Pasta e Patate – Italian Pasta with Potatoes, a dish from the South of Italy
Before marrying your grandfather and going on our honeymoon to Southern Italy, in Basilicata, to visit my in-laws, Grandma told me, I had never heard of pasta and potatoes, pasta and fava beans, pasta and beans… We used to eat pasta, soup or broth, but we had never had pasta cooked that way!
This is what my grandmother Marcella told me when I asked her where she had learnt to cook pasta e patate, the traditional Italian pasta with potatoes. Simple, creamy and deeply comforting, pasta e patate is one of those dishes that can warm you up on the coldest winter day.
What is pasta e patate?
Pasta e patate is a traditional Italian dish made by cooking pasta and potatoes together in the same pot. As the potatoes soften, they release their starch and create a naturally creamy texture, while the pasta absorbs the flavour of the broth. The result is a simple, hearty and comforting dish closely associated with Southern Italian home cooking and the tradition of cucina povera.
Traditional Italian pasta e patate: a cucina povera classic
Pasta e patate is a traditional Southern Italian dish and a perfect example of cucina povera, the resourceful style of Italian home cooking that turns a handful of humble ingredients into something nourishing and deeply satisfying.
Grandma Marcella learnt to make pasta with potatoes from my Aunt Valeria, my grandfather’s sister. Over the years, she gradually made the recipe her own, adapting it to the ingredients we had in Tuscany, as well as to her taste and cooking style.
For example, instead of caciocavallo, the firm, intensely flavoured cheese traditionally used in many Southern Italian versions, we add grated Parmigiano Reggiano and a piece of Parmigiano rind, cut into small cubes. As the rind simmers, it softens and becomes pleasantly chewy while adding depth and savoury flavour to the broth.
What was once an unfamiliar Southern Italian recipe eventually became one of our favourite cold-weather dishes. On snowy days, Grandma would often arrive at our house at lunchtime carrying a wooden tray with all the ingredients already measured into little bowls. While we set the table, she would cook pasta e patate in a small pot over a very low flame.
That was always one of Grandma’s secrets in the kitchen: the lowest possible flame and plenty of patience.
Why pasta and potatoes work so well together
As often happens in traditional Italian peasant cooking, a few inexpensive ingredients are transformed through technique and patience. As the potatoes cook, some of them break down into the broth, releasing their starch and creating the characteristic creamy consistency of pasta e patate without the need for cream.
The pasta cooks directly with the potatoes, absorbing their flavour and helping to thicken the dish even further. The final consistency should be somewhere between a pasta dish and a thick soup: creamy, enveloping and comforting.
Finish your pasta and potatoes with freshly ground black pepper or a pinch of crushed red chilli pepper for just enough heat to warm you from the inside out.
Pasta e patate recipe – Italian pasta with potatoes
Pasta and potatoes are one of the most iconic combinations of Italian cucina povera. Affordable, filling and easy to find, the two ingredients came together in Southern Italian home cooking to create a hearty dish capable of nourishing a family with very little.
Today, pasta e patate is cooked in many parts of Italy, with countless regional and family variations. Some versions are soupier, others dense enough to eat with a fork; some include tomato, while others remain completely white. Cheese, herbs and the type of pasta can also change from one kitchen to another.
Our family version is creamy and comforting, flavoured with Parmigiano Reggiano and its rind. It is the kind of simple Italian food that carries memories with it: hold a warm bowl in your hands on a cold day, breathe in its familiar aroma, and it immediately feels like home.
Pasta e patate, Pasta with Potatoes
Ingredients
- ½ onion, red or golden, finely minced
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt
- A pinch of chilli pepper
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 500 ml hot water, lightly salted
- 1 Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, about 2 inches by 3/4 inch/6x2cm
- 150 grams cavatelli, pasta mista, ditali, or other short dry pasta
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pour the olive oil into a medium pot over low heat. Add the finely minced onion, a pinch of chili pepper and a generous pinch of salt, then cook until soft, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste, stir, and cook until caramelized, about one minute. It will give a pinkish and inviting colour to your pasta and potatoes.
- Add the diced potatoes, stir, and cook on low heat for about five minutes, taking care not to brown the potatoes.
- Pour in 1⅔ cups/400 ml hot water (it should be enough to cover the potatoes), add the Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, and cook on a medium flame for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you can easily mash the potatoes with a wooden spoon against the edges of the pot.
- Pour in the remaining hot water, and the pasta, and stir thoroughly. Simmer until the pasta is al dente, about 10 minutes.
- When the pasta is cooked through, and the soup is thick, remove the pot from the heat, add the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and stir energetically. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt.
- Ladle the soup into warmed bowls, drizzle each serving with some olive oil, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, and serve. The Parmigiano-Reggiano rind can be cut into smaller pieces and added to the bowls.
- Any leftover soup can be refrigerated for up to two days. Reheat gently over low heat, adding a bit of water as necessary to thin.
More cucina povera recipes
If you enjoy this traditional pasta e patate recipe, you can find another version of pasta with potatoes, along with many more recipes inspired by resourceful Italian home cooking, in our cookbook Cucina Povera.
Comments (43)
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thank you Juls for stopping by on my blog, your recipes are really inspiring.
Ooh, love the sound of this dish! and there’s nothing like those stories passed on by family elders 🙂
This is interesting because we, Hungarians, have a traditional pasta & potato meal! 🙂 I cooked it last week! We cook the potato, then saute onion in a pan. We add the half mashed potato, season with salt, pepper and paprika. We also add some pasta water to it to make it a bit creamier then we combine this with the cooked pasta. It is true a winter comfort meal!
Zita,
Thank you.
I like your post much better – straight-to-the-point.
Giulia, can’t thank you enough for this lovely dish and beautiful memories you shared at my blog!
A wonderful combination and interesting dish! So comforting and nourishing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Gulia, I must confess my love for your blog 🙂 Thank you for sharing all these lovely stories and mouth-watering recipes. You’re such an inspiration 🙂
thank you so much! all your comments and feedback are the greatest inspiration for me!
Giulia, this recipe is so inspiring! Thanks for sharing 🙂 Love this photos, too 🙂
kisses
I have never thought of putting pasta and potatoes together – I do make chickpeas and potatoes very often. I am anxious to try your recipe, it looks delicious.
chickpeas and potatoes? uhm, interesting!!
This dish look soo good! I love the combination with potatoes. I’d be in starch heaven! Yum.
Haha, this would be heaven for my carb-loving wife! 🙂 Looks delicious and creamy!
Juls, what an interesting idea to pair pasta with potatoes. Both are such comfort foods on their own, but together? Yum. The dish looks quite creamy and almost ‘saucy’, really lovely. I really appreciate seeing rustic, simple ingredients (and not necessarily too many of them) come together to create an elegant and comforting dish. Thanks for sharing this family gem, my friend!
I’ve never actually made this dish but have many friends that this is a staple in the house.
lovely, simple and inviting! looks really perfect for a cold day. Thank you Guilia for sharing your delicious family secrets. xox
Feeling a bit under the weather, this sounds like it will be perfect for today. thank you.
Hi Giulia, I tried to get to the recipe but unfortunately the link is defective, it takes me to other Tamara’s recipes. I am sure it is a great recipe but I would like to know the ingredients! Baci
Hi Daniela, here it is!
http://bite-my-cake.blogspot.it/2012/02/gost-bloger-italija-giulia-scarpaleggia.html
pretty post nice day to unniversey mey thank
My mother made this dish, yummy. Everything she made was incredible, but this stands out
This is a recipe that my grandmother (a New York native, second generation from Ischia) would make us growing up. It’s so simple and fulling and delicious. It brings back such memories. I made a big pot of it tonight for my sister.
We call it Pasta Padon. I always just assumed that Padon meant potato, but I can’t find anything anywhere to indicate that. My gut (which is full at the moment) tells me that this may mean something like ‘padding’. lol. Thank you for posting the recipe. IT’s great to see how others make it.
I am thrilled that I’ve finally found Juls’ and Tommaso’s blog. I feel like I’ve been looking for these recipes my whole cooking life! I’ve wanted to make pasta and potatoes for a couple of years, since I first heard of the dish, but haven’t found a recipe that looked promising. I read once that there aren’t many of these recipes on the American circuit because American portions are so large, a dish with two major starches is unfathomable. I used Juls’ recipe here as a side dish with a summer salad main course (I couldn’t wait till winter to try it), and I was blown away by how much flavor you can get out of so few ingredients in such small quantities if you pay attention to your elders and SLOW COOK EVERYTHING. Food already has everything it needs for us, substance and flavor together. We just have to trust it in its own, patient time to release all of its goodness. So don’t rush this. And add tomatoes if you want. Add rosemary if it’s right. This dish is adaptable because it’s so simple, and that’s the kind of purity we all want in our lives and the lives of those we feed. Thank you, Juls.
Rachel, your comment made my day. The way you used this recipes is just perfect. Moderation is the answer, and with a conscious way of eating even a pasta e patate, with two starches together, can belong to a balanced meal. The way you understood the recipe, and the use of ingredients… I really want to thank you, because this is the reason I blog and share my recipes! thank you, Rachel!
Giulia, I always save my Parmesan rinds and add them to soups and stocks, but I never thought of eating them before. I used to throw them away after boiling! What a revelation, thank you!
so happy! you’ll see how delicious they are!
[…] https://en.julskitchen.com/vegetarian/pasta-with-potatoes-south-italy […]
Working on my own blog today (a quick recipe featuring leftover chicken and pasta–a very unItalian dish!!!), I needed some info about a pasta with potatoes dish. I googled it and loved that your blog came up! I’ve linked from my blog to yours so my readers can read your sweet story and maybe make some pasta and potatoes, too. I hope that’s ok? Thanks, Juls! Happy Monday. I hope this finds you and all you love well. Alyce.
sure, thank you so much for linking to this recipe!
[…] Pasta with Potatoes, a Dish from the South of Italy/JULSKITCHEN […]
Bolivia has a national dish, one of many that is called Aji de fideo, the internet has the recipe in multiple sites, has potatoes, peas , beef,carrots in a sauce made of aji panca, tomatoes, onions, the pasta is added at the end.
It originated as the rich meal bolivian Bolivian miners eat at midday.
sounds so good!
We bolivians have the most delicious food and one dish is pasta ,potatoes, beef ,in a seasoned sauce .
Called Aji de Fideo.
[…] Pasta with potatoes, a dish from the South of Italy – https://en.julskitchen.com/first-course/pasta-first-course/pasta-with-potatoes-south-italy […]
Just made this soup, it is so comforting and delicious. I had made an Italian tomato sauce which had taken me hours to cook, so I added some along with fresh thyme. Thank you
Thank you so much, Ida! Your words make me so happy!
Thanks for this Yummy and tasty Pasta Recipe that you published!!
Wow, a recipe from Southern Italy! I’ve never tried it, but looking at it makes me curious. It must be rich in flavor with the spices used.
I appreciate you sharing this delicious pasta recipe!
This is a delicious dish that my mother made. Although everything she created was amazing, this is particularly noteworthy.
This is such a classic comfort food. My grandmother from Calabria used to make this, and the combination always seemed so unique to me at first. There’s something so satisfying about the creamy potatoes clinging to the pasta.
You havegreat taste.
This recipe brings back wonderful memories of my mother’s cooking. She made so many incredible dishes, but this one always stood out as something truly special and unforgettable.