Lidia’s Five Essential Simple Pasta Recipes

Going through my archives I’ve chosen my five favorite, time-saving – and money-saving – simple pasta recipes. These dishes are all delicious – and most can be made with items you can easily find in your pantry and fridge – they are my go-to recipes when it seems like you have nothing In the house for dinner. Buon Appetito! #LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen #LidiaBastianich #ItalianFood #25YearsofLidia #FromLidiasTableToYours #LidiasSoundtrack @AccademiadeiCento #centofinefoods

00:00 – Intro
00:15 – Spaghetti with Quick Pantry Sauce
05:46 – Bucatini with Pancetta, Tomato and Onion
13:45 – Olive Oil & Rosemary Spaghettini
18:45 – Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe
22:55 – Spaghetti with Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with Quick Pantry Sauce – The truth is, Italians have many simple pasta–sauce recipes that exist only because the ingredients were handy. This recipe falls into that category; it is convenient, economical, and full of flavor, because cured products like olives, capers, and anchovies intensify in flavor during the curing process. https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/spaghetti-quick-pantry-sauce/

Bucatini with Pancetta, Tomato and Onion – This classic and delectable pasta dish features lots of onions; chips of guanciale (cured pork cheek, now available in the United States), pancetta, or bacon; and San Marzano tomatoes are the essential elements of the sauce, Roma style. Enjoy. https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/bucatini-with-pancetta-tomato-and-onion/

Olive Oil & Rosemary Spaghettini – This is a perfect example of a minimal-ingredient recipe that is delicious and easy. You will often see rosemary used in flavoring meats and roasts, because it has such an intense and rich flavor. But in this recipe, cooked in some butter to release its aroma, it makes a perfect sauce for spaghetti. Be sure to top it with some grated cheese. https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/olive-oil-rosemary-spaghettini/

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe – Here is a classic pasta, as delicious as it is simple and fast. But because it is such a minimalist creation every ingredient is of utmost importance. Use a very good authentic Pecorino Romano. And grind the black peppercorns just before making the dish—I like to crush the black pepper by hand in a mortar, into coarse bits that explode with flavor as I enjoy the pasta. https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/spaghetti-crushed-black-pepper-pecorino-cheese/

Spaghetti with Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce – If you travel through southern Italy during the summer you are bound to find some rendition of this dish in every town. Delicious and simple to assemble, it will be sure to become one of your favorites.

Spaghetti with Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

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Well it’s back to the cupboard for another one of those simple and delicious three ingredient pasta dishes so by the time it takes to cook this spaghetti we’ll have the sauce ready so let’s start cooking the pasta let’s put some salt you need some salt otherwise the flavor of the pasta itself really

Never comes forth so long pasta I always tell you let it sink in and then you begin to mix it otherwise you’ll break it so and let’s start with our sauce a little bit of olive oil and so I have here garlic of course is a good beginning garlic is [Applause]

Always can do it sliced crushed can do it chopped okay I think that’s enough and then unovis and chois are a wonderful flavoring agent whether it’s in sauces whether it’s in Brazing in roasting I put them all over you know you say o on chovies but if you put just

A little bit nobody will know and it’ll give you that much more flavor so if you put them like that you chop them up lightly and you put them right in the oil they will disintegrate and be part of the sauce here I have some nice GAA olives

Without the pits and I like my olives not the ones that have the hole where they removed the pit way before and then it sits in this Briny solution and all the flavors come out I like the pit taken out just before I cook of course

The little tomatoes and I like my san Marano plum Tomatoes I kind of like chunky tomatoes in my sauces and some of the sauces this doesn’t have a lot of texture uh otherwise of course you can pass the tomatoes to a food mill and that really gets it nice and creamy let’s put in some olives so that we build the

Flavor oh yeah all of it that’s great Capers you like Capers I like Capers Capers are a wonderful little sort of a walop of flavor M the aroma is really great so you see how simple this you can get it in your cupboard your olives your Capers your Tomatoes your anchovies

Oil pasta it’s all out of the cupboard and those nights that you really worked hard and you’re coming home what am I going to have don’t just open up plastic of something half an hour you’re done a little peperon Chino let this simmer so you know you’re somewhat

Removed by that camera from me but the Aromas in here are just fantastic and it is the garlic and then is the toastiness kind of the olives you can almost taste the acidity of the and the sweetness of the tomatoes so it’s a great Mediterranean Harmony of flavors and

It’s all out of a cupboard that’s the amazing part all right the sauce is at the perfect consistency here let me look at the pasta the pasta is perfect so you know you know what I always do I get the pasta right out I don’t rinse my pasta I just get it right

From the water into the sauce little bit of D so it finishes cooking in the sauce itself back to the to the Heat and let the pasta just kind of finish cooking and absorb just lower it a little bit not too high M wow see how beautiful how simple it looks

Like you’ve been at the stove all day a little bit of fresh olive oil just some parsley sometimes we are so concerned about chopping The Parsley perfectly no coarsely chopped fast chopping you can do this okay let me give it one twirl like this you have such

Intense flavors here the flavor of the olives it’s the anovi it’s the garlic it’s the Tomato so you have plenty of flavors here so I think we are ready to taste so you know just get yourself a nice tongue fools our chefs we love our tongues you know

It’s like the extension of our fingers because I think some of the best tools in the kitchen are your hands just a little bit of sace on TP and I wanted to taste this you know like I always do and let you know what’s happening so let me

Taste delicios it is delicious it is complex the pasta is just well then the nice and acidity a nice tinge from the pepperoncino the olives the capers in the background the enois are somewhere there they had complexity an easy dish with your cupboard ingredients we’ve had such great times together in Rome Tanya

And I and I know I can always conjure them up with my next dish butin Latana one of Rome’s most famous pasta and there is a little difference in the way this pasta cooking begins and this is traditional way back and that is that you begin to cook the onion when you

Make the sauce with a little bit of water and you take the hot water from the water that you have ready for the pasta and you just add the onions and you let them simmer in there when the water evaporates completely we will let the oil and proceed

Now the main ingredient of the amatria sauce is the bacon or the gual or the Panetta whichever one you have but traditionally in Rome they use the gual so what is the Guan chal guancha is the cheek so it’s the cured Joel of the pork

And it is cured with salt and aged but but you can see the difference between The Panetta and the Guan chal so we have it here let’s use the Guan chal and you cut it not too thin you want to be able to get the feeling of the bacon under your

Teeth so you can see that they’re roll it up in curing it and it’s easier to handle okay And we have this ready that’s enough I will just crush the garlic okay let me put the bucatini to cook pot of boiling water salted and the bucatini you want them long the Italians I can’t stress enough like their pasta long do not to break their pasta and as

The bucatini are settling in there they will give way and you will be able to mix them so just let them settle in do not crack them do not break them the onions are welted the water has evaporated and I will add some oil Now set it to the side add the

Garlic let that caramelize add the Guan chal and again I put it separately because I wanted to render rather than to mix in with the onions who have a lot of moisture and I wanted to render the Guan chal into crunchy little pieces but not overcooked I will add a little bit of

Peperon Chino actually not so little because Amat Chana is gutsy we’re in Rome a little bit of salt to the onions because the guala is cured is salted okay and we’ll let that caramelize now this all gets cooked in a tomato sauce a Matana is tomatoes peel tomatoes theatri

Also is called n sal sal Pomodoro it is used with a fetto Pomodoro so what is fetto fetto is a strip so it is the way you cut your Tomatoes you want to cut them in a strip just like that so if you’re using canned tomatoes and by all

Means it’s very acceptable before you add it just cut them in a strip the Guan chal is ready let’s add the tomato and and all of its juice we let this simmer Away by the time the bucatini are cooked the sauce will be ready okay the bucatini are

Done the sauce is just right let me drain it well put it right into the sauce now the bucatini is a pasta that continues to move as you’re cooking it as you’re eating it that’s the fun of bucatini op perelli and you know it’s really a fun

Pasta and the Romans love their bucatini patelli it’s another element of excitement in their plate the spices the pasta itself okay done okay so now let it just finished cooking together and absorbing the sauce shut off the fire like I always tell you and then you add your cheese

And of course when in Rome you add Pino peino Romano but all of Italy the sun in Italy produces pecorino which is a sheep’s milk cheese and they enjoy it so the pecorino is intense you know sheep milk cheese it’s more intense the cows milk and now this little capricious

Pasta here just let it down and give it a Twist so it has that sort of nest look again ah wait a few minutes so if any strands will fall they will fall and you put it on give it a Twist Again and you can see how it’s

Flowing a little bit of sauce I want a piece of Guan Chala there maybe a little more sauce okay and some last pecorino and with this zesty sauce I chose a Monte Pano a varietal that’s fruity that’s not too complex I think it’ll compliment beautifully so

Let me taste it for you now again just twist your pasta like that pick it up take a look and if it’s not all rolled up you go once more but patelli will continue to unfurl if you will so let me taste it for you delicios

Another little bite let me taste the the actual Guan chal nice gutsy nice bite it’s sort of stands up to those squirming perellis delicious dish quick pasta dish capalini but they’re not that easy to handle they’re so thin that they overcook so if you watch carefully you will know how to

Cook your capalini the water is boiling with salt I’m going to going to wait a while to throw in the capalini because I want to get the the sauce uh started and the sauce is really really simple again this is really one of those recipes that

You know you have nothing in the house and yet you have a great meal in the making little bit of butter and you could do it with all butter but I like to mix with a little bit of oil the uh Aroma here is Rosemary just peel the the needles the

Rosemary leaves needles right off just like that so now they’re releasing their flavor right in here so while that’s happening let’s throw in the capalini just throw them right in sort of give them an opportunity to relax in there do not mix them right now because they’re still stiff they’ll

Crack on you now to make the sauce here we’ll take take just a little bit of the pasta water you know I always tell you that pasta water is very useful right here and you have a sauce believe it or not this is a very aromatic and

Flavorful sauce I mean you know the Aromas really are permeating the whole kitchen the capalini are kind of loosening up look they’re still 1 minute more and I will get them right out of here and I’m going to finish cooking them in the sauce there and that’s the

Secret let’s take the sauce here so you see that the capalini are still they have a Bend they’re not flopping they still have a bend and I’m going to put them right like that into my sauce and that’s the whole secret of cooking capalini properly now of course you need

To do this close to the time that you want to serve it but you see how it’s kind of running around in the pan you see it’s not sticky it’s not uh really bending over I think I’m going to need a little bit more of the pasta water going

To finish cooking right in the pan and I’m going to leave it just like this uncovered so that you see how it sort of folds in now I have time to chop some parsley whatever else I want to put in there I think a little bit of Parsley let’s continue to cook see the capalini are bending in we will need a little bit more of the pasta water so whenever you’re cooking pasta for that certainly the capalini you need to reserve quite a bit of of the pasta water but whenever you’re cooking pasta never discard all of the

Pasta cooking water it’s a lifesaver at the end when you’re pulling together your your recipe because when the pasta needs a little more cooking when it is stuck together the pasta water is what saves the day so you see how the capalini are folding into the sauce and

I’m looking at it you know I could I use a little bit of more condent yeah I could use a little bit more of the butter kind of the last minute condiment so this is just about cooked you can see that the pasta is cooked

It’s still a little Al Dent I’m still in control I’m going to throw the parsley right in there and I’m going to close the fire I don’t need the fire anymore leave it nice and juicy a little bit remember still cooking I close the fire I’ll put the

Cheese so I am just about ready let me let me taste some for you and so you can see that it’s still alente is not that sticky mush that sometimes capalini have a tendency to do let me taste them still have a little bit of resilience that’s what I want in the capalini

Delicious simple few flavors rosemary butter cheese and then the capalini that kind of they still have a little bite and you know I love that a quick dish but a great dish and you know what you learn how to cook let’s begin cooking the Tacho paper and you let the spaghetti just

Sink in there you definitely do not want to break them just give it a twirl okay and that will cook while we just assemble the ingredients because the ingredients need no cooking but what you do need is a lot of pepper and black pepper even though Roman cooking is exemplified in a sense

By peperoncino here they really feature the black pepper black pepper is not indigenous to Italy and therefore it’s a special treat and so here cracked but coarsely cracked so one way of cracking it is with a little sort of sauté pan and you just pressure you can see how it’s

Breaking another way is with a good Peppermill and you need to open up a little bit so it really grinds coarsely let me open a little more and that’s fine the one one important element is that you grind your pepper just before using it so that you have that

Freshness the coarseness of the pepper is just the way I like it for that matter the way the Romans like it when you eat this dish you really get those kernels under your tooth and it sort of cracks it’s just wonderful so let’s check on the pasta it is

Ready and you can drain the pasta just don’t overd drain it but you know I like to just pull my pasta off just like that and a little bit of water actually you need for this dish just a little bit of the pasta water so don’t overd drain that’s good so

Just a little bit of the pasta water and we’ll begin to mix and add the cheese the pecorino in this case Pino Romano as you’re mixing it it’s making a sauce and you want to see those Speckles of cheese sort of Clinging On to the Spaghetti okay let me just now let Me mhm just a little more this and just a little bit more of the pasta water when you see that the pasta is really sort of sticking together you don’t want that it still flows and you see those specks of the cheese right in there okay the aroma

Because you know the heat just releases all those wonderful Aromas from the picino itself and now slowly you just fold in and lots of pepper you need to see it all speckled and again of course you can adjust that you know this is the simplest version of

This dish and I’m twirling it because I want to collect all the cheese that’s stuck to the bowl I want it on the pasta wow I’m going to taste some put some more pepper on it put some more cheese and I have myself some fresh cat you know this delightful Light wine that

Just goes wonderful with this let me taste this for You and pasta long I love it and you know that Italians don’t use a spoon to eat their long pasta you see what I’m doing pick it up you look at it you give it another twirl and that’s it and then you enjoy I give you a lot of recipes but

This is one one of those that I know you’re going to make your own and you’re going to continue making it and your family is going to love it and it is pasta con Pomodori alno so any pasta I’m going to make spaghetti just because I

Want to make it quick and I love spaghetti but Tomatoes alno is the sauce so you get some Tomatoes nice ripe Tomatoes especially when they’re in season you add some salt to this as simple as that breadcrumbs olive oil and you toss it the tomatoes are all coated with this luscious olive oil

And breadcrumbs so just like that the tomatoes are ready to be put in a slow oven 3 100° for about a half an hour if it takes maybe 45 minutes depends let them dry and let the bread toast on them they should look something like this let’s begin with the sauce

Oil so how do you gauge olive oil olive oil is gauged by its OIC acidity uh if it’s under 1% is extra virgin if it’s from 1 to 3% is Virgin Olive Oil and the rafter is just plain olive oil and you pay accordingly the oleic acid what it

Means is that it contains uh impurities such as tannins or pulp of the olives so uh the the extra virgin is pure and it’s more of the real flavor of that and you’re paying more for that so if you are paying uh a nice amount for that

Extra virgin olive oil you don’t want to uh really use that olive oil all over you want to use it at the end in important places like right now because the ingredients that you have is olive oil garlic and the tomatoes and we have our sauce little papon

Chino okay and now we’re going to hear a a little be [Laughter] careful okay and this this is what makes the sauce the pasta water we’ll shred in some basil just like that okay okay the pasta is cooked I’m going to finish cooking it right in here a little bit so that the

Pasta absorbs the flavor and then we’ll add the tomatoes I just want to toss them in the last minutes you get the sweetness of that roasted tomato with those kind of crunchy breadcrumbs let me begin to collect the tomatoes and you see how underneath they’re kind of toasted absolutely

Delicious put it right in there m daily and suddenly they use a lot of ricotta Salata this is ricotta you know that after they make cheese they have that those curs that look like C cheese rotta well they take those curs they put them to drain with a little bit bit of

Salt they press them into forms and they dry so it’s not an H cheese but it’s sort of compressed and salted Ricotta and that goes on the top as the last little formo when you add cheese to your pasta make sure that the water that that the heat is off

M I think I’m going to have a little taste in here M my mouth is already watering where’s my Veno is an indigenous varietal of this wine in basilicata it really is delicious and you can just imagine perfectly well with this kind of Hardy terot Salata gr it in shreds on top

Perfecto going to eat quick but I wanted to let you know how delicious this is okay want a pack full of pasta some good red wine from basilicata so let’s go come