Recipes for Italian dishes at home. Italian tips: how to cook the perfect pasta

This is an article with photos about Italian dishes that you must definitely eat in Italy. Italian cuisine is considered some of the best in the world, but you need to know what to choose from the menu.

After a couple of days in Italy, stuffed with pizza, pasta and panini, I ran into a problem. What exactly should you order in Italian restaurants so as not to be disappointed (or God forbid you lose weight :)) during your 3 weeks of vacation?

My dear readers, friends and subscribers on social media came to the rescue. networks who generously shared their advice, for which we thank them very much. Below is a jointly compiled list of Italian dishes, as well as the average price of food in Italian establishments. I tried 90% of the list and left 10% for next time.

Seafood in Italy

Tomato mussel soup(Zuppa di cozze al pomodoro) - the best thing I had the opportunity to eat in Italy. I also ate Sicilian-style mussels and was not delighted. It all depends on the restaurant. Price 8-13€

King prawns grilled or in sauces (Gamberoni alla griglia). The most delicious shrimp were in. Price 10-15€

Swordfish in Sicilian style with tomatoes (Pesce spada alla siciliana). Price 12-13€

Swordfish Grilled(Pesce spada alla griglia). Price 12-13€

Grilled Dorado(Dorado Griglio). Price 50-60€ for 1 kg. Dorado is worth on the market 15€ per kg .

Octopus in different variations (Polpo). For example, Sicilian-style octopus with garlic and thyme. “Nothing tastier has yet been invented in Mediterranean cuisine,” is a quote from traveler and gourmet Sergei Kormilitsyn. 12-18€ for a hot dish

Octopus with potatoes(Polpo con patate) is a specialty of the Amalfi Coast. Keep in mind that octopus is often served as a cold appetizer in Sicily and southern Italy. Price 7 —8€

Shrimp cocktail(Сocktail di gamberi). Popular cold appetizer. Not for everyone. Served in a glass with shrimp mixed with salad and sauce. If you spread shrimp on bread, it turns out delicious. 7-10€

Tomato mussel soup

Shrimp cocktail and octopus with potatoes

Grilled swordfish

Other Italian dishes

Eggplant, baked with tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan (Melanzane alla parmigiana)

Grilled vegetables(Verdure alla griglia) - always delicious. Price 6€

Lamb meat on skewers(Arrosticini di pecora). This dish is prepared only in the Abruzzo region and nowhere else. To prepare this lamb kebab in the Marche region, you had to order the meat online from Abruzzo. I haven't eaten the lamb, but the guys said it was delicious.

Lamb meat on a skewer

Spaghetti with clams and parsley (Spaghetti con le vongole). Friends prepared this dish from shellfish collected on the seashore near their house. You need to collect shellfish early in the morning (at 6-7 o'clock) in order to get ahead of other fishermen. 12-15€

Carne cruda(Сarne cruda) - raw beef of a certain breed of bulls, a minimum of spices. Originally from Piedmont. Have not tried. 15-20€

Pizza(Pizza) - real pizza is cooked in a charcoal oven. We can talk about pizza for a long time. From 2€ for a piece in a street eatery up to 12€ for pizza with seafood in a restaurant.

Paste(Pasta) is a traditional dish of Italian cuisine. Pasta with various sauces. For our taste, pasta in Italy is undercooked. They specially cook pasta for a very short time. The version of pasta that is served in our restaurants will be tasteless and overcooked for an Italian. 7-15€

Be sure to read mine, where I tell you how much a vacation in this delicious and warm country will cost

Pizza in Italy

Spaghetti with clams

Minestroni(Minestrone) - vegetable soup

Panini(Panini) - Italian sandwich made from flat white wheat bread, price 5€

Risotto(Risotto) - a rice dish. Prepared with seafood, meat, vegetables. 8-13€

Lasagna(Lasagne) is a popular Italian dish made from flat sheets of pasta with filling, 9-12€

Ravioli(Ravioli) is an Italian analogue of dumplings made from filled pasta sheets. Restaurants often serve store-bought ravioli - they are mediocre. When they twist it themselves by hand, it turns out very tasty.

Polenta(Polenta) - porridge made from corn flour

Caprese(Caprese) - Italian appetizer made from tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oil

Gnocchi(Gnocchi) - Italian dumplings

Provola and Caciocavallo cheeses

Sicilian swordfish with tomatoes and peppers

Grilled vegetables

Italian desserts

Desserts and sweets are usually sold in cafes or establishments called Pasticceria

Tortuffa(Tortuffa) - a divinely delicious scoop of ice cream with chocolate inside. It's better not to order chocolate ice cream because the chocolate ice cream is too sweet. Costs 4-5€

Granita(Granita) - Sicilian dessert. Crushed ice with sugar syrup of different colors and flavors. Price 3-4€

Cannoli(Cannoli) is a Sicilian dessert. A waffle tube filled with mascarpone cheese, whipped cottage cheese or ricotta with the addition of syrups or wine. Sold everywhere

Tiramisu(Tiramisù) is the cake of Italian students because it does not need to be baked. Made from savoiardi biscuits, mascarpone cheese, coffee, eggs and sugar. I thought that I had eaten Tiramisu many times, but it turned out that before my trip to Italy I had never tried Tiramisu.

Ice cream(Gelate) sold at Gelateria - from 1€ per ball. On average - 2 € for a small box and 4-5€ for a big one. On tourist streets they ask for 4-5€ for one small ball.

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee! Even if you don't drink coffee, it's worth a try. 1-4€, average 2€

Ice cream in Italy. 2.5 euros for three different balls

Italian sweets

Where to eat in Italy?

Establishments in Italy are divided into several types:

Ristorante— high prices and level of service.

Trattoria- often this is a family establishment with a homely atmosphere, a regular clientele and a menu in Italian. Prices in trattorias are lower than in restaurants.

Taverna is a tavern where you can not only drink, but also eat.

Osteria- also a simpler establishment with food and wine.

Pizzeria— usually there are only pizza and appetizers on the menu, and less often other dishes.

Gelateria— they sell ice cream there

Pasticceria— cakes, pastries and desserts are sold here

Italian restaurant

Where can I buy products in Italy?

There are many chain supermarkets in Italy: Lidl, Auchan, Carrefour and others. Also, in every town, even the smallest one, there will definitely be a small Supermercado, where essential and essential products are sold at inflated prices.

If you want to cook your own food, you can also buy food in Italy in special shops. I don’t know if they exist in the north, but they are still popular in the south of Italy. We mostly rented apartments with a kitchen and sometimes cooked our own meals.

Macelleria- Butcher shop

Pescheria or Mercato del pesce— a store or market with seafood. Markets are usually open in the morning

Panificio- bakery

Dorado, bought in a store and prepared at home. The asking price is 10 euros for 2 fish.

Pasta in an Italian store

What do you need to know before going to an Italian restaurant in Italy?

In Italy, expensive does not = delicious. More often it's the other way around. If possible, always ask locals where they eat and go to local establishments.

If you want to have a normal tasty meal in Italy, it is better to learn the names of the main dishes and products in Italian.

Cafes and restaurants that have menus in English or Russian are aimed at tourists. There's a good chance the food there is so-so.

We encountered that the prices on the menu in Italian were lower than for the same dishes on the menu in English.

Check the final invoice amount. There was a precedent when they added a couple of euros to the price indicated on the menu. When the error was pointed out to the waitress, the money was returned. It's a small thing, but still unpleasant.

In some restaurants, the amount of the bill depends not only on what exactly you ate, but also on where exactly you sat: at the bar, at a table by the window, on the terrace. It's rather rare, but it may happen that breakfast will cost as much as a full lunch due to the fact that your table had a good view.

If you are served palm oil sticks, popular in Italy, before eating, do not rush to eat them. This is not Mexico, where they give free tacos, or even Georgia with its pita bread at the expense of the establishment. Once, to celebrate, we ate one stick each, each cost 3€ .

Bread is often served with meals. Sometimes they take money for it, sometimes they don’t. The Italians themselves pour olive oil on their bread (it is always present on the table) - it tastes better.

Restaurants also charge for water 2-3€ , but they can bring it without asking.

Drinks in restaurants cost 2-4€ for a small can of cola or beer, 2-3€ for a bottle of water.

Tips in Italy are included in the bill in most restaurants and cafes and amount to 10% of the amount

If you want to eat in a small town, be prepared for the fact that most establishments are open from 12.00 to 14.00, after which they close for a siesta from 14.30 to 18.00, then open until 21-22 hours. It is not easy to find an establishment that is open in the middle of the night. Italians have lunch strictly from 13.00 to 14.30, and have dinner only in the evening, so if the city is unpopular among tourists, restaurants and cafes will be closed for several hours during the day in 90% of cases.

Italians drink coffee around the clock, but cappuccino only in the morning. If you plan to pretend to be a local, don’t drink cappuccino during the day and evening - sleep yourself off :)

Unsuccessful mussel soup with seaweed

Menu in Italian restaurants

The menu in Italian restaurants usually consists of several sections.

Even a novice cook can cook Italian noodles at home.

Let's start with flour. To prepare Italian noodles, you will need durum wheat flour - it differs from regular wheat in its more yellowish tint and degree of grain refinement (it looks like fine semolina).

Durum wheat flour

Premium wheat flour

How to cook Italian noodles at home

To prepare Italian pasta, you only need flour and yolks. It is better to use homemade eggs, then the paste will have a richer color. In the classic Italian recipe, for every 100 g of flour there is 1 yolk. The result is a very stiff dough that is difficult to knead by hand. The cooking process itself is simple: the flour is sifted and mixed with the yolks. It is optimal to use a dough kneading machine for these purposes.

If the dough is very dry, add a little water

After cooking, the dough should be left for 30 minutes - it should rest.

The rested dough needs to be rolled out very, very thinly, or better yet, passed through a special machine for rolling out dough.

Then sprinkle the dough well with flour, fold it into a roll and cut into thin strips.

Unwrap the finished noodles and sprinkle with flour - now they can be boiled or dried.

You can dry the noodles on the back of a chair, after covering it with a clean towel. You can also use clothes hangers. The easiest option is to spread the noodles on a horizontal surface (for example, on a baking sheet) and leave for a day. Dried noodles are hard and brittle. It must be stored in an airtight container. Shelf life - 1 month.

Italian pasta often comes in different colors: orange, green, yellow, black. You can add home colors using natural dyes.

Fresh juice of spinach, dill or parsley will give a green tint. If you put a little chopped green puree into the dough, nice specks will appear in it.
Yellow and orange colors can be obtained by adding turmeric solution or carrot juice to the dough.
The black color comes from cuttlefish ink.
Pink and burgundy shades can be obtained using fresh beet juice.

To cook pasta, bring the water to a strong boil and then add salt: the pasta should cook quickly in boiling salted water

To prevent the pasta from sticking, add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (preferably olive) to the water.

If you are making broth with pasta, shake off excess flour before cooking or cook it separately, otherwise the flour may cloud the broth. Remember that when cooked, noodles increase 1.5-2 times, so try to cut the strips as thin as possible.

Simply place the finished pasta in a colander - there is no need to rinse it. Now it can be combined with sauce, added to soup or broth.

COOK TOGETHER

Pasta with mushroom ragout

INGREDIENTS

Noodles - 60 g

Porcini mushrooms s/m - 60 g

Oyster mushrooms - 60 g

Champignons - 40 g

Cream - 40 g

Olive oil (for frying) - 25 g

Basil - to taste

Salt

Pepper

COOKING METHOD

Cut the mushrooms into small pieces. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and add porcini and oyster mushrooms to it. Fry for 10-15 minutes, add salt, thyme and champignons. When the moisture from the mushrooms leaves a little and they begin to acquire a golden color, add cream
Simmer the mushrooms for another 5 minutes and add the boiled pasta to them. Stir, heat slightly and remove from heat
Place the finished pasta on a plate, garnish with basil and serve

Paste Carbonara

INGREDIENTS

Parma ham - 20 g

Bacon - 40 g

Parmesan - 30 g

Paste with cuttlefish ink - 60 g

Yolk - 1 pc.

Cream - 20 g

White wine - 30 g

Garlic oil - 10 g

Olive oil - 10 g

COOKING METHOD

Cut the bacon and ham into strips. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry ham and bacon in it. Add garlic oil, white wine, cream, grated cheese and simmer the sauce until thickened. Before removing from the stove, add the yolk to the sauce and mix well
Boil the pasta in salted boiling water with a little olive oil. Then place the pasta in a colander to drain off excess water.
Place the finished pasta on a plate. Pour the sauce nearby. We decorate the dish with ham “roses” and a basil leaf. Pasta Carbonara is ready!

Pasta with broccoli, pancetta and chili

INGREDIENTS

Broccoli - 100 g
Pancetta (bacon) - 50 g
Garlic - 2 g
Chili pepper - 3 g
Olive oil - 25 g
Noodles - 185 g
Sea salt - 2 g
White peppercorns - 2 g
Parmesan - 10 g

COOKING METHOD

Boil the noodles in boiling salted water and then drain in a colander.
Cut the broccoli into florets and boil for 5-7 minutes in boiling salted water.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry chopped garlic in it. Then add pieces of pancetta, chopped chili, broccoli and boiled noodles. Stir and heat for a few minutes
Place the finished dish on a plate, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and serve

Advice:

The cooking time for the noodles will depend on whether you use fresh or dry noodles. So, fresh will cook for 3-5 minutes, and dry a little longer.
It is important not to overcook the garlic, otherwise it will turn brown and taste bitter.
Parmesan can be replaced with another type of cheese, but if you want to get a truly Italian taste, it is better to invest in this type of cheese, as it embodies the very taste of Italy.
If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little water to it.

Paste with seafood

INGREDIENTS

Shrimp - 30 g.
Noodles - 120 g
Parmesan - 10 g
Capers - 5 g
Olives - 20 g
Olive oil - 25 g
Seafood cocktail - 50 g
Fresh tomatoes - 150 g
Garlic - 5 g
Rosemary - to taste
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste

COOKING METHOD

Pour olive oil into two different frying pans. Fry the boiled noodles in one pan, and add rosemary and crushed garlic to another. When the spices release their aroma, remove them from the pan, leaving the oil in it
We send shrimp and other seafood into aromatic oil
Grind the olives, tomatoes and add them to the seafood. Add capers, mix and fry for 1-2 minutes
Then add noodles to the seafood, mix well and fry for several minutes. Place noodles on a plate. Decorate the dish with a sprig of rosemary

A product such as Italian pasta can be prepared at home if desired. Tagliotelli, farfalle, cannelloni, vermicelli, fettuccine, spaghetti are various types of pasta. As for external features, such a product can look different: stripes, stars, spirals, bows, shells, tubes, and so on.

How did pasta come about?

It is commonly believed that classic Italian pasta is very difficult to prepare, but this is not so. This dish first appeared in China. During excavations, a peculiar artifact was discovered, the age of which is about 4000 years. It looked like a bowl of millet flour. We found such a device on the banks of the Yellow River. Of course, in the culture of other nations there are dishes made from similar flour, but this was the only evidence that noodles were invented many centuries ago. As for taste, Italian noodles are still considered the most delicious.

The secret of Italian pasta

The recipe for making Italian pasta is quite simple, and it can be easily mastered if you know the main secret. At the moment, in any store you can buy noodles made from beans, rice, buckwheat, and so on. But all of them are far from Italian in taste. Its main feature is flour made from durum wheat. Thanks to this component, the finished products do not become overcooked during the cooking process and do not turn into an ugly mush. Even if the cooking time and temperature are exceeded, Italian pasta holds its shape well. The only thing that such noodles can lose is “al dente”: the famous degree of doneness.

How to choose flour

Italian pasta dough cannot be made from regular flour. Then the noodles will simply begin to boil. To prepare such a product, durum wheat flour is required. It contains significantly less starch, but more gluten, unlike soft varieties. Pasta made from such flour has a low glycemic index. It is thanks to this that such a dish does not make you fat.

How to cook Italian pasta? First of all, you should choose the right flour. The Semola product is ideal for such a dish. Its main difference from other types of flour is the degree of grain refinement, as well as a yellowish tint. Externally, the product looks like finely ground semolina.

How to cook Italian pasta

To make pasta at home, you need a few ingredients:

Durum wheat flour.
Egg yolks.

Usually, to prepare Italian pasta, only 1 yolk is used per 100 grams of flour. The result should be a fairly stiff dough. It is very difficult to knead it by hand. It is recommended to take only homemade eggs, as their yolks give the noodles a richer yellow tint. The recipe for Italian pasta at home is used by many, as it is quite simple.

Cooking process

So, let's look at a recipe for Italian pasta at home. First, sift the flour into a deep container. The yolks must be separated from the whites. You can use an empty plastic bottle for this. Add the yolks to the flour and knead the dough. The mass turns out to be very tight and it is not always possible to connect the components with your hands. Many people recommend using a special machine for kneading dough.

If the mass turns out dry, then you can add a little flour to it. After cooking, the dough should stand for 30 minutes. After this, you can begin to form the noodles. It is recommended to roll out the dough very thinly, but it is best to pass it through a machine designed for rolling out dough.

Each layer should be sprinkled with flour, then rolled into a roll and cut into thin strips. The finished pasta remains to be unwrapped. To prevent it from sticking, it is recommended to sprinkle it with flour.

What to do next

Once you master the Italian pasta recipe, you can prepare many delicious dishes at home. After the dough is cut, it can be immediately boiled or dried. The latter option allows you to use the finished product as needed. To dry the pasta, you need to cover the back of a chair with a clean kitchen towel and then hang the noodles. Some people use regular clothes hangers for these purposes.

There is a simpler method. It is enough to spread the paste on a horizontal surface. A regular baking sheet will do for this. After a day, the pasta will be ready. In this case, the product turns out brittle and hard. It is recommended to store such noodles in a container with an airtight lid for no more than 30 days.

How to make colored noodles

Now you know the recipe for Italian pasta at home. It cooks quickly. It is worth considering that Italian pasta comes in a variety of shades: black, yellow, green, orange. To achieve these colors, you don't have to use synthetic dyes. Natural spices and products are suitable for this:

How to cook pasta correctly

So, how is Italian pasta cooked? At home, you can prepare a wide variety of dishes from ready-made noodles with various ingredients, sauces and additives. However, in any case, the pasta must be boiled. Pour water into the container and bring it to a strong boil. After this, add a little salt to it and lay out the noodles. To prevent the paste from sticking, you need to add a few tablespoons of olive or sunflower oil to the water.

The finished noodles are simply thrown into a colander. There is no need to rinse it. After this, all that remains is to combine it with sauce and other products, add it to broth or soup. This pasta is very tasty with regular butter.

If you want to cook broth with Italian noodles, you should shake off the flour before adding them. Otherwise, the dish will turn out cloudy. It is worth considering that during the cooking process the pasta increases several times.

The traditional Italian dish, pasta, has long and firmly taken root on our tables. In any store you can find a huge assortment of pasta, but not every housewife knows how to prepare spaghetti pasta on her own. But home-cooked spaghetti has a softer, more delicate taste; Once you try this pasta, you won’t want to buy it in the store, especially since it’s quite easy to prepare.

The main thing in the article

Interesting facts about making homemade pasta

The first paste in history was nothing more than ordinary flour, which was mixed with water and dried in the sun. In appearance, it only vaguely resembled the one we are dealing with today. Then, for several centuries, pasta was made in the form of wide plates, exclusively from durum flour (this tradition is strictly preserved to this day). Italian cuisine has been strongly influenced by Arab culture, which is perhaps why various and numerous spices are always added to a dish such as pasta.

Already in the 15th century, pasta gained great popularity, as it became possible to keep them dry for a long time. With each decade, new ways of preparing pasta were invented: it was boiled, baked, fried, poured with oil, sprinkled with cheese, and generously seasoned with a variety of original sauces.

When a machine for making pasta was invented in the 19th century, which made it possible to quickly roll out the dough into the thinnest layers, its production became noticeably easier and became widespread and very convenient.

To this day, large producers of Italian pasta adhere to a clear recipe for its preparation, using only durum wheat flour and water. However, you can often find dry pasta, which is made from soft varieties of wheat and to which eggs are added. The paste may also differ in the way it is extruded and dried.

How to make your own pasta?

Before you cook pasta or spaghetti, you need to decide on a clear recipe for making it. By adding certain ingredients to a dish, or slightly changing the proportions, you can get a completely new type of pasta each time, which, however, will be much tastier than those purchased in the store.

The most common recipe for making pasta at home, for which you will need:

300 grams of durum wheat flour;
2-3 chicken eggs;
a pinch of salt;
a little olive oil.

Restaurants often use Semola flour to make pasta, which is made from coarse wheat; it is somewhat reminiscent of semolina.

Sift the flour and pour it onto the table in a neat pile.
In this slide we make a small depression into which we drive 2 or 3 eggs (at first it’s better to have 2, and if the dough turns out to be too loose and dry, then drive in a third one).
When the eggs are beaten, add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil, then gently mix the eggs in the center of the flour mound with a fork.
We begin to knead the dough - you need to do this from the edges to the center, carefully mixing the flour with the egg mixture.

If the dough sticks to your hands and is not very elastic, you can add more flour to it, but do not overdo it so that it does not become too stiff.

Ideally, you should get a smooth and even lump of dough, quite tight and elastic. When the dough is ready, wrap it in a towel or cling film and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Next, cut a small piece from the dough, level it, place it between two sheets of parchment paper for baking and roll it out with a rolling pin to minimum thickness and maximum uniformity, doing this in the direction away from you.
Wrap the finished dough layer loosely around a floured rolling pin and let dry for 10-15 minutes.
After this procedure, the dough will become glossy, dried and easily cut into strips of the required thickness, depending on what type of pasta you want to get.

Types of Italian pasta

The above method of preparing pasta is the easiest to apply at home. However, there are many types of pasta, which is a little problematic to prepare at home, but it is quite possible to purchase even in our stores, not in Italian ones. Many of them are familiar to us first-hand, and some are yet to be learned about for the first time.

Bucatini - outwardly resemble spaghetti, but are much wider in diameter and have a hole in the middle. Bucatini is cooked for 9-10 minutes and then served with oil-based sauces, as well as vegetables, cheese or fish, with which they harmonize perfectly.

Tagliatelle – flat, fairly wide egg-based noodles. In our stores you can often find it “curled into nests.” This pasta goes well with béchamel and Bolognese sauces and is served with veal sausages or sausages.

The closest “relative” of tagliatelle is pasta fettuccine , with the difference that the latter is slightly wider. We usually call this pasta “noodles” and serve it with tomato sauces and herbs.

Ravioli – this is also a paste, but few people know about it. It looks like dumplings, but according to tradition, ravioli should have a square shape, although we often find round ones in stores. Traditionally, ravioli are filled with meat, although in Italy they are also stuffed with spinach and nutmeg.

An alternative to ravioli are Cappelletti – classic dumplings, as we imagine them.

Rigatoni – paste in the form of small tubes with a hole in the middle. Such pasta has a grooved surface, thanks to which it perfectly holds any, even liquid, sauces.

Orecchiette – we call them ears and we like to serve them with simple butter and tomato sauces, as well as add them to soups.

A pasta similar to orecchiette is called conchiglioni , however, the latter are quite large in size, thanks to which each such “shell” can be stuffed, for example, with meat filling.

Elbow macaroni , which we call nothing more than “horns”. A universal pasta, suitable for serving with cheese and butter sauces, and for use in soups and casseroles.

Fusilli - This is a paste that imitates spirals. The closest “relatives” of fusilli are pasta Rotini ), but the latter are slightly more curved and elongated. Served with tomato sauces, pesto sauce, minced meat and vegetables.

Cannelloni – paste in the form of large tubes with a hole in the middle. Due to its size, this pasta can easily be stuffed with minced meat, then topped with bechamel sauce and baked under a cheese crust.

Lasagne - pasta that serves as the basis for the dish we know. This wide pasta in the form of layers of dough is baked with minced meat, bechamel sauce and cheese and all the ingredients are laid out in layers. This is one of the most popular types of pasta not only in Italy, but also here. Pasta lasagna can be easily prepared at home.

Actually, pasta (Maccheroni) - the most popular type of pasta in our country. The name of this pasta has become such a household word that now we call any pasta pasta.

Stellini - the smallest of all star-shaped pastes. Children especially like this pasta, and it is also actively used in soups and even salads.

And, of course, spaghetti - favorites of our tables. In our country, spaghetti is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, served with tomato sauces, butter, cheese, sausages, canned fish, minced meat, in general, with everything your heart desires.

Recipes for delicious Italian pasta Carbonara

Let's learn how to cook Italian carbonara pasta . Despite such an elegant name, this is a rather simple but very tasty dish. To prepare it you will need:

2 eggs;
50 g parmesan;
a little hot pepper;
100 g lean meat (chicken breast or pork tenderloin);
a little olive oil;
salt and spices as desired.

Place water for the pasta in a saucepan, and while it boils, cut the meat into small cubes and fry it in olive oil for 4-5 minutes.
To give the meat some piquancy, you can add a little chopped hot pepper to it.
Cook spaghetti or any other type of pasta in boiling salted water. The finished pasta can be placed in a colander and rinsed thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix 2 broken eggs and grated Parmesan. Place the pasta and fried meat in the same pan, mix well and serve.

Recipes for delicious Italian pasta Fettuccine with pesto sauce and chicken breast

Required:

a large package of fettuccine (wide noodles) or 500 g of homemade noodles;
20 g butter;
2 tablespoons vegetable oil;
chicken fillet – 150-200 g;
1/2 kg of tomatoes;
200 ml pesto sauce;
seasonings, salt, pepper.

The pasta should be boiled until it reaches what the Italians call "al dente" , in which the noodles are almost ready, but the middle itself is slightly hard.
For fettuccine, al dente occurs after 12 minutes of cooking. Drain the pasta, but reserve 1 cup of liquid: this will come in handy during the cooking process.
While the pasta is cooking, the chicken breast is cut into cubes, and the tomatoes are also chopped.
In a frying pan, mix olive oil with melted butter and fry the chicken until beautifully browned, adding seasonings: dried basil, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Place the finished chicken in a container, and fry the chopped tomatoes in the remaining oil in the pan, stirring them frequently.
Let's combine our dish: add chicken, tomato sauce and pesto sauce to the pan with pasta, mix everything well. We remember the glass of water we left in which the pasta was cooked and gradually add it to the pan with the dish so that it is not too dry.

This dish in itself is tasty and beautiful, but when serving you can add fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes and grated Parmesan to it.

Recipe for delicious Italian pasta with seafood

To prepare the dish you will need:

250 g spaghetti;
500 g of sea cocktail (you can take separately the types of seafood you like, for example, squid, shrimp or mussels);
20 g butter;
a glass of 20% cream;
150 g hard cheese;
salt and any dried Italian herbs.

Cook the spaghetti in salted water for no more than 7 minutes, then place in a colander and let the water drain. If the spaghetti is cooked correctly, there will be no need to rinse it - they should not stick together.
Pre-defrost seafood and boil for 3 minutes.
Melt butter in a frying pan and add sea cocktail to it.
Then, having mixed the seafood well, add cream to it and simmer the dish for 5-7 minutes.
At this time, grate the cheese on a coarse grater and add it to the pan with the seafood.
Melted cheese will give the sauce the necessary consistency: it will become viscous and appetizing.
Add the pasta to the finished sauce, mix well and serve.

Italian pasta dough recipe: what do you need?

The main components of any paste are:

flour;
water;
salt;
olive or sunflower oil;
eggs (sometimes).

Methods for preparing pasta may vary in the ingredients of the dough and their quantity, and also depending on whether the household has a machine for rolling out the dough. If you have one, the process of preparing pasta is greatly simplified. Moreover, the result is real Italian pasta - no worse than the kind served in restaurants in Rome.

After the dough is ready, the rolling machine is sprinkled with flour to prevent fresh pasta from sticking to it. A small piece is cut from the dough and flattened a little with your hands (to the size and thickness of the flatbread). The machine has a special wheel with numbers that indicate the thickness of the resulting dough layer. This indicator must first be set to 6 or 5, and with each scroll of the test, reduce it. In this case, at each division, the dough must be passed through the machine at least 3-4 times, after which it must be folded in half and passed again. This is necessary to achieve the greatest homogeneity and smoothness of the dough. Typically, spaghetti dough is stopped at 2.

Using a machine, the dough is also easy to cut (you can choose a mode that produces spaghetti or wider tagliatelle).

The resulting paste is laid out on the table, sprinkled with a little flour to prevent sticking and left to dry briefly. After this, the pasta can be cooked, or left to be stored in the refrigerator, but no more than 3-4 days.

How to cook pasta with minced meat in Italian: recipe

We all know how to cook navy pasta, that is, pasta with minced meat. In Italian, this dish is called pasta Bolognese and it is prepared a little differently. Why not experiment and make an ordinary dish original and festive? To prepare the dish you will need:

spices and herbs (salt, pepper, basil, oregano);
fresh dill or parsley;
hard cheese, preferably Parmesan – 100 g;
minced meat – 500-600 g;
1 meaty bell pepper;
several ripe tomatoes;
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
a package of spaghetti or 250 g of homemade pasta;
medium bulb
a couple of cloves of garlic.

Chop the onion and garlic and fry in oil until golden brown (no more than 5 minutes), then add the minced meat to the pan.
Cut the pepper into cubes, remove the core and seeds. Add the pepper to the fried meat and mix well.
Grind the tomatoes by hand or in a blender, add to the minced meat, salt, pepper and generously sprinkle with your favorite spices, then simmer the Bolognese sauce for another 15 minutes.
7 minutes before the sauce is ready, boil the pasta.
Place spaghetti on a plate, pour Bolognese sauce over it thickly, then add chopped herbs and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

What sauce should I serve with Italian pasta?

Many sauces go perfectly with Italian pasta:

classic tomato sauce , which can be prepared at home from ripe tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are ideal for its preparation: they are sweeter and meatier. Chop the tomatoes and place them in a frying pan in heated olive oil. While the tomatoes are stewing, add seasonings that we like, and before finishing cooking, add chopped herbs and garlic.

béchamel sauce - not only harmonizes perfectly with any pasta, but also serves as a connecting link for the ingredients of some dishes, for example, cannelloni. It is prepared from butter, milk and flour; A little nutmeg is added to the finished sauce for a sharp taste.

pesto – green Italian sauce, which can be purchased ready-made in the store or prepared at home. For this you will need:
fresh basil To;
pine nuts And;
Parmesan;
garlic;
half a glass of olive oil.
Grind all the products as much as possible, then add olive oil and mix well.

Withwhether cream cheese sauce – will make any pasta a masterpiece. Melt the butter in a frying pan, pour in a glass of cream and bring it to a boil, then add the grated cheese. The more cheese, the thicker the sauce, so adjust the consistency as needed.

Italian pasta at home: how to choose flour

Now we constantly buy pasta in stores, but several centuries ago neither Russian nor Italian housewives had this opportunity: they had to make pasta at home. As we have already found out, there is nothing complicated about this, but by preparing pasta at home, we will know exactly what it is made of. A dough sheeting machine makes the process of making pasta much easier.

The key to delicious homemade pasta is to buy the right flour: in Italy they use typo 00 flour, which is made from durum wheat. This is a very finely ground flour, and it produces denser pasta that does not become mushy. If you don’t find such flour in the supermarket, ordinary premium wheat flour will do.

It is also important to boil the finished pasta correctly: when preparing spaghetti or noodles, for every 100 g of pasta you need a liter of water, and the cooking itself lasts 7 minutes.

Another advantage of homemade pasta is that it can be made in different thicknesses and shapes, resulting in an almost new dish each time. In Italy, pasta made by hand is valued much higher than that made by machine.

Italian cuisine has many advantages. Among them are bright, unusual combinations of products, simplicity, and loyalty to tradition, but the main thing is that Italian cuisine is not overloaded with meanings, which makes it accessible and understandable to everyone. Frankly, I can’t even imagine a person who might not like Italian cuisine, with its bright Mediterranean flavors and ability to squeeze the most out of seemingly simple products. Along with the French one, it made a huge contribution to the formation of the world culinary heritage, and you can now find an Italian restaurant or a modest pizzeria anywhere in the world.

In this collection, I decided to collect 10 of my favorite Italian recipes, and I had to rack my brain wondering which ones to include in this list and which ones to cross off. As a result, the list was still incomplete, because it did not include a single recipe for risotto or pizza, there are no desserts or fish dishes, but there are three classic pasta recipes and several vegetable hits. Nevertheless, I hope that you will appreciate this collection of recipes, despite some of its one-sidedness, because Italy is invariably delicious - in any form and in any execution!

Generally speaking, Genoese pesto is a brilliant invention and one of those things that, when you try it for the first time, is quite shocking, so pesto doesn’t need any fancy names. She is perfect without them, in and of herself. When choosing pasta, opt for spaghetti or, like me, tagliatelle. I think they pair best with pesto. And if you have pesto sauce left over, don’t worry, you can eat it not only with spaghetti, but even just with bread.