Plain pasta is not simply pasta that’s been drained with a pat of butter on top.

Otherwise you’d make aglio e olio (garlic and oil), no? Another world and another purpose. As a proper Italian of southern origins, I love extra-virgin olive oil, but it doesn’t go here. With plain pasta there’s no messing around, only butter! Enveloping and abundant, butter is a real comfort. You can also use any other shape you can find in the house, but the first two are the ones that will really satisfy. But this is a refinement, recalling tagliolini with butter and truffles – which, admittedly, is not an everyday kind of dish!īut I can tell you with certainty that if you have two extra bundles of good tagliatelle, they’re not at all bad as plain pasta. The last shape that is almost allowed, but not quite recommended, is tagliatelle or tagliolini. They’ll be a bit dry, of course, because instinctively you’ll always throw a bit too much in the pot, but is that really a problem? I don’t think so. Firstly because you almost always have some in the house, and secondly because they cook really fast to appease voracious, hungry diners. They are soft and should only be eaten with a spoon, for a nostalgic evening of childhood regression. There are two perfect alternatives.Īny small tubular pasta, like ditalini, will be fine, preferably with grooves so more of the condiment sticks to them. Not all pasta shapes are suitable for making good plain pasta. No, I’m not going to do a real tutorial, but plain pasta also has its own rules! Let’s answer the basic questions! What kind of past shape?

Things to add to plain pasta