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Ingredients

In Italian cuisine we still find that love for simplicity, and most Italians prefer dishes minimally processed. Good Italian dishes are always simple: If you have a recipe that requires a staff of professional chefs, or calls for dry herbs and lots of spices, be wary: in most cases it is not genuinely Italian.

So, what is the secret of all those good tasting Italian dishes? Use the best ingredients: good aged imported cheese, excellent extra-virgin olive oil, vinegars, pasta, and rice. Buy the freshest vegetables in season, possibly at the farmers market, and use fresh herbs for the best aroma.

If you are cooking with some of the best food products available you wouldn’t want to cover their taste with any kind of sauce or excessive spices: That is why most Italian recipes have a very short list of ingredients. The final preparation of the Italian recipes is meant to intensify the taste of the primary ingredients: Start with quality ingredients and you wouldn’t want to complicate or overpower the recipe too much.

The pasta recipes that follow — typical of Roman cooking, and in general of central Italy, reflect perfectly these values of simplicity and frugality. At the same time they seem to come out directly from a medieval cookbook. These same dishes, or their close direct descendants, have been used almost unchanged for centuries.

Anna Maria Volpi
© Anna Maria Volpi, 2004

Street musicians at the Osteria. Engraving by B. Pinelli, circa 1830.  It is still very popular in Rome to go to the Castelli (the Castles), which is the term used for the small towns in the countryside over the hills south of Rome. In the local trattorie, often al fresco (in the open air) under a vine pergola, it is possible to enjoy the simple food and wine of the Roman countryside.

Dry pasta has been around since the Middle Ages. At the end of the nineteenth century, mechanization and industrialization made it affordable, largely available, and macaroni became a popular food.

Before the arrival of the tomato, macaroni was dressed simply and almost exclusively with cheese — either parmigiano in the north or “pecorino” sheep cheese in the south. Fried pork fat, maybe “reinforced” by garlic, onion, or herbs would give pasta condiment more flavor: it was an inexpensive and simple food for a country that has been frugal for many centuries.

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Spaghetti alla
Carbonara
Spaghetti with
Egg and Bacon

Spaghetti alla
Amatriciana
Spaghetti with
Tomato and Bacon

Fettuccine alla
Papalina
Fettuccine with
Prosciutto and
Bacon