Pasta is one of the most beloved food items on the planet. Here are 8 types of pasta we love!
Let’s be honest now. Most people on the Maltese Islands love their perfect plate of pasta. There’s nothing like a heaped plate of fresh pasta to soothe your emotions after a hard day. It is not only a staple dish at home, but just in case you do not feel like cooking, there are various restaurants in Malta cooking great pasta dishes.
We can think of quite a few places such as Casa Sotto, ImPasta, Pasta & Co and Pastaus that offer a variety of types of pasta dishes.
With so much variety, choosing types of pasta dishes can be quite an enjoyable part of the process. We Maltese have our own traditional versions, such as fried noodles or Tarja Moqlija and baked pasta or as we call it, Ghagin il-Forn.
There are several different types of pasta we can talk about but given the variety, we will only go through 7 types that are the most popular and perhaps a few new ones.
Spaghetti
Perhaps the most well-known of all types of pasta. There are many theories on who invented Spaghetti but the most common is that the Chinese invented it and Marco Polo brought this pasta to Venice after his voyage to China.
Our guest foodie writer, Samantha, shared her take on the carbonara recipe using Maltese sausages instead of guanciale. Another dish we particularly enjoyed was the Spaghetti with rabbit sauce from La Maltija restaurant. The sauce was thick and very well seasoned with a very good portion of rabbit meat to complement the pasta.
Macaroni
The origins of Macaroni go way back to the era of 2000BC – 1000BC. It was the Ancient Greeks who introduced Naples to Macaroni, likely named after a Greek goddess Macaria. This pasta was made from barley flour and water. Our featured guest home cooking chef, Samantha, prepared a delicious plate of Mac n’Cheese.
Not in the mood to cook it yourself? We definitely recommend (like really, really recommend) that you visit EAT and try their pulled pork mac n’cheese. You’ll want to have this for lunch every single day. We promise you it’s very, very good!
Rigatoni
Rigatoni was introduced to the pasta world in 1930 in Italy. Rigatoni, derived from “rigati” actually means lined, which we can see in the design of the pasta itself.
Hats down to Fausto Soldini from Zero Sei Trattoria Romana – which we suggest if you are looking for the best pasta places in Valletta – for not only making it easy to eat a freshly made Carbonara dish from his menu but also making it easy for anyone at home to make it themselves.
You can pick up a kit from Prosciutteria (that is where we picked up ours) and you’ll find yourself all the ingredients you need, including the Rigatoni. It is very easy and at a great price.
Ravioli
Ravioli was first mentioned in the 14th century by Francesco di Marco Datini, an Italian merchant, and in a cookbook by a writer from Venice.
Maltese ravjul has to be our favourite ravioli recipe. We absolutely love homemade ravjul. Recently we tried our hand at making a colourful version with edible flowers.
We understand that given that fresh ravioli takes a very long time to make, you might want to opt for ordering from a restaurant. Check out this ravjul dish from Ta’ Kris restaurant.
Another great dish we had the pleasure of enjoying was Galea’s Kitchen ravioli dish. Enjoying a great plate of pasta in Malta’s capital city, Valletta, sounds like our definition of the perfect day.
Fusilli
Made popular in America by the show Seinfeld, Fusilli comes from Southern Italy. It is interesting shape is created by rolling the pasta around a thin roll until it dries. There are plenty of different ways you can enjoy your pasta dish with fusilli, one way we love ours is with kale and sundried tomatoes.
Fettuccine
Fettuccine was introduced to the world in the Renaissance period. It is often the pasta of choice in roman and Tuscan dishes. We love our fettuccine with a lot of cheese (Fettuccine Alfredo, anyone?) but we definitely enjoyed this plate from Il-Teatro from Valletta.
This Fettuccine Quattro Formaggi dish uses homemade fettuccine with Gorgonzola cheese, Grana cheese, Emmental cheese and Asiago cheese. Lovely pasta and the service is very attentive and helpful. Cheesy!
Papiri
The Papiri is not one of the most common types of pasta but worthy of a mention in this article. This pasta looks like paper scrolls, hence the name. We had a delicious plate of Papiri ‘gentile selection’ from Under Grain (part of Rosselli AX Privilege) by the great chef, Victor Borg.
This tasty and fancy plate took an original take on a pasta dish by including chicken wings, 24-month aged Parmesan, yeast and raw mushroom.
Tortellini
Last but not least the magnificent tortellini. Easy and quick to cook, they come with a variety of fillings. Tortellini originate from the Italian region of Emilia Romagna and were traditionally filled with meat and Parmesan, although these days one of the most common fillings would be the ricotta and spinach.
If you want to try making tortellini at home, you’ll have to master the fine art of rolling, stuffing, and shaping these delightful little dumplings. Make sure you get your hands on a good recipe for pasta dough first and then you will be on your way to becoming a pasta-making pro.
Again, there are a variety of places which make excellent tortellini dishes here in Malta, however we were recently impressed with these Tortellacci (a variety of the original tortellini) filled with ricotta and pecorino from Tiffany’s Bistro, located along the Sliema waterfront.
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