. It's believed that the cart riders who were transporting people or other people's goods first started to prepare this dish while on the move. For the best experience, serve the dish with a glass of good-structured white wine.