National Pasta Day: Four Tasty, Unique Varieties To Celebrate The Day

Although it's an Italian staple, pasta is a well-loved dish by most countries today. In fact, pasta has become so popular that there are over 600 types of pasta and 1300 different names around the world.

While the most popular ones are penne, spaghetti and macaroni, they also come in varieties like long pasta, short pasta, minute pasta, egg pasta, fresh pasta and al forno pasta.

Despite all debates about its origins (some say pasta is from China), Americans today have made pasta their own that they have a day to celebrate their undying devotion to one of the simplest foods.

Every Oct. 17, we observe National Pasta Day to promote this extraordinary, good, healthy, nutritious, accessible and sustainable food.

So, this year, learn about a few pasta incredible pasta recipes that will leave you asking for more.

1) Bucatini Cashew-Kombu Cream

This vegan and dairy-free dish gained popularity when chef Riccardo Orfino won the Primo di New York award for this variety. A perfect blend of Japanese and Italian cuisines, this dish is made with cashew-kombu cream, Mediterranean pesto, Sorrento lemons and breadcrumbs to give it a fresh, satisfying Mediterranean taste with rich, savoriness from the umami flavor, according to Orfino.

"Knowing that a majority of umami flavor in Japanese cuisine stems from kombu, I decided to create a cashew-kombu cream sauce and flavor it with ingredients that remind me of the southern region of Italy," chef Orfino told Forbes.

2) Angel Hair Pasta With Pesto

This recipe is simple: a classic pesto sauce comes together with just five ingredients which include basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The ingredients are then tossed with delicate angel hair pasta for a flavorful side. The dish pairs well with chicken, seafood or steak. Find the recipe here.

3) Tomato & Basil Spaghetti

Rated one of the best varieties in the U.S., Celeb chef Scott Conant’s tomato sauce recipe is hailed as stunning. It involves gently peeling and seeding perfectly-ripe tomatoes and slowly cooking them in olive oil with garlic, crushed red pepper and basil until the flavors fuse. The pasta is then cooked in well-salted water until it’s just shy of al dente so that it combines with the tomato in perfect harmony.

4) Squid Ink Linguine

At Siena Tavern in Chicago, Fabio Viviani's serves Squid Ink Linguine with a lobster tail and spicy lobster sauce. Chef Viviani complements the silky black-hued pasta dish with spicy lobster cream sauce and grilled lobster on top.

“As much as I love making traditional pasta dishes, I knew I needed to make Siena Tavern's Squid Ink Linguine a little different,” said executive chef Fabio Viviani. "Mixing the squid ink’s rich and briny flavor with a lobster’s mild and sweet flavor, there needed to be a spice to make a lasting impression which I made the sauce to be a spicy lobster cream sauce," he told Forbes.