[Spaghetti al burro, parmigiano e funghi](https://preview.redd.it/wb8qu4bolmxb1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a66a96d850b8a9fbc4056ea0a90aed56345d99c0)
Several months ago I discovered the YouTube channel [Vincenzo’s Plate](https://m.youtube.com/@vincenzosplate) through his reaction video to Carbonara dishes. Down the rabbit hole I went, and I discovered how important the dried pasta is when making every pasta dish.
I started trying different brands of pasta after ditching the cheapest ones I could find. I started with the Aldi bronze cut “Priano”, which was a revelation for me at the time. My first Cacio e Pepe with bronze cut pasta was the best I’ve ever made. That quality of pasta for the price is honestly an amazing deal.
Since Aldi seemed to always run out of stock of the pasta shapes I wanted, I eventually went to another supermarket and tried De Cecco. Again, my pasta dishes tasted even better, and I was really satisfied with the quality.
A couple weeks ago I went to a premium supermarket, and in the pasta aisle, I started comparing the cooking times for each pasta. There was a brand “Felicetti Organic” which had the longest cooking time, but used an opaque bag so I couldn’t see the color. I was intrigued but slightly skeptical, but bought 3 bags to have a try.
THAT THING WAS AMAZING. I could TASTE the wheat in the pasta strands, and the salt in the pasta water seemed to bring out the freshness of the mountain water and a sweet taste. I also found that Felicetti was so much more filling than the other brands.
The color of the pasta was beautiful too, just seeing it on my plate gave me happinness. The simple spaghetti al burro e parmigiano was restaurant quality.
Unfortunately, I ran out of the Felicetti in a week, since I eat pasta almost every day and eat half a bag per meal :(. I realized that it cost 4.3$ per bag, which was out of my budget. Instead, I bought Rummo for this week, and today when I made lemon mint spaghetti it just was not the same. The texture, color, taste was different. After eating half a bag of pasta, I still felt hungry and unfulfilled.
Lord help me if I impulse buy Monograno or Alfeltra online, because my wallet will never be able to recover from this
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* 250g spaghetti
* 100g mushrooms
* 20g butter
* 4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
* 2-3 stalks of parsley
* as much parmigiano as you want
​
1. Sauté mushrooms in pan with olive oil, mince parsley and put into mushroom pan.
2. Boil 2-3L of salted water, cook pasta to 2-3 min before al dente.
3. Meanwhile, grate parmigiano cheese.
4. Drain pasta, saving a mug of pasta water, and combine pasta in pan with mushrooms and olive oil.
5. Toss together and cook pasta in pan for another 2-3 mins with half mug of pasta water.
6. Turn off heat, and stir in butter to the pasta mix.
7. After 30s off the heat, slowly add parmigiano and pasta water as needed to maintain creamy texture.
8. Toss pasta in the pan to ensure creaminess.
9. Serve with more grated parmigiano!
by RadianMay
11 Comments
Yes Felicetti is really good pasta, made in the Dolomites part of the Alps (they don’t grow wheat there).
Great Italian recipes are impressive because they have 5-10 ingredients and you can taste them all. If you have good quality ingredients, the result is better.
You are on the right track. Get a couple of books like Silver Spoon (Cucchiaio d’Argento) and La Cucina regionale italiana (in English, published by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina) and master the traditional recipes.
Edit – Eataly carries Felicetti.
You’re doing good! I’d just add a smashed (with the flat of the knife) unpeeled garlic clove in the oil while it’s warming up and leave it in (just barely sizzling) for a few minutes – then remove it and proceed; I’d also reserve some fresh parsley to add while tossing the pasta (I always worry cooking parsley too much makes it bitter). Agree on Felicetti, with Afeltra and Rigorosa close seconds. Rummo is excellent, for a supermarket brand.
My favourite pasta is from fattoria la vialla and I need to order it online.
The taste, texture, and bite are top notch.
I usually only have it for a treat. Tonight, I had Aglio, olio e peperoncino with the dried chillies I bought home from sicily.
If there is one thing I have learned over the years about Italian food, few ingredients, high quality is the way to do it.
If you’re in the US avoid Rummo, it’s not the same pasta that they sell in Italy. It’s “enriched” in the US which is crap.
Felicetti is the best pasta in italy and made in the trentino alps. There are expensive ones and cheap ones, but even cheap ones are better then 99% of others brands
Bruh rummo is super decent for the price, also garofalo. Felicetti is just that: premium, in fact the ‘monograno’ felicetti pasta is what many Michelin starred chefs use in Italy. (Source – my mama worked in luxury food industry)
i go to family run Italian deli such as frank and sal 18ave, pastosa 79 th street, pimonte on grand street here in ny
I’d rather invest in a pasta machine to make fresh tagliatelle and fettuccine
My friend, If you would like any help to go further in bankruptcy, I am this weekend close to Gragnano city. I could buy for you some special pasta at just 7€ per kg 😃
Granoro and Carmiano are both worth a try 👌
If you eat a lot of pasta I suggest doing what I’m doing:
when there is a discount of good pasta, stock up. Dry pasta basically will not expire so you can buy a lot of it and wait for another discount to stock up again.
I got like 20kg the last time Molisana was on discount.
Also when you can just make your own… always keep some good semolina (Molisana got amazing durum flour too), flour is cheaper than pasta usually.
I think both pici and gnocchetti sardi are amazing shape because they are easy to do and they do not require any special equipment (not even a pasta machine).
To know how much to do just weight the flour and you will know how much “dry pasta” you are making… if you are making just for one you should be able to do it in less than 1 hour (with a resting time of 20 minutes in that 1 hour time), just remember to also use some olive oil to make it easier and faster to shape your pasta.
semolina + 50% water + a tablespoon of olive oil and you will make amazing pasta in a really short amount of time, or if you decide to make a lot, you can just freeze it (and maybe in that case you can use a pasta machine and make tagliatelle or something like that).
That way you will slow down your consume of dry pasta too but you will continue to taste good pasta every meal.
PS. Of course once you know how to make fresh pasta you can make both egg fresh pasta with regular flour, pici with regular flour and water (the original pici) even durum semolina + egg… Most of the time I think the combination of water + semolina is the best/cheap one … but pici are amazing with regular flour and water too, and tagliatelle are better with egg.