Pasta with potatoes and provola: the creamy and stringy Neapolitan recipe

If you are looking for the authentic recipe for pasta, potatoes and provola, you are in the right place. This is one of the most loved dishes of Neapolitan cuisine: simple in its ingredients, complex in its flavours, with that creamy and stringy consistency that leaves no escape. 

In this guide you will find the traditional recipe step by step, the secrets to avoid making mistakes and the variant with our Provolone del Monaco, the cheese that takes this dish to a completely different level.

The origins of the dish

Pasta, potatoes and provola was born as a dish of poor Neapolitan cuisine. The first documented traces date back to 1773, when the dish was already widespread among the working class families of Naples. At that time, potatoes and pasta were the cheapest and most accessible foods on the market: combining them was a necessity, not a gastronomic choice. The provola and pancetta arrived in the following decade, enriching an already successful recipe.

Today it is a comfort food in all respects: warm, enveloping, perfect in the cold months but good all year round.

Three characteristics distinguish it from all other pasta dishes:

• Mixed pasta (in Neapolitan: munnezzaglia): different shapes mixed together, once leftovers from the pantry. Today it is already packaged, but the anti-waste principle has remained;

• Risotto cooking: the pasta cooks directly in the sauce, absorbing all the flavor of the sauce and potatoes;

• The "perfect" consistency: Neapolitan slang term to indicate an almost solid consistency, creamy but not soupy. There is no compromise on this.

Provola or Provolone del Monaco? The difference that matters

The traditional recipe includes provola from Campania, ideally smoked. The one that is found everywhere in Campania and which, in contact with hot pasta, becomes stringy and fragrant.

But if you want to take the dish to a higher level, the choice is Provolone del Monaco.

It is a semi-hard stretched curd cheese produced exclusively in the Lattari Mountains, in the province of Naples. Its curious name comes from the farmers who came down to Naples by sea wrapped in jute cloaks: at the port they called them "monks", and the nickname remained with the cheese they brought.

For this recipe, six months' maturation is ideal:

• Too fresh: it spins unevenly and the flavor is still neutral.

• Too seasoned: the spiciness covers the delicate flavor of the potatoes.

• At six months: well-defined character, with a persistent sweetness that balances the spicy note.

The compact structure of Provolone del Monaco allows it to be used twice: grated to cream the dish, in wedges to garnish each portion. Two consistencies, two intensities of flavour.

Pasta, potatoes and provolone from Monaco: ingredients (for 4 people)

• 160 g of mixed pasta

• 2 medium floury potatoes (about 350 g)

• 120 g of provola from Campania (or Mid-mature Provolone del Monaco Casabufala

• 1 golden onion

• 1 stick of celery

• 1 carrot

• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste (or 4-5 fresh cherry tomatoes)

• 50 g of extra virgin olive oil

• 1 sprig of rosemary

• Salt and black pepper to taste

How to prepare: step by step recipe

1. The sauté

Finely chop the onion, celery and carrot. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan and brown the vegetables over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add the tomato paste (or the cherry tomatoes cut in half) and mix until incorporated into the sauce.

2. Potatoes

Peel the potatoes and cut them into regular cubes, similar to the size of the pasta you will use. Add them to the sauce and brown them for 5 minutes, stirring. Then cover with hot water (about 600 ml), salt lightly and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft but still hold their shape.

The wooden spoon trick: once the potatoes are finished cooking, gently mash 2-3 potato cubes against the edge of the pan. This operation will release the starch, creating that creamy base that characterizes the authentic dish.

3. Pasta

Add hot water until well covered, bring to the boil and pour in the pasta. Cook stirring often, the risotto pasta tends to stick to the bottom. Add water a little at a time only if necessary: the final result must be thick, not soupy.

Add salt at the end of cooking.

4. Provola

Cut the provola cheese into cubes. With the heat off, add the cheese cubes and mix vigorously. The provola melts with the residual heat becoming stringy and creamy. You can also cover with a lid for 2-3 minutes and let it melt "passively", without stirring.

5. The plating

Serve immediately, with freshly ground black pepper and a few fresh rosemary needles. Pasta with potatoes and provola should be eaten hot, freshly made: waiting means losing that stringiness that makes it irresistible.

Which potatoes to use to avoid mistakes?

Floury floury potatoes are the right choice: they partially yield during cooking, releasing starch and contributing to the creaminess of the dish. Yellow-fleshed potatoes work great. Avoid new potatoes or firm ones: they hold their shape too much and don't give that creamy base you're looking for.

Variations of the recipe

Pasta, potatoes and provola is a dish that lends itself to many interpretations. Some of the most popular:

With bacon: add 80 g of diced bacon and brown it in the pan before the potatoes. It adds flavor and a smoky note that goes very well with provola cheese.

In white: omit the tomato paste for a more delicate version, where only the flavor of the potatoes and the creaminess of the cheese emerge.

With fresh cherry tomatoes: in summer, replace the concentrate with 5-6 datterini cherry tomatoes cut in half, the result is fresher and livelier.

With sausage: in some richer variations, shelled sausage replaces (or joins) the bacon in the sauté.

Preservation methods

The potato and provola pasta should be eaten as soon as it is made. If there is any leftover (which is rare), keep it in the refrigerator for up to a day and reheat it in a pan with a little water.

But there is an even tastier alternative: put the leftovers in a pan, add a few cubes of provolone on the surface and bake in the oven at 180° for 15 minutes. A golden, stringy crust will form which transforms the dish from the day before into something completely different.

Provolone del Monaco Casabufala: selected directly from the Lattari Mountains

The Provolone del Monaco Casabufala is selected directly from the dairies of the Lattari Mountains and shipped to your home. The medium-mature variety is the right choice for this recipe: it has developed character and aromatic complexity without losing the balance that serves to enhance, and not cover, the flavor of the potatoes.

Order the Provolone del Monaco Casabufala and prepare this recipe with the cheese that comes directly from the Lattari Mountains.