142 Italian recipes. Page 6 of 6. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Porcini Truffle Mushroom Tagliatelle, Ricotta Spinach Gnudi (Naked Ricotta Dumplings).
The brown water left from soaking dried porcini carries an earthy mushroom flavor through the whole sauce, while a mix of fresh mushrooms provides the bite. White wine, butter and Parmigiano bind it without cream so it clings to wide tagliatelle, and the truffle paste is only a finishing scent.
Without a pasta wrapper, these ricotta and spinach dumplings hold together through moisture control rather than extra flour. Loading the mixture with flour keeps them intact but makes them dense and heavy.
Rendered guanciale fat, not olive oil, carries this Roman sauce. Six to eight minutes over medium-low heat melts the fat out and crisps the edges before the chili, white wine, and hand-crushed tomatoes go in. The tomatoes keep a little texture, and the reduced sauce lodges in the ridges of the rigatoni. Pancetta works when guanciale is hard to find. Both the pork and the Pecorino Romano bring salt, so salt only after tasting.
Roasting the kabocha squash until its edges brown concentrates its sweetness, and once blended it thickens the sauce without any flour. Even with cream and Parmigiano, the sauce stays a bright orange, with nutmeg rounding out the squash flavor. The squash can be roasted a day ahead, and butternut squash works in its place.
Searing the shrimp first, lifting them out and returning them only at the end keeps them tender instead of simmering in cream. The garlic and cream sauce is made in the same pan, and the sweetness of the shrimp lightens the rich Parmesan and cream.
Finely chopped shiitake and button mushrooms stand in for ground meat, and a tablespoon of soy sauce reduced with tomato paste and white wine gives the ragu a salty depth. Mushroom liquid left in the pan is almost always behind a watery sauce. The mushrooms stay on high heat until they stop steaming and brown, and only then does the ragu cling to the wide pappardelle.
Briny olives, salty capers and anchovies, and red pepper flakes all land in the same tomato sauce, which comes out bold and sharply defined after eight minutes of reduction. The spaghetti leaves the water a minute early and finishes in the sauce pan with reserved pasta water over high heat, where the starch binds everything to the strands and leaves no watery pool behind.
The sauce comes almost entirely from the clams. As purged clams open in dry white wine, their briny juices hit the pan, and a minute of hard tossing with olive oil and a few spoonfuls of pasta water binds them into a glossy coating.
Shrimp and squid are cooked only until their surfaces turn white, then left to finish in the simmering tomatoes, where six or seven minutes of gentle heat cooks them through while they stay tender. As the tomato reduces it soaks up the juices the seafood releases.
With no meat in the layers, water hiding in the mushrooms and spinach makes the difference between clean slices and a soggy lasagna. The mushrooms cook until the pan looks dry, while the spinach is only wilted so it keeps some fresh aroma. Foil stays on for the first 25 minutes to heat the layers evenly, then comes off so the mozzarella can brown.
Under foil, the tomato sauce steams the pasta through, so every tube needs to be covered or its exposed edges dry out. The filling should be thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon and packed loosely enough that the tubes do not tear.
With only two thin sheets of fresh pasta around the ricotta and spinach, whether a raviolo survives the pot comes down to the seal. Pressing the top sheet from around the filling outward pushes trapped air to the edges, and the pasta edges need to stay moist while you work or they will not stick. The thin dough needs only three to four minutes in boiling water; any longer and it turns mushy.
Eight grams of squid ink turns the whole sauce jet black and gives it a briny, sea-like flavor. Loosening the ink in pasta water first keeps it from clumping in the pan. Sliced garlic warms slowly over low heat, just long enough to scent the oil before it darkens. Shrimp and squid rings sear only on the outside at the start and stay tender by cooking through during the last toss with the linguine. White wine and halved cherry tomatoes add acidity against the dark, savory ink, and the salt is added by taste rather than all at once.
Inside each jumbo shell, the egg in the ricotta filling sets in the oven and holds the cheese and spinach together as one piece. A generous layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish keeps the shells from drying underneath, and it also props up any shell that tore while boiling. Melted mozzarella and bubbling sauce do not prove the center is hot, so the thickest filling should read at least 74°C on a food thermometer before the dish comes out. A 3-minute stand afterward firms the filling before serving with sauce scooped from the bottom of the dish.
Steamed sweet potato bound with potato starch and a little flour makes softer, sweeter, orange-tinted gnocchi than the potato kind. The steamed sweet potato sits uncovered for a moment to let the steam escape, keeping extra moisture out of the dough. Kneading stops the moment the dough comes together, or the boiled pieces turn dense and chewy. Part of the starch is held back and added only if the dough sticks to your hands, as sweet potatoes vary in moisture. Butter browned with sage until it smells of hazelnut, plus chopped walnuts for crunch, finishes the plate.
Pressed firm tofu mixed into the ricotta makes a lighter filling than ricotta alone, and a pinch of nutmeg ties the spinach and cheese together. When these ravioli burst, the cause is almost always a wet filling: the tofu needs squeezing in cloth until it barely drips, and the blanched spinach needs wringing too. The water stays at a moderate bubble, since a rolling boil can also split the seams. Straight from the pot, the pieces go into sage brown butter before their surfaces dry.
In Emilia-Romagna, small stuffed pasta served in a clear meat broth is closely tied to Christmas and holiday meals. This version keeps it quick with store-bought tortellini and chicken broth: finely diced carrot, celery, and onion simmer for 10 minutes just to perfume the liquid, and the broth stays at a gentle bubble so it remains clear. Grated parmesan finishes each bowl.
Butter, garlic, cream, and Parmesan make up the whole sauce, and the truffle aroma comes entirely from oil stirred in after the heat is off. The garlic warms in butter over low heat and stops before it browns, since browned garlic leaves a harsh edge in the cream. The cream simmers for only about two minutes, until a spatula leaves a brief trail; reduced further, it turns too heavy to coat the fettuccine thinly. Parmesan melts in over lowered heat with steady stirring so it does not clump. Plates go to the table straight from the pan, because the sauce keeps tightening and the truffle scent fades as it cools.
Button mushrooms spread out in a wide pan over high heat give up their liquid and then brown, and that concentrated moisture becomes the savory base before the cream is added. If liquid pools in the pan, a brief pause in stirring lets the bottom dry and the browning start. Before the mushrooms, shallot cooks for about a minute to bring out its sweetness, while garlic gets only a brief turn until fragrant so it stays mellow in the rich cream. The broad, flat tagliatelle ribbons hold a thick sauce well. A small drizzle of truffle oil at the end adds an earthy aroma without taking over the mushrooms.
Long simmering does nothing for the clams. Once the shells open, the job becomes keeping the meat moist: opened clams get pushed to the side of the pan while the spaghetti and a few spoonfuls of pasta water go in, and a minute of tossing over high heat binds the wine-scented clam liquid with the olive oil. The measured salt goes in gradually after tasting, with the already salty clam liquid in mind.
Torn burrata slumps slowly over the hot spaghetti and runs into the juice of cherry tomatoes cooked until they burst. The tartness comes from yuja (Korean citron) marmalade and juice; the marmalade is sweet, so start with a little.
Yuja marmalade joins the lemon and capers of a classic piccata sauce, laying a bittersweet citrus note over the sourness. Chicken breast flattened to 1cm and dusted thinly with flour cooks for 3 minutes a side, enough for a golden crust and a moist middle.