Italian Pasta & Gnocchi

Italian Pasta & Gnocchi recipes

Fresh or dried? The basics

• Fresh egg pasta (soft wheat and egg, the northern tradition) is tender and absorbent — best with butter, cream and ragù. Dried pasta (durum-wheat semolina and water, the southern tradition) keeps its bite with oil, tomato and seafood. Neither is better; they are different.
• Use about 1 litre of water per 100 g of pasta and salt it at roughly 10 g per litre.
• Cook dried pasta a minute short of the packet time, then finish it in the sauce with a splash of its starchy cooking water — that is what makes the sauce cling.
• Gnocchi are done about 30–60 seconds after they float. Floury potatoes and as little flour as possible make them light.

Pasta shapes guide

Italian cooks match shape to sauce: smooth strands for slippery sauces, ridges and hollows for chunky ones.

Which sauce with which pasta?

• Smooth tomato sauces

  Shapes: Spaghetti, penne, rigatoni

  A light, fluid sauce coats long strands and runs into tubes.

  Recipes: Marinara sauce, Spaghetti al pomodoro, Penne all'arrabbiata

• Meat ragù

  Shapes: Tagliatelle, pappardelle, rigatoni, lasagne

  Wide egg ribbons and big tubes carry chunky meat; in Bologna ragù goes with tagliatelle, not spaghetti.

  Recipes: Ragù alla bolognese with tagliatelle, Pasta alla genovese (Neapolitan onion and beef ragù), Lasagne alla bolognese

• Pesto

  Shapes: Trofie, trenette, linguine

  Twists and flat strands hold an uncooked, oily sauce.

  Recipes: Pesto alla genovese, Trofie al pesto with potatoes and green beans

• Oil, garlic and seafood

  Shapes: Spaghetti, linguine

  Thin, slippery sauces need smooth long pasta.

  Recipes: Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, Spaghetti alle vongole

• Cheese and pasta-water emulsions

  Shapes: Spaghetti, tonnarelli, rigatoni, fresh fettuccine

  Starchy water and finely grated cheese make the sauce; rough or porous pasta helps it cling.

  Recipes: Cacio e pepe, Pasta alla gricia, Spaghetti carbonara, Fettuccine al burro (the original fettuccine Alfredo)

• Cream and tomato-cream

  Shapes: Penne, fettuccine

  Ridged tubes and egg ribbons stand up to richer sauces.

  Recipes: Penne alla vodka

• Brown butter and sage

  Shapes: Ravioli, tortelli, gnocchi

  Lets a delicate filling or soft dumpling shine.

  Recipes: Ricotta and spinach ravioli with butter and sage, Ricotta gnocchi with butter and sage, Gnudi (Tuscan spinach and ricotta dumplings)

• Béchamel

  Shapes: Lasagne, cannelloni

  Binds layers and keeps baked pasta moist.

  Recipes: Béchamel sauce, Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

• Broth

  Shapes: Tortellini, ditalini, small soup pasta

  Small or filled pasta that fits on a spoon.

  Recipes: Tortellini in brodo, Pasta e ceci