This cheesy, creamy Cavatappi Pasta is a sophisticated take on mac and cheese. Cavatappi noodles, also known as corkscrew pasta, are excellent on their own or as a side dish at your next family dinner. In order to make this recipe even better, I made my own cheese sauce.
The thick, cheesy sauce adheres to the ridged corkscrew noodles in this creamy pasta bake, making every bite bursting with flavor. Cavatappi pasta’s spiral shape makes it the ideal noodle for this dish.
This, BLT pasta salad, beef stir-fry, and lasagna rolls are some of my favorite quick and simple meals.
What’s in this cavatappi pasta recipe?
This dish is a great way to eat cavatappi because the creamy, cheesy sauce also contains some nutritious ingredients. It’s perfect with a green salad or garlic bread. Here are our secrets to this creamy cavatappi pasta recipe:
Delallo is our favorite Italian foods brand, a family business that’s been around since the 1950’s. They’re obsessed with quality and making the very best in Italian foods. Pasta, tomatoes, pesto, meats and cheeses, olives and antipasti, bruschetta—they do it all.
The origin of DeLallo’s pasta, including this cavatappi pasta, is Southern Italy, in the region known as the “home of pasta” just below Naples. It is made only with the finest ingredients, including wheat and water. After that, it is extruded using bronze dies to produce a surface ideal for absorbing and capturing all sauce types. Yes, according to taste tests Alex and I conducted, bronze die pasta does in fact better absorb the flavors of the sauce. Check out all of Delallo’s pastas here!.
Ingredients for this cavatappi pasta recipe:
This pasta recipe, which only calls for 8 straightforward, accessible ingredients (plus salt and pepper), will make you fall in love with pasta. Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll need:
Typically, cavatappi is considered fully cooked when it is soft but not mushy. When it’s done, drain the water by placing the noodles in a colander or kitchen strainer. It looks like a bowl, but it has holes that let water flow through it. If desired, the pasta can then be rinsed with tap water to get rid of some of the starchiness.
Making pasta salads frequently involves using macaroni that has had coloring added. These may have a dressing made of oil and vinegar or mayonnaise. Such a dish could also include olives, pepperoni, diced tomatoes, or other ingredients. Because they complement the appearance of these additional ingredients, colored noodles are frequently used.
This type of pasta is sold in most grocery stores. It is usually easy to make, even for beginning cooks. Utilizing cavatappi, those who enjoy coming up with original recipes could create a variety of new dishes.
Without using eggs, cavatappi is a type of thick, hollow pasta similar to macaroni. This food is normally in the shape of a spiral. It occasionally has rigati, or ridges or grooves, on the outside. It might be yellow, like most pastas, or it might have green or red food coloring added to it. It can be incorporated into many different dishes, such as salads, soups, and casseroles.
It is believed that the shape of cavatappi noodles helps to retain the flavor of various dressings and sauces. It might also go well with sauces that have an oil base, like mayonnaise. The flavor of this pasta is typically enhanced by creamy or meat-based sauces.
