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Italian Cuisine Expert and Food Blogger
Guido Pedrelli
Guido Pedrelli, the mastermind behind Nonna Box, has honed his culinary expertise for decades, inspired by family feasts in Emilia-Romagna. Mentored by his restaurateur nonna, he mastered Italian classics and furthered his skills with professional culinary studies in desserts and gelato making from Mec3. Today, he shares this rich legacy and authentic recipes through Nonna Box.
When you mention pasta, what usually comes to mind for many people is Italian cuisine. As a matter fact, pasta has always been associated with Italy and Italian cooking.
To be fair, pasta did originally come from Ancient Rome. Although many historians believe Arabs were the ones who introduced the cultivation of durum wheat centuries ago to locals in Southern Italy, more particularly Sicily.
To this day, the very ideas of Italy and all types of pasta are so intertwined in pop culture that they are even depicted in many iconic movie scenes.
In fact, among the most famous scenes in Mafia movies involved Italian Americans preparing delicious pasta dishes. Yep, gangsters cooking, or eating, yummy pasta dishes. What would make more sense than that?
Case in point, who could forget the scene in The Godfather when Clemenza was teaching Al Pacino’s character Michael how to make his Spaghetti and meatballs sauce?
And remember that famous “cooking in prison” scene in Goodfellas? Ray Liotta’s character was narrating how “dinner was always a big thing,” and that they usually had a pasta course and a meat or fish. That was such a quaintly epicurean scene. Y
ou could almost smell the sweet savory aroma of that delicious thick pasta sauce wafting from that pot in front of Vinnie. Hmmm…
But yummy sauces aside, do you know that not all pasta are created equal? According to American celebrity chef Mario Batali, one of the most unique and delicious types of pasta around is… no, not spaghetti (although for us, spaghetti is equally scrumptious), but the cavatelli.
For those of you who are not so familiar with them, cavatelli are small pasta shells made of eggless semolina dough.
They are shaped like mini hotdog buns (or little bicorn hats, for others) and are most often cooked with thick sauces or pasta salads with dressings.
Sometimes cavatelli are made with ricotta cheese mixed in with the semolina dough. Now those are called ricotta cavatelli. Sounds positively delicious, don’t you think?
Now, the name cavatelli literally means “little hollows.” It comes from the Italian words “cavare” which means “to hollow” or “cavato” which means “gouged” and refers to the hollowed or scooped part of each pasta shell. Cavatelli is sometimes confused with casarecci.
But if you look closely, you will find that the former are short and stout while the latter are narrow and longer.
In the mid-20th century, particularly in the 50s and 60s, cavatelli dishes were considered special by most Italian American families. This was because they were typically only served during special occasions.
For many Italian Americans, and for those who used to watch The Sopranos, these cute pasta shells are called gavadeels [gah-vah-deels]. But technically, it is spelled as cavatelli and pronounced as kah-vah-tell-li.
Quite often, people mistake cavatelli for gnocchi because they sort of look the same. But actually, gnocchi are typically bigger and not hollow.
Due to the common mistake, some people actually call this pasta gnocchetti [nyo-ke-ti]. Aside from that, there are many versions of cavatelli all over Southern Italy.
As a result, they are called various names. Some of the most interesting ones are the parmarieddo [par-mar-ye-doh] in Campania, orecchie di prete [o-re-kyi-di-pre-teh] in Abruzzo, and pizzicarieddi [pit-zi-car-ye-di] in Apulia.
In Sardinia, pasta that are shaped like cavatelli, only it is flavoured with saffron, are called malloreddus [ma-lo-reh-dus] or gnocchetti sardi [nyo-ke-ti-sar-di].
It is estimated that cavatelli has around forty different names all in all in Southern Italy alone. However, they are mainly names locals use within the 7 regions.
So, have you seen and munched on cavatelli by any other name before?
Other traditional pasta recipes:
So you want to try your hand at making cavatelli? Well, you can try following our homemade cavatelli recipe
Ecco! You now know how to make cavatelli pasta.
I’m a broccoli lover and this recipe will definitely be an addition to my list.. Thank you, Nonnabox!
I steam my broccoli first, otherwise find it too crispy and uncooked compared to the creaminess if the cavatelli.,Orecchiette are a completely different thing in southern Italy. Close, but little round disks, kind of inverted , open cavatelli. (I’ve” helped make hundreds of them) I didn’t know there were so many other names though. Thanks!
When my daughter Elizabeth was six years old she ordered it at local Italian restaurant, I said Liz I made it for you just last week ordered something different, and she said but that’s what I like, she’s just turned twenty eight this week ,always makes me laugh, you should try my pasta and chick pea recipe garlic, olive oil , lightly brown, three cans garbanzo beans , drained fresh rosemary a can of chicken broth , and a pound of thick spaghetti.lots of Parma and you have a quick cheap dinner for four
Perfectly authentic…a little heat, just perfect!
This is absolutely perfect! Came out perfect! Sautéing the broccoli with oil and garlic is a big key and simmering with broth. Better than any restaurant!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
So happy it came out great, grazie mille for trying it!
This was so delicious! Thank you! One of my favorite meals to order out- glad to make it at home!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Grazie mille, very happy you liked it!