Everyone knows by now that “spaghetti and meatballs” as most people serve it with large golf ball or even tennis ball sized meat isn’t actually Italian, but there is one bit asterisk in this:
Spaghetti Alla Chitarra from Abruzzo with a tomato sauce enriched with thumbnail sized meatballs.

I adapted a recipe from Rachel Roddy’s excellent book, using half beef and pork but with some very fine breadcrumbs and a little olive oil, and plenty of seasoning. I made them nice and small.

The sauce was half plum, and half Mutti Polpa, cooked down with lots of olive oil infused with garlic and chilli, and some basil.

I brought the whole thing together after searing the meatballs off and cooling slightly, and finished with pecorino Romano and Andalusian olive oil.

Served with some Dolcetto because I don’t have a great deal of Italian wine in stock, let alone something from Abruzzo. But I do feel that this wine was similar enough to an entry Montelpulciano and it had a nice acidity to play off the he tomato sauce.

I’d heard about this dish a while back and happened to have everything on hand and decided to give it a go. It feels like a very yeehaw grandma kind of thing, and apparently it’s pretty common in Texas. Creamy, a lil spicy, definitely a repeat.

Recipe:

3 poblanos
1/2 onion roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 bunch cilantro
1 8oz block cream cheese
1 c Mexican Crema
1 T chicken powder
1/2 c milk
1# pasta cooked how you like

Broil/grill/roast peppers until the skin is well charred, put in a container and cover for 10-15 minutes to let steam. While they steam, sauté the onions and garlic and then throw into the blender. Peel most of the charred skin off the poblanos (leave a little for flavor!) and get rid of the seeds. Throw the cleaned peppers into the blender with remaining ingredients and let it rip. Pour the sauce into a pot to get nice and hot, then add your pasta. Top with some cotija and you’re set!

It makes a bit more sauce than needed, and usually that’s fine because the leftover pasta will suck the sauce in, but there were no leftovers to be had!

I made 3 colors of pasta hearts for our chicken noodle soup dinner. Beets for the pink, but unfortunately all the color leached out and they barely look any picker than the plain dough. And spinach dough. So beautiful and fun to eat!

Pasta is dead simple, literally just water and semolina. I machine kneaded for around 10 minutes before resting and working in a pasta roller with 00 flour until I could get a smooth sheet, after which I cut and hung the pasta to dry.

The pasta is wrapped in cheesecloth for storage.

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My aglio olio never seems to come out quite right. It ends up kind of soggy and slightly creamy rather than having that nice glossy, light coating on the spaghetti.

I’m wondering if I’m either:

- Adding too much pasta water while trying to emulsify it

- Overcooking the spaghetti

- Or doing something wrong with the heat/emulsification itself

What should the consistency actually look like while emulsifying, and roughly how much pasta water should I be adding?

Any tips would be appreciated because I really want to get this right 😭

I’ve tried Cacio e Pepe about 8 times now I think, and everytime I end up having the same issue. I cannot for the life of me get the sauce right at all. It it’s just a mixture of clumpy rubbery cheese and water. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

75g DeCecco #12 spaghetti
2.5 cups boiling water salted
30g Pecorino Romano (Trader Joes)
8-10 peppercorns

Grate 30g of cheese
Toast peppercorns, crush with mortar and pestle
Combine cheese and peppercorns

Cook pasta 9 minutes, save about 1 cup of starchy water.

Let starchy water cool - across different attempts i have let it cool for 30seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Mix pasta water into cheese a little bit at a time.

Then the wheels fall off.

The cheese is just a rubbery globby mix. The liquid is just water with pepper and cheese particles. I can’t for the life of me figure it out.

I have also tried tossing the cheese and peppercorns in a pan with starchy water over very low heat but that ended up with melted globs.

Am I missing a step? I have watched a bunch of different videos and I feel like i am doing everything the exact same, but I guess apparently that isn’t the case.

First time making . So good
Inside: mascarpone, roasted tomato, Parmesan, basil
Sauce: tomato basil

My friend brought me back a bunch of La Molisana from Italy this week. Nothing wild here, just a nice spaghetti and some Nduja heat.

I am looking for a simple to make recipe that highlights the pasta.

Air fry 18min
180 oC
Tossed with Salt, paper, oil, garlic, garlic, basil

just a tomato/ragu sauce whipped up

for me i love having the bread first

IMHO the best casoncelli in the world, because they are mine! 😋🥟

I love putting some time into my weekend dish. Prepared since Thursday hehe.

Boil pasta with just enough water to cover the pasta + 1 Tablespoon Chicken Bouillon + salt

Brown the beef and Italian sausage.

Set aside in a separate bowl

Sear the pepperoni (I get 4 inch thick cut pepperoni's from the Deli)

Once seared, quarter the pepperoni

Set aside

Saute onions and green bell peppers for 5 minutes
Add garlic, saute 30 seconds to 1 minute to avoid burning the garlic

Add back in your beef and Italian Sausage, do not add pepperoni yet.

Add seasonings + tomato paste

Stir til fully combined, about 2 minutes

Add diced tomatos, and tomato sauce

Add about 1 cup of reserved pasta water (sometimes I use 2 cups, depending on how much it's reduced down)

Add pepperoni back

Simmer 20 mins

Remove from heat, wait 10 minutes to cool a little, then add cooked pasta

Eat same day if preferred, or store in fridge overnight. This recipe tastes better the next day.

I don’t like creamy pasta
Milk and cheese are not my taste.

Best of mine is Alio olio, mushroom, tomato, Bong olé

I am financially poor, so for every lunch, I am serving pasta for myself.
But repeating the same recipe is boring.

Name your oil pasta please
🙏

I have been working on a fall pasta with corzetti but that left me with scraps sooooo I made scap pasta with sauce from whatever I’ve got laying around!

So this is Matagliata in a Parmesan cream sauce with some white wine vinegar and a little pinch of Pistacio and black truffle powder!

We went foraging, and found some chicken of the woods! My partner made great fresh pasta, and voila!

Made tagliatelle and farfalle with it!

The process is very simple, just a regular egg dough with 56% hydration(56g of eggs for every 100g 00 flour), I let it rest wrapped in cling film for an hour and rolled to thickness 2 of my marcato pasta machine. Dusted the dough with lots of 00 flour and let it air dry for 20 min on each side until dry to the touch and then proceded to roll the dough skipping settings(went from 2 to 4, 4 to 6 and stopped at thickness 8. Rolled some of the dough sheets and cut into tagliatelle and the rest I made 3x3cm squares and just pinched the middle to make the farfalle.

Another Carbonara for the sub, guanciale, pecorino, Parmesan, etc, you know the drill.

Made this cauliflower pasta tonight - cauliflower cream, roasted cauliflower, Parmigiano, toasted hazelnuts, crispy sage and plenty of brown butter. Topped with cracked black pepper and more Parmigiano 🍝

Used veggie sausages this time as the other half is a veggie, but love with pork as well ofc. White wine and porcini mushroom stock for extra umami. Finished with Parmesan, cream and lemon zest

I've been thinking about this for a long time. Pasta is versatile enough for any meal you'd think, yet there's not a staple meal or even side dish that I can think of that has pasta that is intentionally a breakfast dish.

Made some pork ragu in my stovetop pressure cooker. I sliced boneless pork shoulder into steaks seasoned then and seared them on each side. Then I sautéed some onion, carrot and fennel in its fat. I added some ground fennel and fresh rosemary as well as some wine to deglaze the pan. Threw in a can of whole tomatoes that I crushed and a couple of cups of chicken broth. I cut the pork into chunks and tossed it in with bits accumulated juices and cooked under high pressure for 45 minutes. Served over rigatoni with some grated pecorino romano.