Recipes

Great pasta deserves great sauce – and at Peretti Pasta, we honour the timeless Italian recipes that bring each dish to life. These are all family favourites that complement our pasta beautifully and bring the true taste of Italy to your table.

We love discovering recipes that elevate every bite – pure, honest, and unmistakably Italian!

Buon Appetito!

Marcella Hazan's Famous Tomato Sauce

Marcella Hazan is an Italian writer who has a few cookbooks written in English where many great recipes can be found but this might be her most famous – enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 cups canned tomatoes with their juice
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 1 medium onion (cut in half)

PREPARATION:

  • Add all ingredients to saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes then remove the onion…It’s that easy and amazingly delicious.
  • Add pasta to the sauce with some of the pasta water as usual for a velvety smooth dish and enjoy.

https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter

Penne a la Vodka

This is not a traditional Italian sauce but an Italian American invention and always a hit!  To learn more about the importance of the Vodka in the sauce follow the link below to the article from J. Kenji López-Alt at Serious Eats who came up with this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion (finely chopped)
  • 3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
  • red pepper flakes (to taste)
  • Salt
  • 170g can of tomato paste
  • 411g can of whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 500g pasta (penne, rigatoni, paccheri)
  • 1/4 cup vodka
  • 55g Parmigiano

PREPARATION:

  • melt butter and cook onions until translucent adding garlic and red pepper flakes halfway through.
  • Add tomato paste and continue to stir; the longer you cook the paste the more sugars you caramelize before adding the rest of the ingredients
  • add can of tomatoes with juice breaking down the large bits and reduce until sauce is thickened
  • remove from heat and blend with blender or immersion blender adding in the cream
  • salt to taste and add back to pan (through a strainer for maximum creaminess) 
  • begin boiling the pasta in salted water and prepare to remove the pasta 3 minutes before it reaches al dente
  • add vodka to the sauce just before adding the pasta and let some of the alcohol cook of so it is not too strong.
  • add pasta with a ladle full of pasta water and cook for 3 minutes (adding additional pasta water if needed), remove from heat add cheese and serve.

https://www.seriouseats.com/pasta-with-vodka-sauce

Carbonara by Luciano Monosilio

Luciano Monosilio is known internationally as King of Carbonara bringing his expertise to the internet to teach the masses how to perfect this jewel of a dish at home.  Below are his classic ingredients but I often substitute for items I have on hand if I am making dinner in a rush i.e. some bacon type product for the guanciale (either bacon, lardons, pancetta) and even just using only Parmesan or Grana Padano if I don’t have any sheeps milk Pecorino on hand – It may not be classic but it still tastes great!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 200g guanciale cut into coarse cubes (cured pork jowel)
  • 320g pasta (I prefer to use spaghetti or penne)
  • 20g Pecorino 
  • 30g Grana Padano
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 3 Tbsp ground pepper (20g)

PREPARATION:

  • Sear the guanciale so it is crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and remove the fat.
  • Begin boiling the pasta in salted water.  You want to cook the pasta to almost it’s desired doneness as it will not spend much time cooking further with the sauce.
  • Grate the cheeses together and add to bowl with 4 egg yolks, ground pepper and mix together
  • Add 1 ladle of pasta water to the cheese mixture while stirring to avoid cooking the eggs or separating the cheese.
  • Add ladle of the guanciale fat to the cheese mixture.  This can be cooked over a bain-marie to 65C/149F if desired in order to pasteurize the eggs and thicken the sauce 
  • once sauce is thickened add guanciale and another ladle of pasta water
  • Add cooked pasta water to the sauce and add another ladle of the pasta water and adjust as needed to get the right creamy consistency
  • Serve which fresh grated cheese and pepper as desired and Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6_rLrFTwc

Basil Pesto Sauce

Did you know there are over 300 varieties of basil in the world?  Pesto is a combination of a few simple ingredients and the beauty of this simplicity is that you can achieve different results to suite your taste depending on how you mix them. No matter your preference, it makes a great companion for pasta on a warm summer day!

INGREDIENTS:  (6 servings)

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Sea salt
  • 3 Tbsp pine nuts
  • 2 cups tightly packed basil 
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp Pecorino
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano
  • 700g pasta (spaghetti or fettuccini)
 

PREPARATION:

  • If making with a mortar and pestle, start with the hard ingredients Garlic  then pine nuts.
  • Once they are well ground add basil and salt and continue to work while adding oil slowly and finishing off with the cheese.
  • When using a food processor, layer the ingredients in the mixer starting with the oil, basil, cheese, pine nuts, garlic and salt
  • The sauce should be thick so that it becomes the right texture once a ladle of pasta water is added with the pasta.
  • Begin boiling the pasta in salted water.  You want to cook the pasta to it’s desired doneness as it will not be cooked further when added to the sauce.
  • Toss pasta with the sauce adding a ladle of the pasta water as usual for a velvety smooth dish and enjoy.

How Authentic Genovese Pesto Is Made (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gEyWSWy6ec)

**Tip: If making your pesto ahead of time, blanch the basil leaves before making the pesto to help keep the bright green colour longer.  Adding some baking soda to the water also helps preserve the chlorophyll (which breaks down in acidic environments – garlic and olive oil are both acidic)