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The Two Fundamental Italian Pasta Traditions
Italian pasta divides at the Apennines into two fundamentally different technical traditions that produce different textures, different flavours, and different cooking behaviours:
Northern egg pasta (pasta all'uovo): Made with soft wheat flour (type 00) and eggs, typically 1 egg per 100g of flour. The egg fat content makes the dough more pliable, the cooked pasta more tender and delicate, and the sauce adherence different from semolina pasta. The northern egg pasta tradition: Emilia-Romagna (tagliatelle, tortellini, maltagliati, garganelli, all rolled on the mattarello, the long wooden rolling pin, to a specific thickness). The canonical pasta thicknesses in Bologna are specified by the Camera di Commercio di Bologna: tagliatelle should be exactly 8mm wide when cooked, which corresponds to 1/12,270th of the height of the Asinelli tower (Bologna's medieval tower, 97.2m), a measurement registered in 1972 to settle disputes.
Southern semolina pasta (pasta di semola): Made with hard durum wheat semolina and water, no eggs, the protein structure of the semolina providing the elasticity that eggs provide in the north. The dried pasta that the world knows (spaghetti, penne, rigatoni) is in this tradition. Southern semolina pasta holds up longer in cooking, has a more solid texture, and pairs with the stronger flavours of southern Italian sauces (the tomato-based, olive oil-based, and cured meat-based sauces of Campania, Puglia, Sicily, and Calabria).
Emilia-Romagna: The Pasta Capital
Emilia-Romagna is Italy's pasta capital, the region produces the most complex, most technically demanding, and most internationally imitated pasta tradition. The canonical Emilian pasta dishes:
Tagliatelle al ragù: The correct name for what the world calls "Bolognese", wide egg pasta ribbons (8mm) with a meat sauce (ragù) made from beef (and optionally pork), white wine, milk or cream, onion, celery, carrot, tomato paste (a small amount, the ragù isn't a tomato sauce), and a 3-hour slow cook. The original 13th-century ragù contained no tomato at all (tomato arrived in Italy in the 16th century and wasn't widely used in cooking until the 18th). The current canonical recipe was registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1982. Tortellini in brodo: The most technically demanding Emilian pasta, tiny rings of egg pasta filled with pork loin, prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, egg, and nutmeg, served in beef and capon broth. The tortellini filling recipe was registered by the Bologna Confraternita del Tortellino in 1974. The correct format is in brodo (in broth), not with cream sauce, not with ragù. The specific broth must be made from beef and capon (castrated rooster), no shortcuts produce the same result. Best tortellini in brodo in Bologna: Osteria dell'Orsa (Via Mentana 1, €10, a student restaurant but with irreproachable quality), Trattoria Anna Maria (Via delle Belle Arti 17/a, €14).
Liguria: Trofie al Pesto
Ligurian pasta is the most regionally specific in Italy, the geography of Liguria (a narrow coastal strip between the Alps/Apennines and the sea, with no flat agricultural land) means the Ligurian diet was built from what could be grown on terraced hillsides: basil (the specific Ligurian basil. Basilicum genovese DOP, smaller-leaved than Neapolitan basil, with a specific aroma the local microclimate produces and that can't be exactly replicated elsewhere), pine nuts, garlic, Ligurian olive oil, and Pecorino Sardo. The combination is pesto genovese, the most specifically local pasta sauce in Italy. The canonical pesto: fresh Genovese DOP basil, Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Sardo (ratio 2:1), garlic, pine nuts, coarse salt. Made in a marble mortar (the pestello, from which the name pesto derives) rather than a blender (blending heats the basil and oxidises it). The pasta for pesto: trofie (short, twisted semolina pasta, the specific Ligurian pasta shape), served with green beans and cubed potato boiled in the same water (the potato starch helps the pesto adhere, a technique specific to pesto pasta that most non-Ligurian pesto preparations omit). The best trofie al pesto in Genoa: Trattoria da Maria (Vico Testadoro 14, €9, cash only, communal tables, the most authentic working-class version), Il Genovese (Via Galata 35, €12).
Rome and Lazio: The Quatro Paste Romane
Roman pasta culture is defined by four dishes (the "quattro paste romane" of Roman food writing) using minimal ingredients with maximum technique: Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino Romano, black pepper, pasta, emulsified to a creamy sauce using pasta water. No cream, no butter in the strict version).Carbonara (guanciale, egg yolk, Pecorino Romano, black pepper, as described above).Gricia (guanciale, Pecorino Romano, black pepper, the carbonara without the egg, considered the "white carbonara," and historically older than carbonara by several centuries).Amatriciana (guanciale, San Marzano tomato, Pecorino Romano, chilli flakes, the dish of Amatrice, a town in the Lazio mountains that was almost entirely destroyed by the 2016 earthquake. The recipe was formally registered before the earthquake. The dish's proceeds now partially support reconstruction).
Italian Pasta by Region: Quick Reference
What to order, where to order it, and what not to doEmilia-Romagna: Tagliatelle al ragù (NOT "spaghetti bolognese", spaghetti with ragù is a foreign invention), tortellini in brodo (NOT with cream sauce). Best in Bologna: Osteria dell'Orsa, Trattoria Anna Maria.
Liguria: Trofie al pesto (with green beans and potato in the water), trenette al pesto (the Genoa version using thicker trenette pasta). Best in Genoa: Trattoria da Maria.
Rome/Lazio: Cacio e pepe, carbonara (no cream), gricia, amatriciana (not "arrabbiata", arrabbiata is a separate dish using garlic, tomato, and chilli with no cured meat). Best in Rome: Roscioli (carbonara), Tonnarello (amatriciana).
Sicily: Pasta alla Norma (spaghetti or rigatoni with fried aubergine, San Marzano tomato, salted ricotta, specifically Catanian, named after Bellini's opera), pasta con le sarde (sardines, wild fennel, raisins, pine nuts, specifically Palermitan and one of the most complex Sicilian flavour combinations).
Puglia: Orecchiette con le cime di rapa (the ear-shaped pasta with braised turnip tops and anchovy, the most specifically Pugliese pasta, unavailable authentic elsewhere).
What is Italy's most famous pasta dish?
Italy's most internationally famous pasta dish is spaghetti bolognese, which doesn't exist in Bologna. The correct Emilian dish is tagliatelle al ragù (wide egg pasta ribbons with meat sauce. The Bologna Chamber of Commerce registered both the pasta width. 8mm cooked, and the ragù recipe in 1982). Spaghetti with ragù is a foreign adaptation. The most famous genuine Italian pasta dishes: carbonara (Rome, guanciale, egg yolk, Pecorino, black pepper, no cream). Trofie al pesto (Liguria, basil DOP, marble-mortar ground, served with green beans and potato). Tortellini in brodo (Bologna, tiny pasta rings in beef-capon broth). Pasta alla Norma (Sicily, aubergine, tomato, salted ricotta).
What pasta is from Rome?
The four canonical Roman pasta dishes: cacio e pepe (Pecorino Romano and black pepper, emulsified with pasta water, no cream, no butter in the strict version), carbonara (guanciale, egg yolk, Pecorino, black pepper, post-WWII Roman dish, no cream), gricia (guanciale, Pecorino, black pepper, the "white carbonara," older than carbonara), and amatriciana (guanciale, San Marzano tomato, Pecorino, chilli, from Amatrice, Lazio, not from Rome itself). The pasta shapes for Roman dishes: rigatoni (the corrugated tube, for amatriciana and carbonara), tonnarelli (the square-section spaghetti, preferred for cacio e pepe at the most traditional Roman restaurants).
Puglia: Orecchiette and the Semolina South
The most specifically Pugliese pasta is orecchiette (little ears, the ear-shaped pasta pressed from durum semolina, made by pressing with a blunt knife and dragging the small dough piece across the board, inverting it over a finger to form the cup shape). The orecchiette tradition is concentrated in Bari, the neighborhood of Santa Scolastica in Bari Vecchia (old Bari) has a street (Via delle Orecchiette) where women make and sell fresh orecchiette directly from their home thresholds, a practice that has been ongoing for decades and is one of the most specifically Southern Italian food production traditions visible anywhere. The canonical sauce: cime di rapa (turnip tops, the bitter cruciferous vegetable that grows as a winter crop in the Pugliese fields, available October–March), blanched then finished in a pan with garlic, chilli, and crushed anchovy, served on the orecchiette with toasted breadcrumbs (pangrattato, the "poor man's Parmesan" that substitutes for cheese in the economically constrained Pugliese tradition). Related: Puglia food guide, Italy food guide.
Eat Italian Pasta the Right Way
Bologna ragù masterclass, Rome carbonara without cream, Liguria pesto with the DOP basil, and Puglia orecchiette from the Via delle Orecchiette threshold makers.
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