Italian food is a hot favorite with most women. Italian food has a lot too offer just like Italian women - think Sophia Loren and Monica Bellucci and you’ll get the delicious picture. If you thought that Italian food was all about the pizzas and spaghettis, well then, its time for a Italian basics class. Welcome to Italia!
Start With: Pasta
Fettuccine
Long like spaghetti, fettuccine is a much thicker alternative. This is a very popular choice, usually ordered with either Alfredo or a vegetable sauce such as marinara or primavera. Not to be had on a first date, this pasta is even harder to eat in a clean manner than spaghetti.
Rigatoni
Shaped like a sliced water hose and measuring roughly an inch in length, rigatoni is usually served with a red sauce, and topped off with basil and parsley.
Penne
Penne looks like a scaled-down or miniature-sized rigatoni. A very popular choice for a few reasons: it is very easy to eat and is relatively light. Arrabbiata sauce is a great one to accompany it. Order it 'al dente,' for a slightly chewy texture.
Stuff It With
Tortellini
If you like stuffed pasta, tortellini is one of your choices. This circular-shaped pasta is usually stuffed with meat, cheese or spinach. Meat-stuffed tortellini goes well with a tomato sauce (I obviously still insist on meat sauce...), cheese-stuffed tortellini goes well with a meat sauce, and spinach-stuffed tortellini is recommended with either tomato or meat sauce.
Ravioli
Similar to tortellini, ravioli is stuffed with the above-mentioned ingredients. Whereas tortellini is circular in shape, ravioli is square-shaped. Tortellini also has less pasta per ingredient than ravioli, which has a tendency to be heavier on pasta.
Top It With: Cheese
Parmesan
Parmesan is an Italian hard cheese originating in the city of Parma and made from cow's milk. Parmesan most often accompanies pasta in grated form.
Romano
Romano is also an Italian hard cheese. Made from sheep's milk instead (again, Pasta Jeopardy! question, I promise you) and often used in grated form, Romano is similar to Parmesan cheese in form, but saltier in flavor.
Bring Out The Italian Flavor: Sauces
Alfredo
Alfredo sauce combines cream, a touch of cheese, and a slight hint of oil. Alfredo sauce is the choice to accompany fettuccini.
Carbonara
Perhaps my favorite sauce, Carbonara means charcoal. The first time I had the meal, our waiter Vincenzo informed me that this culinary wonder was created by coal miners and included eggs, pancetta, cream, and Parmesan. I asked why his fine establishment replaced pancetta with bacon. A less expensive substitute, bacon also adds a smoky flavor. Most often, the Carbonara comes down to Alfredo sauce with mushrooms and bacon (or maybe Vincenzo knows how much I like mushrooms and adds them for me).
Marinara
Marinara is a traditional Italian vegetable sauce made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and olive oil.
Bolognese
This is basically a meat sauce that takes Marinara sauce and extends it by adding ground beef. Pretty good, especially with non-meat stuffed pastas.
Primavera
Now for our vegetarian contingency, primavera is a pasta sauce made with vegetables like carrots, celery and bell peppers. Fettuccini Primavera is a great example of this healthy dish.
Arrabbiatta
Arrabbiatta sauce -- a good one to accompany penne -- consists of tomatoes, hot chilies and you guessed it, garlic. Arrabbiatta comes from the Abruzzese town of Amatrice. You can thank me for that later if you ever end up on Pasta Jeopardy!
Always With: Wine
Any Italian meal is not complete without a nice bottle or two of wine. Since both white and red wines go well with Italian food, the choice usually comes down to which sauce one takes (and to a certain extent, which pasta).
Red wine goes with any meat-stuffed pasta, given that these are usually served with a red sauce. Moreover, it is a good general rule to choose a red wine with any red sauce. An incredible example of an Italian red wine is a 1998 Villagiachi Chianti Classico from the Tuscany region in Italy.
You guessed it; conversely, white wine is a good choice for primavera sauces, white and especially seafood pasta. A very good example of a white wine to accompany lighter pasta dishes is 1998 Zamo & Zamo Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy.
If you think that you are bloated by now, you are correct. Bon Appetito…
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