If you’ve ever dined at an authentic Italian restaurant you must have come across the option of having handmade tagliatelle. Tagliatelle is a ribbon shaped long and flat pasta from the traditional cuisine of Italy. The root word of tagliatelle is tagliare, which means ‘to cut,’ in Italian. The hallmark of an authentic tagliatelle is the measurement of its width. The pasta ribbons of tagliatelle are traditionally about 6 mm (1⁄4 in) wide. Resembling the fettuccine visually, while tagliatelle can be consumed with a wide variety of sauces, it best goes with the bolognese and pork ragu sauce.
The story of this delicious pasta is an amusing one. Legend has it that this pasta was invented by a talented court chef who got inspired by the hair braids of a Royal princess when she had come as a bride to marry an Italian warrior of royal descent. This tale dates back to 1487. Traditionally tagliatelle is made by hand. Dough is rolled in to flat sheets and then cut in to ribbons using a knife. You could find the tagliatelle in stores either in the shape of straight ribbon like strands or coiled up like rose petals.
Cooking the tagliatelle pasta is as simple as cooking all other forms of pasta. Be careful so as to not break the long ribbons as this is treated as poor pasta etiquette in Italy. Depending upon whether you’ve made tagliatelle freshly by hand or have bought it from the store, you’ll either be cooking a fresh version or dry version. The fresh version will obviously cook quite quickly taking somewhere from two to four minutes. With dried tagliatelle, the cooking time to achieve al dente is anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes.
When we talk about pasta a pertinent topic that has to be covered is which sauce to pair it with. The texture of the tagliatelle is a little rough and porous meaning that it will hold thick sauces well. The simplest sauce to pair it with is Alfredo, however if you really want to bring the culinary magic out, pair this pasta with bolognese sauce. Bolognese sauce is a classic Italian sauce for pasta made with ground meat such as chicken or pork. A good vegetarian sauce to cook this pasta in would be pomodoro e basilico which comprises of tomatoes and basil.
Many people confuse the tagliatelle with either fettuccine or pappardelle. The three are distinct in width and cooking procedures. Tagliatelle is slightly wider and thinner than fettuccine. A culinary difference between the tagliatelle and fettuccine is that while tagliatelle is made with egg along with semolina, fettuccine does not contain egg. Similarly, The main difference between pappardelle and tagliatelle is that pappardelle has a larger width than tagliatelle. Having said that, popular substitutes of tagliatelle include fettuccine and pappardelle. If you want to know more about the history of pasta, read here.
If you’re tempted to cook traditional tagliatelle in an easy sauce, give this recipe a try:
Tagliatelle with cremini mushrooms:
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 230 grams of cremini mushrooms sliced
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 230 grams of dried Tagliatelle
- salt and pepper to taste
- Parmesan cheese for serving
Method:
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until almost al dente.
- Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying wok, add onions and sauté until soft. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.
- Next, add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
- Add the cream, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the parsley.
- Toss the pasta through the sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and enjoy.