Pasta, patate e provola azzeccata – pasta with potatoes and smoked provola
Pasta, patate e provola azzeccata
Mixed pasta with potatoes and smoked provola, cooked like a risotto.
Contains
“Azzeccata” is Neapolitan for “stuck together”: the pasta should stay creamy and compact, enough to hold together on the plate.
The story of Pasta, patate e provola azzeccata – pasta with potatoes and smoked provola
Pasta, patate e provola, in Naples pasta e patane, is pasta mista cooked directly in the potato base, sometimes flavoured with a parmesan rind. The provola, often smoked, goes in once the heat is off. It is a typically Neapolitan dish, not widely found elsewhere in Italy.
“Azzeccata”, in Neapolitan, means stuck together, bound: a proper pasta e patate is creamy and compact, so much so that if you tilt the plate it stays put. The parmesan rind in the base is a typical gesture of waste-not cooking.
Pasta mista comes from the same place: sellers of loose pasta gathered up the pieces left at the bottom of the barrels and sold them together. It was once called “munnezzaglia”. Born as a humble home dish, pasta e patate is today a classic of Neapolitan trattorias.
What does pasta e patate azzeccata mean?
In Neapolitan “azzeccata” means stuck together, well bound: the pasta is creamy and compact, not soupy.
What pasta is used for pasta e patate?
Pasta mista, born as a way to sell together the pieces of different shapes left at the bottom of the barrels of loose pasta.

