I LOVE PASTA. A LIST OF TOP PAIRINGS

Italians love pasta! 99% of Italians eats it five days out of seven! 

What is the secret of this success? The Italian Bakery and Pasta Association (AIDEPI) tried to understand the key factors of the perceived quality of pasta by appointing Doxa to run a survey. Here are the answers!

Pasta is firm to the bite!
It holds well after cooking, without getting overcooked: this is why 77% of Italians prefer it.

It is made with quality wheat!
68% of people choose pasta because they believe it is made with high quality Italian wheat.

Holds the sauce perfectly
60% of Italian believes this is the case.

There is a great variety available (on the market there are more than 300 different types of pasta), and this is why one never tires of it. But which ones are the best pairings?

Pasta&Sauce. A perfect match!

When a truly fantastic pairing happens, often the expression “è la morte sua!” (its ideal end) is used; this idiom is often heard in the kitchens to indicate that there is no better way to make an ingredient “end” with another.

However, which ones are the perfect pairings between pasta and sauce?
Here are the AIDEPI’s recommendations!

> Bavette with Genoa pesto or seafood sauce 
> Bucatini “all’amatriciana”, “alla gricia”, with tomato cheese sauces and 
> Conchiglie with tomato or meat sauces
> Fusilli with ragout “a la Neapolitan” or meat sauce
> Lasagne with meat sauces or cheese and vegetables
> Maccheroncini with ragout “à la Neapolitan” or meat sauce
> Mezze maniche with tomato or “alla carbonara”
> Orecchiette with turnip greens, tomato sauce and ricotta cheese
> Paccheri with fish ragout and rich vegetable sauces
> Penne lisce with light seafood and vegetable sauces 
> Rigatoni with meat ragout, rich vegetable or meat sauces
> Spaghetti “alla carbonara”, with tomato, garlic and oil or seafood sauce
> Trofie with Genoa pesto with potatoes and green beans
> Ziti with ragout “à la Neapolitan” or meat sauces

A truly enviable menu!

The ones Hollywood liked the most?

Even Americans love pasta! 77% of Americans eats it at least once a week (33% of them even three times a week) but which ones are the dishes that American movie stars love the most? 

Robert De Niro loves pasta “all’amatriciana”. Penelope Cruz “alla carbonara” (which she said she would eat “at lunch and dinner, essentially all day long”), Gwyneth Paltrow spaghetti with tomato sauce but with a “sauce from a starred restaurant” for which she offers her recipe on her Goop blog.
In the American top list there’s also room for the timeless Cacio e Pepe, named the “coolest” dish by the New York Magazine in 2016. However, there’s a great classic that makes Americans go crazy since the beginning of the past century.

Fettuccine Alfredo! A very simple dish with butter and Parmesan created by the restaurant by the same name in Rome, in Via della Scrofa, “imported” in America and made famous by two well-known stars from the Silent Film era: Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.
Since 1920 the Ristorante Alfredo alla Scrofa has been a point of reference for stars of the Dolce Vita and Hollywood, as many photo shoots clearly show: Sofia Loren, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Bette Davis…

Even now Fettuccine Alfredo are celebrated during the National Fettuccine Alfredo Day.

We Love Pasta!
And You