Tagliatelle Story

Pasta comes in all shapes and sizes, but one of Italy’s favorites is tagliatelle. This wide, flat noodle holds a special place in the hearts of Italians.

The Italian National Registry even preserved the original recipe and created a gold cast replica of the ideal noodle measurements. Not only does tagliatelle provide the ideal base for traditional ragúsauce, it also serves as an interesting footnote to the story of Lucrezia Borgia, the famous illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander. According to legend, as the city of Bologna prepared for Lucrezia’s third marriage—this time to Alfonso I d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara—the lord of Bologna charged a chef to prepare the wedding banquet. The chef took inspiration from Lucrezia’s long golden locks and cut pasta into thin golden strips, thus creating the iconic tagliatelle noodle.

As they like to say in Italy, “Conti corti e tagliatelle lunghe,” or “May you have short bills and long tagliatelle.”

— Submitted by Dr. Marie Orton, French and Italian