Unbelievable, but true: pasta is such a popular dish that it even has its own personal holiday, which is called Pasta Day, which is celebrated on October 25th. There are several versions of the origin of this holiday. The first one says that in 1995, at the World Pasta Congress in Rome, it was decided to dedicate an international holiday to the legendary dish - so October 25 was proclaimed as Pasta Day. According to another version, the date of the celebration is timed to coincide with the birthday of Christopher Columbus - it was this great navigator who could not live a day without this dish.
At the moment, there are more than 500 types of pasta and an innumerable number of recipes based on it. We have selected four amazing recipes from four completely different, vibrant and unique Italian regions, so that you can be transported on this holiday to the Adriatic coast, or to the foothills of the Alps, to the streets of Milan or the green meadows of Abruzzo, while staying in your favorite cuisine.
Gnocchi on pumpkin cream
Advice from De Cecco expert, Antonio Cuomo:
“So that such a delicate and fragile product like gnocchi does not lose its shape when heated, the Italians use the method of“thermal shock”when cooking them: after cooking, the finished dumplings are transferred straight into a bowl of ice water and ice cubes. After a few minutes of this cooling, the gnocchi become more elastic and dense. Now you can drain the water, add the sauce and enjoy the resulting dish to the fullest."
Ingredients:
Ready-made gnocchi - 1 pack
Cheese sauce:
Cream - 250 g, Parmesan cheese - 150 g (grated), salt
Pumpkin sauce:
Pumpkin - 250 g (diced), onion - 50 g, salt
Preparation:
Pumpkin sauce. Chop and sauté the onion in olive oil, add pumpkin, salt, a little water and cook until tender. Then transfer everything to a blender and grind until creamy
Place a large pot of salted water on the stove and, when the water boils, toss the gnocchi into it. When the gnocchi float to the surface, boil them for 2-3 minutes and place in a colander or sieve to remove any remaining water.
Cheese sauce. Put cream, grated Parmesan and salt into a frying pan. Cook over low heat until smooth, creamy. If desired, you can add black ground pepper to the sauce.
Transfer the gnocchi to the skillet with the Parmesan sauce and cook until tender. Put the pumpkin base on a plate, in the center - gnocchi in cheese sauce. Sprinkle everything with fresh pepper and garnish with a basil leaf.
Broccoli pasta
Ingredients:
Cannelloni De Cecco - 12 pcs., Tomatoes - 2 pcs., Red onion - 1 large, garlic - 1 medium, eggplant - 2 pcs., Basil - half a bunch, Parmesan cheese - 70 g, olive oil - 50 g, salt, pepper - to taste, parsley - half a bunch,
Preparation:
Boil the cannelloni paste until al dente. We throw it into a colander, let the water drain for 3 - 5 minutes. Lay the cannelloni gently on a plate, let it cool.
While the pasta cools down, we'll tackle the onions. Clean, cut the onion into small strips and fry it in olive oil. The main thing is that the onion does not burn, stir it.
Peel the eggplants. We cut them into cubes. Throw them to the onion and simmer without water with the lid closed for 10 minutes.
Add the skinless tomatoes to the pan. We simmer further for another 10 minutes, look at the situation, we should get a stew of vegetables. The stew should be thick so that it does not spill out of the pasta when stuffing.
Stuff the cannelloni with stewed vegetables, put the vegetables in the pasta with a teaspoon.
We put the already stuffed cannelloni in a baking dish greased with olive oil.
Finely chop the basil and parsley greens, sprinkle the cannelloni on top, salt, pepper, squeeze the garlic evenly. Mode tomato thin slices and put on top. Drizzle with olive oil.
Put the mold in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, let our pasta bake. Grate the parmesan cheese. Sprinkle evenly over the pasta and place in the oven for another 10 minutes. Once the cheese has melted, the dish is ready.
Photo: Getty Images
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