Funny that I’ve managed to blog for over 16 years now without getting around to a recipe for pasta in bianco aka pasta bianca. Literally meaning a “white pasta”, any dish in Italian cookery that’s labled in bianco or just bianco is one that doesn’t contain tomatoes. At its most basic, pasta in bianco is just pasta tossed with butter and cheese, One of the pillars of everyday Italian home cooking, it’s a classic comfort food and a favorite among kids of all ages.
Maybe I’ve overlooked this dish because, at first blush, it hardly merits a written recipe at all. In Italian if someone’s totally useless in the kitchen, you might say non sa fare neanche una pasta bianca! —they can’t even make a pasta bianca!—a bit like saying they can’t even boil water in English. In reality, though, like any dish, including—perhaps especially—utterly simple ones like this, you do need to pay attention to the details if it’s going to come out right.
I have a rather ideosyncratic one pot method for making pasta in bianco. I throw a nest or two of store bought tagliatelle directly into a skillet with a knob of butter and small amount of lightly salted water, adding more water as needed, then when the pasta is cooked and most but not all of the liquid has evaported, I throw in another knob of butter and grated cheese. Not the way you’re supposed to make this dish, but it works. A bit like risotto, the butter and cheese, along with the starchy pasta water, emulsify into a lovely creamy sauce but without the need to add cream.
Pasta in bianco with a little extra touch…
The recipe I want to share with you here, however, takes things to the next level. I got the inspiration from an article I happened across in the online version of La cucina italiana. Interestingly, they also use a risotto-like method for cooking the pasta, but instead of water, you cook your pasta in a kind of broth made from infusing water with parmigiano rinds. Genius! I love recipes that recycle odds and ends like that. And of course it lends extra depth of flavor to your pasta in bianco.
With or without this extra touch, this is a recipe I bet you’ll want to make part of your repertoire if it isn’t already. Pasta in bianco is the ultimate ricetta salvacena—handy when you don’t feel much like cooking or when your cupboard is almost bare. Just what we all need after a hectic holiday season, or any time of year.
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
For making the parmigiano broth:
- 2 liters (2 quarts) water
- 200g (7 oz) rinds of parmigiano-reggiano cheese (or more if you want)
- a tiny pinch of salt
For the rest:
- 300-400g (10-14 oz) store-bought tagliatelle or other pasta of your choiice (see Notes)
- 100g (3-1/2 oz) butter, or to taste
- 75g (3-1/2 oz) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano, or to taste
Directions
Place the water and parmigiano-reggiano rinds in a saucepan with a small pinch of salt. Bring to the barest of simmers and let the cheese rinds infuse in the water for at least 30 minutes, more if you want a more assertive cheese taste.
In a non-stick skillet large enough to hold all the pasta nests snugly in a single layer, place a knob of butter and a ladleful or two of the cheese broth.
Bring the broth to a lively simmer and add the tagliatelle. Let the tagliatelle simmer in the broth, loosening the nests with tongs or a wooden spoon as the pasta softens.
When the broth evaporates, add another ladleful to the skillet. Repeat as needed, stirring the pasta from time to time.
When the pasta is done to your liking and most but not all of the broth has evaporated, lower the heat as low as it will go and add the rest of the butter in chunks. Stir vigorously to melt the butter and emulsify it into the broth. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
Now turn off the heat and add the grated cheese. Give the pasta another vigorous stir, until the cheese has completely melted to form a creamy sauce.
Serve immediately. Have some more grated cheese on hand for those who want it.
Notes on pasta in bianco
As mentioned at the top, pasta in bianco is the proverbial definition of an easy dish. And it is indeed easy to turn out a passable dish without much thought. That said, this dish really sings when you pay attention to the little details. The hardest part is producing that creamy sauce without actually using any cream. You need to bear a few pointers in mind:
First, take care not to oversalt the broth, or water if you’re not using broth. Recall that here the pasta in cooking directly in the broth, which will reduce and concentrate its flavors as it evaporates, including its saltiness. Plus the cheese is also salty. So salt lightly at first, then correct for seasoning if you need to at the end of cooking.
The other trick is to keep the sauce creamy and abundant but not so much that the pasta is swiming in sauce, of course. The sauce should cling to the pasta. To get things just right, you need to judge how much liquid to leave in the skillet at the end of simmering, before you add the butter and cheese. When you are first making this dish, I’d go for less liquid. If you find the sauce is too thick, then you can always add a bit more of the broth or water. On the other hand, if the sauce is too thin, keep stirring. The pasta (especially if you’re using egg pasta) will continue to absorb the sauce the longer you stir. And if worse comes to worst, you can turn the burner back on and reduce the sauce. But do try to avoid this if you can—overheated parmigiano-reggiano loses its delicacy.
Which brings me to my final point. Especially if you’re using an egg pasta, don’t wait to eat the dish. As the pasta cools, it quickly loses its creaminess and with it much of its charm.
Choosing your pasta
You can make a pasta bianca with just about any shape or type of pasta, but personally I like to use store bought egg pastas like tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle. I find the tagliatelle that Bionaturae puts out particularly nice. Rustichella d’ Abruzzo also has an excellent product they call Egg Fettuccine. DeCecco also puts out a very good tagliatelle and pappardelle.
These pastas are made with semolina flour which makes them sturdy enough for this ‘risotto’ treatment, but they also contain egg, which gives them a lovely flavor perfect for a creamy, buttery sauce. And they’re rolled out quite thin. The result is a rather delicate pasta with almost the taste and texture of a fresh egg pasta. It cooks relatively quickly, though more than true fresh pasta (typically 6-9 minutes. That’s a plus, as there’s enough time for the pasta to absorb the taste of the parmigiano broth.
By contrast, some other brands produce ribbon pastas made with durum whweat and water only. They are really just regular pasta secca in ribbon shapes. They tend to be thicker as well. Although you could use them here, I’m personally not a fan. To tell the difference, check the ingredient list on the package to make sure it includes eggs. And take a good look at the pasta itself. It should be quite thin and have a powdery surface, just like homemade pasta.
This risotto technique for making pasta in bianco will also work with regular pasta secca like spaghetti. Indeed there is a school of thought that egg pastas absorb too much of the sauce, so it’s actually better to make pasta in bianco with pasta secca. If you go this route, it’s best to parboil the pasta in water first for a few minutes before finishing it in the broth. Cooking them from the get go in broth could result in a gummy/starchy rather than creamy sauce.
Choosing your cheese
Ideally, if you have the option, choose a younger parmigiano-reggiano for making your pasta in bianco. Young parmigiano-reggiano has a sweeter, more delicate taste and superior meltability. But most of us don’t have the option to choose the age of our parmigiano. so just go with what you can find.
Variations
You can feel free to play around with the amount of butter and cheese you use to dress the pasta to suit your personal taste. Many Italian recipes don’t even provide measurements.
You will find recipes where you shred or grate the parmigiano rind to make the broth, then strain it and degrease it. This, of course, results in a much more intense broth. I usually don’t bother as grating a stale parmigiano rind isn’t a trivial effort.
Some people prefer to make their pasta in bianco with olive oil rather than butter. In this case, you could go with pecorino rather than parmigiano-reggiano.
You can also mix things up by subbing another meltable cheese for the parmigiano-reggiano. For example, those little Laughing Cow type cheeses work well, and especially popular with the kids. Asiago or fontina are other nice choices. And for me, taleggio is a favorite alternative. Or use a combination of cheeses, although you might want to change the name at that point to pasta ai 4 (or whatever) formaggi.
Pasta in bianco using the standard method
The standard recipe for making pasta in bianco tells you to boil the pasta in abundant well salted water, just as you normally would cook pasta.
When the pasta is cooked al dente, reserve a small glassful of the pasta water. Then pour the pasta and water into a colander. Give the pasta a good shake to make sure it’s well drained.
Return the perfectly drained pasta to the empty still hot pot in which you boiled it. Add a good knob of butter then stir vigorously to dress the pasta, then add your grated cheese until it melts.
If the pasta is sticky, you can add a tiny drizzle of the reserved pasta water,
Making pasta in bianco ahead and using leftovers
You can make the parmgiano broth as far ahead as you like. And if yu have any letover, no need to throw it out. Keep it to make another pasta in bianco, or for risotto or even soup.
The pasta itself, on the other, you should really make when you want to eat. In the unlikely event you have leftovers, better to use them to make a frittata rather than trying to reheat them. But if you really must, you can reheat a pasta in bianco, adding more liquid, preferably more of the parmigiano broth, and stirring vigorously so it regains its creaminess. And do be quick about it.
Pasta in bianco
Ingredients
For making the parmigiano broth:
- 2 liters water
- 200 g rinds of parmigiano-reggiano cheese or more if you want
- a tiny pinch of salt
For the rest:
- 300-400 g store-bought tagliatelle or other pasta of your choiice
- 100 g butter or to taste
- 75 g freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano or to taste
Instructions
- Place the water and parmigiano-reggiano rinds in a saucepan with a small pinch of salt. Bring to the barest of simmers and let the cheese rinds infuse in the water for at least 30 minutes, more if you want a more assertive cheese taste.
- In a non-stick skillet large enough to hold all the pasta nests snugly in a single layer, place a knob of butter and a ladleful or two of the cheese broth.
- Bring the broth to a lively simmer and add the tagliatelle. Let the tagliatelle simmer in the broth, loosening the nests with tongs or a wooden spoon as the pasta softens.
- When the broth evaporates, add another ladleful to the skillet. Repeat as needed, stirring the pasta from time to time.
- When the pasta is done to your liking and most but not all of the broth has evaporated, lower the heat as low as it will go and add the rest of the butter in chunks. Stir vigorously to melt the butter and emulsify it into the broth. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
- Now turn off the heat and add the grated cheese. Give the pasta another vigorous stir, until the cheese has completely melted to form a creamy sauce.
- Serve immediately. Have some more grated cheese on hand for those who want it.
Nutrition
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Brilliant! Looking forward to trying this soon!
Yes, I have heard and read about the bianco, especially lately . . .and also about the rinds being used. Simple dishes are the most difficult to make to perfection – since I just love making risotto, stirring it consistently whilst in a dreamy world myself . . . this is another creation which belongs in the family . . . 🙂 !
So simple, yet elegant at the same time!
Sometimes, the simplest dishes are the best, and most comforting. I have some rinds that need using — now just need to find nests of tagliatelle. Believe it or not, they are harder to find as most places have the standard pasta secca. Thanks, Frank!
Thanks for the recipe. My first reaction is to imagine how a dash of freshly ground black pepper would enhance this dish!