Pasta, basta! Italy's famous pasta

A plate of pasta is happiness with a meal. Italy's pasta is a global export hit. There are more than 600 varieties, here is our ranking of the ten most famous pasta varieties from Italy!

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10th place - Gnocchi

a person grating cheese on a gnocchi — **Gnocchi made from potato dough usually look like small cushions with grooves**
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There are two methods of making gnocchi:

made from potato dough. Strictly speaking, this variant is not a classic pasta from Italy, as it is not made of durum wheat semolina. This Gnocchi-Sorte looks like small pads with grooves.
made from pasta dough with durum wheat semolina. This Gnocchi-Sorte often looks like small bowls.

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9th place - Fusilli

Plate fusilli — **A full load of sauce with fusilli**
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According to legend, this pasta is a coincidence. Legend has it that a boy's pasta dough falls on the floor. He gives the lump of dough to his grandmother. She is said to have made the first fusilli with a knitting needle.

Fusilli are spiral-shaped noodles. They have been known since the middle of the 16th century. Fusilli can absorb sauce particularly well because of their shape. This type of pasta from Italy is often used for pasta salad.

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8th place - Tagliatelle

crop woman with delicious pasta in plate — **In Italy there is traditionally tagliatelle al ragù instead of spaghetti Bolognese**
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Tagliatelle (from the Italian word tagliare, "cut") are noodles shaped like a flat ribbon, hence the name "ribbon noodles".

Tagliatelle are easily connected with Fettucine but are slightly wider. Fettucine from the Abruzzo, Tagliatelle come from Emilia-Romagna.

Tagliatelle are said to have been invented in the 15th century. According to legend, the court chef is inspired by the magnificent hair of Princess Lucrezia Borgia. For her wedding to Alfonso d'Este, the ribbon noodles were shaped as nests for the first time.

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Which pasta goes with which sauce?

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7th place - Cannelloni

photograph of a dish with tomato sauce — **Cannelloni comes in many variations, here with spinach filling**
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The name Cannelloni means "little tubes". The durum wheat pasta is made by rolling cooked sheets of dough.

Chef Nicola Federico invents the world-famous pasta in 1907 in the restaurant "La Favorita" in Sorrento in the Gulf of Naples in Italy. The rolled pasta quickly becomes famous throughout the country. The name Cannelloni However, it was not until after the Second World War that it was given a new lease of life.

PASTA FROM ITALY: Which sauce goes with which pasta?

How the noodle is shaped shows which sauce goes best. More generally:

The wider the noodle, the thicker and chunkier the sauce can be.
Oil-based sauces adhere well to twisted pasta.
Long, thin pasta goes well with smooth sauces and pesto.
With stuffed pasta, the filling plays the main role. Often there is only butter and sage.

6th place - Tortellini

close up photo of tortellini — **Round and with a hole in the middle: the classic shape of tortellini**
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Tortellini means "small cakes". The ring-shaped, filled pasta has a diameter of about 2 centimetres. Invented in Emilia-Romagna. A very special pasta from Italy...

The cities of Modena and Bologna have been fighting for centuries over the copyrights of Tortellini. Which is definite: Tortellini have existed since the Middle Ages. The historian Cervellati writes that the "Tortellum ad Natale" can already be found on Christmas tables in Bologna in the twelfth century.

The difference between Modenese and Bolognese Tortellini is the meat content, which is higher in Modena. In Bologna, the meat is also added raw. In Modena Tortellini closed around the index finger, in Bologna around the little finger.

5th place - Ravioli

ravioli and its ingredients — **Stuffed pasta: ravioli, shown here uncooked**
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The word Ravioli comes from the old Italian word "riavvolgere". It means to wrap or wrap up. In contrast to Tortellini they are rather flat and "without a hole".

The word Ravioli first appears in writing in Cremona, Lombardy, in the 13th century. Pasta fillings were considered high culinary art at the time. Maestro Martino, a cooking star of the Middle Ages, includes ravioli in his collection of recipes. A new pasta variety for Italy.

There are also written mentions in England in the 14th century of Ravioli. Historians assume that this variant, however, was based on the Italian Ravioli based.

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4th place - Penne

plate of pasta — **You can also eat creamy sauces well with penne, like here with mushrooms**
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At Penne the ends of the noodles are cut at an angle like a quill. Penne are often associated with Rigatoni confused with rigatoni. Rigatoni, however, have a larger diameter and are cut straight at the end.

3rd place - Maccheroni, the prince of pasta from Italy

Maccheroni from Italy — **Slightly curved tubular noodles: the classic *Maccheroni* from Italy**
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Presumably the Maccheroni invented in Sicily. In 1154, the geographer Al-Idrisi, researching at the court of King Roger II, describes the customs of the Sicilian population. This also includes the making of Maccaruni.

2nd place - Lasagne, the queen of pasta from Italy

lasagna putting on white plate — **One of Italy's favourite dishes: lasagne...**
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The first written Lasagne-recipe in Italy is found in an anonymous manuscript from the 14th century. Since 1370 at the latest Lasagne prepared in Italy similar to the recipe still in use today - in several layers. At the time, Marchione di Coppo Stefani, who has to count the plague dead in Florence, writes: "The dead are layered like lasagne in the graves."

1st place - Spaghetti, the king of pasta from Italy

food hands texture pasta — ***Spaghetti al Pomodoro*outside Italy *Spaghetti Napoli***
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Export hit Spaghetti. In the 12th century, the geographer Al-Idrisi writes that threads of wheat are cooked near Palermo, Sicily. Furthermore, he reports an extensive export of these Itryah pasta throughout the Mediterranean region. The first written record of Spaghetti.

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