If you are in a hurry but want to cook a lovely meal for your family (or friends), this quick and easy Italian recipe is what you need. Ingredients: 200 g pennette pasta; 100 g ricotta cheese; 300 g mushrooms (chopped and cooked in oil with parsley and garlic); Parmesan cheese.

Method: 1. cook the pasta in slightly salted water. 2. In a bowl mix the ricotta and two or three tablespoons of pasta water. 3. Thrown in the mushrooms, add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and stir. 4. Drain the pasta and stir in the ricotta sauce.

Bon appetit!

Photo | Flickr

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This Italian recipe for rigatoni pasta with sausage and artichokes is delicious and easy to prepare. Here’s what you need:

350 g rigatoni; 120 g ricotta; ½ cup milk; 200 g artichokes; 2 sausages; 1 glass of white wine; 1 garlic clove; extra virgin oil; salt.

In a bowl mix milk and ricotta and beat them until soft and creamy. In the meanwhile place the chopped the sausage in a little oil, add the white wine and cook for a few minutes. Next put the chopped artichokes in a pan, add the garlic and a glass of water and cook until it has evaporated. Pour the milk and ricotta in another pan, throw in the chopped artichokes and sausage and then stir in the cooked rigatoni. Stir for a few minutes and serve.

Photo | E. Michael Smith Chiefio

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We looked at the golden rules as to how to cook the perfect pasta, and today we examine what you’re not “supposed” to do with pasta. This is one for the purists, and although I’m one to experiment with pasta there’s a few things I just won’t do. Feel free to add your “pasta prohibitions” in the comments.

1. Never rinse pasta, cooked or raw. The whole point of leaving pasta starchy and salty is that it subsequently has flavour. If you rinse that all away, it becomes quite boring, not to mention cold.

2. Don’t undercook your pasta - there’s nothing worse than crunchy pasta that sticks to your teeth.

3. Following number two, never overcook your pasta or it becomes something more like what you’d serve to your nonna when she doesn’t have her dentures in. To get it right between two and three, some people follow the instructions on the packet to the letter and will time their pasta with a stop watch, others taste test around about when cooking time is up.

Continue reading: No chicken with pasta: what not to do with pasta

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Looking for a new delicious Italian recipe with which to surprise your friends ? Look no further! Here we have an exquisite recipe for gnocchi with aubergines and scamorza cheese that will have your friends licking their plates!!

Ingredients: ready-made or home-made gnocchi; aubergines, dried scamorza; Parmesan cheese; oil; salt.

Preparation: wash the aubergines, add salt and leave them for a few minutes (the salt will release liquid from the aubergine, so remember to dab it dry with kitchen paper). Next cut the scamorza into cubes and coarsely chop the aubergine. In the meanwhile cook the gnocchi in slightly salted water. In a shallow but large pan, mix together the chopped aubergines, the scamorza cubes and a few tbsp of oil. Sprinkle with salt and stir in the gnocchi. Keep stirring until the cheese has melted. At this point, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve!

Photo | Flickr

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This special Italian recipe for ravioli has been inspired by Federico Fellini‘s famous movie La Dolce vita. I don’t know if you have ever seen the movie starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Eckberg but in one of its scenes the characters are literally gorging themselves on a delicious dish of ravioli! Why not give it a try? Here are the ingredients: 500 g flour; 3 eggs; water ( use four egg shells to measure out the water); 300 ricotta cheese; 200 spinach; 100 g Parmesan cheese; two egg ( for the filling); nutmeg; salt and pepper.

Preparation: place the flour in a mould and then make a well in it. Next add water and eggs and start working it with your hands. Roll out the dough and cut into rounds. In the meanwhile prepare the filling by mixing together boiled spinach, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, salt and grated nutmeg. Done this, place a spoonful of it in the centre of the round and then lay a second round on the filling. Remember to firmly press the edges together to seal. At this point boil in slightly salted water and serve with melted butter.

Foto | Flickr

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Today is international “Tagliatelle Day” when the world celebrates one of Italy’s greatest types of pasta. Around the world, more than 1000 Italian chefs will make original pasta recipes based on the traditional Italian dish from Bologna, of “tagliatelle al ragù”. Normally known as Bolognese sauce in English, ragù is the traditional name of the mince sauce that we all enjoy, most traditionally prepared with tagliatelle and not spaghetti.

Part of the purpose behind the Tagliatelle Day is to educate the public about the bastardisation of Italian products around the world, and the ignoble attempts at copying Italian cuisine. And our ignorance contributes to the use of products that are not traditionally Italian, and that do not follow the strict health and cultural production guidelines.

The idea came from the GVCI, or Gruppo Virtuale Cuochi Italiani, which is an online group of Italian chefs founded back in 2001, which includes 1,000 professional chefs from 70 countries around the world.

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A classic Italian seafood recipe appearing as a pasta dish, is “spaghetti alle vongole”, and today we try another version of “vongole”, or clams, but with chilli. It’s an easy recipe to make and is fantastic for summer evenings. It puts me in mind of more than one summer holiday in Italy.

For two people you’ll need: 200 grams of spaghetti, a little olive oil, the seeds of two chillis, a tablespoon of pesto sauce, as many clams as you want, one garlic clove, half a glass of white wine, a little parsley and some large grain salt.

Cook the pasta as you would normally, in plenty of salty water, and in the meantime make the sauce. In a large, non-stick pan, add some olive oil, the chopped garlic clove and the clams. Make sure the clams have been cleaned.

Toss and stir the sauce for a couple of minutes, then add the wine and allow it to evaporate. Add the pesto and the chilli seeds and mix well. Drain the pasta and toss it in the pan with the clam sauce. Dust with a little freshly chopped parsley and serve very hot. Buon appetito!

Photo | Flickr

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Another easy and quick Italian recipe for you. It will be ready in no time and I‘m sure it will soon become a family favourite!

Ingredients: 200 g pasta; pancetta or bacon; 1/2 onion; 1 sausage; 1 teaspoon sour cream; two tablespoons tomato sauce; oil; chopped parsley; salt and white pepper.

Directions: brown the finely chopped onion in a little oil and then add the chopped sausage. Next stir in the bacon and cook until crispy . In the meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente, drain and throw in the pan. At this point pour in the sour cream and tomato sauce and stir vigorously for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with white pepper and parsley.

Photo | Flickr

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The beauty of many pasta dishes is that you can get very creative with what is a traditional Italian recipe. If you want to experiment with something more elaborate, you can try this version of Italian seafood, of pasta with lobster or crayfish. It’s perfect for a special occasion where you can show off your culinary skills.

Ingredients required: a medium-sized lobster, 200 grams of spaghetti (for two people), plenty of parsley, half a glass of dry white wine, one spring onion, olive oil, pepper and salt. For advice on the amount of pasta to use, see our post on the cooking the perfect pasta dish.

This recipe uses the lobster not only for its flavour, but also its decorative qualities on the plate. You can either use a fresh lobster, or a frozen one that has already been cooked so that all you need to do is re-heat it in boiling salty water. Cook the spaghetti in boiling water, and in the meantime chop up the spring onion and heat in a non-stick pan with the olive oil. Add the wine and allow it to evaporate. Cut the lobster exactly in half, leaving the flesh in the shell.

Place the lobster in the pan with the other ingredients to heat it for another couple of minutes Remove the lobster from the pan, drain the spaghetti and then place it in the pan, tossing well with the other ingredients and adding some pepper and parsley. Serve the spaghetti, placing the lobster on top. This tasty dish should be served quite hot.

Photo | Flickr

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This easy and quick Italian recipe will solve your dinner dilemma! Here are the ingredients for this superb focaccia:

500g flour; 25 g yeast;1 teaspoon sugar; 1 glass of warm water; lard, creamy cheese ( emmentaler, fontina and tilist would be perfect!)

Directions: mix yeast and two tablespoon of warm water and then add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Next sift the flour and gradually add the warm water. Work the dough into a ball and than place in a warm place for one hour. After that, roll the dough into two rounds. At this point, put the cheese and lard on the first disc and then place the second atop the filling and firmly press the edges together to seal! Bon appetit!

Photo | Flickr

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