Cavatelli is a popular traditional pasta from the Molise and Puglia regions in Southern Italy. It is also one of the oldest pasta types in that part of Italy. Its hollow cavity makes it an excellent pasta shape to pair with seafood, vegetables and even robust sauces, as it has an excellent 'catching ability'. What... The post Cavatelli (Everything You Need to Know) appeared first on The Pasta Project ..read more

Bring a taste of Sicily to your table in under one hour with this authentic swordfish pasta. This stunning recipe combines swordfish with ripe cherry tomatoes, fried eggplant, aromatic herbs and lemon. This is a simple recipe packed with fresh Mediterranean flavor. History Pasta with swordfish is a very popular and typical Sicilian dish. In... The post Pasta with Swordfish from Sicily appeared first on The Pasta Project ..read more

Whether you’re a calamari enthusiast or trying it for the first time, this Italian calamari pasta is sure to impress! It only uses a few simple ingredients yet creates such a rich and flavorful dish. It takes just 40 minutes to prepare, making it an excellent choice for weeknight dinners and date nights. History Calamari... The post Pasta with Calamari and Tomatoes appeared first on The Pasta Project ..read more

This amazingly delicious and super simple one-pot fresh fava bean pasta recipe from Sicily is so much more than the sum of its parts! All you need is pasta, fresh fava beans, spring onions, wild fennel or dill, pecorino and ricotta to make what is one of the best spring pasta recipes I know! Pasta con fave. Being Sicilian, my hubby Salvatore loves fava beans (broad beans)! So, as soon as they are available, he comes home with bags full! Normally fava or fave in Italian are most abundant from the middle to end of spring! However, this year spring seems to have arrived early. We already have alm ..read more

Sicilian busiate with pesto alla Trapanese Trapanese pesto is a fresh and flavourful sauce from the Western Sicilian city of Trapani. It’s easy to make and perfect on pasta, bruschetta or as a dip. In Sicily, they most often serve pesto alla Trapanese with busiate pasta, but you can use other types of pasta instead. During a recent holiday in Sicily we got to try quite a number of delicious Sicilian pasta dishes including this tasty busiate with Trapanese pesto. This traditional dish is mostly eaten in the province of Trapani in the Western corner of Sicily.   There are a number of diff ..read more

This casarecce pasta with Sicilian pesto is a super light and fresh recipe from my hubby’s home region, Sicily. I used homemade casarecce but, of course, you can use dried pasta too. Known as pesto alla Siciliana, this is a creamy no-cook sauce. So, you can have this dish on the table in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta. A little pesto alla Siciliana history. Sicily is not the part of Italy where pesto originated. That, in fact, is Liguria home to pesto Genovese (basil pesto). The Genovese invented basil pesto in the 1800s. Today, it’s probably one of the most popular and ..read more

Casarecce has long been one of my favourite short pasta types. Until now, I always used dried casarecce. But, I recently bought a hand operated pasta press with different bronze pasta dies. The first shape I decided to make was casarecce. However, at the same time, I wanted to try making this pasta entirely by hand. The result? Perfect homemade casarecce 2 ways! What is casarecce pasta? Also called ‘casareccia’ in some parts of Italy, casarecce is a short pasta type with curled edges and a groove down the middle. This pasta looks a bit like little rolled-up scrolls. Casarecce, which means ..read more

Pasta alla Norma is a very simple but seriously tasty dish from the city of Catania in Sicily. It is usually made with pasta tubes such as rigatoni or penne rigate seasoned with tomato sauce and with the addition of fried eggplant, salted ricotta and basil. I have to confess that before meeting my Sicilian hubby Salvatore, I had never eaten pasta alla Norma. Now, of course, I have lost count of how many times I’ve enjoyed this classic and famous Sicilian pasta recipe. My hubby has cooked it for me, his mum and sisters have cooked it for me and I’ve eaten it in Sicily. I have made an ‘alla No ..read more

Spaghetti with baccalà alla ghiotta. Having eaten it in Sicily, I had really wanted to make this typical Sicilian baccalà recipe called ‘alla ghiotta’ with pasta for a long time. I have now made it with homemade baccalà and store bought. Both times it was amazing! This spaghetti with salt cod was a big hit with my Sicilian hubby and baccalà fans are sure to love it too! What is salt cod (baccalà)? Salt cod known as baccalà in Italy, bacalao salado in Spain, bacalhau in Portuguese and bakalar in Croatia is dried cod fish. The process of drying cod dates back to the time of the Vikings. It’s a p ..read more

Casarecce Pasta Caponata One of the most iconic dishes in Sicilian cooking is caponata. This sweet and sour Mediterranean veggie dish is delicious as a side with both meat and fish and, as in this recipe for casarecce pasta caponata, makes a fabulous pasta sauce!  Pasta alla caponata is great warm or as a pasta salad. What is caponata? Caponata is an eggplant based summer vegetable stew that Sicilians often serve as a cold antipasto or a side dish with fish. There are different recipes for this dish throughout Sicily. However, the usual basic ingredients are eggplant, celery, capers, onio ..read more