Giuliano Hazan’s Favorite Pastas of All Time
My mother, Marcella Hazan, once said that if Scheherazade were an Italian girl, she might have survived by enticing the Sultan with a different pasta dish each day. She would never run out of possibilities. One day pasta with clams, the next with zucchini and saffron, the next a Bolognese ragù, and so on.
Growing up in an Italian household, I ate pasta several times a week. And now, if too much time goes by without a good dish of pasta, there is a sadness that comes over me. Pasta is also one of the easiest meals to make. In most cases it takes about the same time as it does to boil water and cook the pasta. Often, simply opening the refrigerator inspires me to create a pasta sauce, such as the peppers and pancetta sauce for fusilli below.
When I’m teaching a cooking class, I always tell my students that a pasta sauce is meant be a seasoning for pasta, not something that you would want to eat on its own. That is why, almost without exception, pasta sauces cook uncovered to concentrate and intensify flavors. Vegetables need to be cooked very tender to extract maximum flavor and sweetness. Jumbo shrimp sitting on top of a bowl of pasta are not a sauce for pasta. They may be perfectly good on their own, but they are not doing anything for the pasta. And we do not over-sauce pasta, because it would be like adding excessive seasoning to something.
With that in mind, I invite you to try a few of my favorite pastas of all time. Buon appetito!
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Drew Aichele1/10Fusilli With Sausage and Leeks
The leeks in this dish are cooked until very tender and sweet, making savory sausage a perfect accompaniment. I cut the leeks into long strips, because I love how they wrap themselves around the pasta. Plain pork sausage is best here, so avoid the so-called Italian sausage with fennel seeds. Bratwurst is a very good alternative.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Toni Brogan3/10Linguine With Crab, Arugula, and Fresh Tomato
While I was living in Portland, Oregon, I fell in love with Dungeness crab. Its meaty, sweet flesh is perfectly suited to this pasta sauce that I recalled eating at a restaurant in Positano. The mild pepperiness of the arugula and the sweetness of the fresh tomato and crab make a superb combination of flavors.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Sean Dooley4/10My Mother's Butter, Tomato, and Onion Sauce
No list of my favorite pastas would be complete without this dish. I vividly remember eating my mother’s iconic tomato, butter, and onion sauce often at the family table. I also remember hoping I would get some of the delicious, sweet onion pieces. Although my mother says to discard the onion before serving in her recipe, it is too good to throw away. This is my go-to dinner when I return home after being away traveling. Just smelling its aroma unfailingly elicits feelings of comfort and well-being.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Toni Brogan5/10Penne With Spinach and Ricotta
Reminiscent of one of my favorite filled pastas, this is a luscious, creamy spinach sauce with barely a hint of actual cream in it. This pasta is great for a weeknight; you can have dinner on the table in the time it takes for the pasta to cook.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Simon Andrews6/10Al Cantunzein’s Pappardelle With Sausage and Peppers
This dish is inextricably connected to one of the best pasta restaurants ever, Cantunzein in Bologna. Eating there was a pasta lover’s dream: You were served a seemingly endless series of pasta dishes until you told them to stop. This was one of my favorite pastas I had there. Sadly, the restaurant closed in 1977. I was still a teenager, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Drew Aichele7/10Fusilli Lunghi alla Rustica
This pasta sauce is made with onion, pancetta, bell pepper, tomatoes, olives, capers, oregano, and basil. Although it is unusual for an Italian recipe to have so many ingredients, what is very Italian about this dish is that the flavor of each ingredient is discernible and contributes to a balanced, harmonious, and delicious pasta sauce.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton8/10Spaghetti alla Carbonara With Zucchini
Zucchini adds freshness and lightness to this classic Roman dish, where hot spaghetti gets tossed vigorously with raw egg yolks and cheese to make a creamy pasta without using any cream. One popular origin story claims that American soldiers during WWII ordered bacon and sunny side up eggs with a side of spaghetti at a Roman trattoria. They tossed everything together and (supposedly) Carbonara was born.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Simon Andrews9/10Fusilli With Peppers and Pancetta
The sweet flavor of peppers and the savory notes of pancetta are just meant to go together. The key here is to peel the peppers, which enables their sweetness to come through. Though it may seem daunting to peel peppers raw, it is quite easy if you use a slicing side to side motion with the blade of the peeler.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Drew Aichele10/10Spaghetti With Melon
Melon with pasta? As strange as it may sound, it is absolutely delicious, and few people will be able to guess the main ingredient of this unusual sauce. There are two secret ingredients that transform the fruit: tomato paste and lemon juice. Seasoning the sauce generously with salt and pepper is also essential.
