Name: Papalina Pasta Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 onion (minced); 7 oz prosciutto (thick slices, cut into strips); 3 tbsp butter; 4 egg yolks; 1 whole egg; 3 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (finely grated); 1 tsp black pepper (freshly ground); 1 pinch fine salt (or to taste); 14 oz fettuccine pasta

Jump to Recipe

Ever wonder where Italian restaurants abroad got the idea to add onions into Pasta Carbonara? While onions are absolutely not traditional in the authentic Spaghetti Carbonara recipe, it is traditional in another traditional pasta dish: Fettuccine alla Papalina! Keep reading to learn how to make the legendary Papalina Pasta recipe. Fun fact: Fettuccine alla Papalina translates to ‘Pope’s Fettuccine‘ in Italian!

Watch the Video Recipe!

Prefer to watch the video recipe for Papalina Pasta? Click on the video below:

Watch this video on YouTube.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

More video recipes? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (it’s FREE) and click the bell to get notifications when we release a new video recipe!

In Italian? Fettuccine alla Papalina Ricetta Originale

Discover Our Cookbook!

Pasta Affair: 50 Authentic Italian Recipes

While tripe isn’t for everyone, this is the definitive Italian Tripe recipe for anyone who likes beef tripe. The sauce—with tomato, mint, white wine and pecorino cheese—is divine.

This recipe uses beef tripe parts from all three edible stomachs of the cow. Preparing tripe is not complicated—the complicated part may be finding it at a local butcher!

Tripe is extremely nutritious! It is low in fat and high in protein. In ancient times, it was a main source of nutrition for poor Italians who couldn’t afford choicer cuts of meat.

Watch the Video Recipe!

Learn how to make Italian Tripe recipe with our video recipe, filmed in Italy:

Watch this video on YouTube.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

More video recipes? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (it’s FREE) and click the bell to get notifications when we release a new video recipe!

How to Make Italian Tripe

For the complete recipe for making Roman Tripe, check out the recipe card below!

What is Tripe?

Tripe is the edible stomachs of the cow. There are three, each with a different texture.

Boil it for 15 minutes.

Even if the tripe you’ve purchased is already clean, we recommend boiling it in salt water with onion, carrot and celery for 15 minutes to remove any lingering odor.

Serve with bread!

Italian Tripe is traditionally served with bread for a fantastic scarpetta (sopping up the sauce).

Best Pasta Cookbook? Ours!

Seductive strands of pasta and sumptuous sauces… Are you ready to indulge in an unforgettable Pasta Affair? This cookbook is a must-have for any serious lover of Italian food, featuring over 50 classic pasta recipes you can make at home!

FIND IT ON AMAZON!

AVAILABLE AS A PRINT HARDCOVER OR EBOOK

Tomato Products We Recommend

This tripe recipe calls for crushed tomatoes. In Italy, Italians have a secret for crushed tomatoes: they use or buy whole peeled tomatoes, remove the seeds and ‘water’ and then crush them with a blender or by hand. Why not just buy crushed tomatoes?

Italians know that canned crushed tomatoes tend to be less sweet than passata (purée) or whole peeled canned tomatoes. This is because skins and seeds often make their way into crushed tomato products, which produces a less sweet product.

For dishes like Roman Style Tripe (Trippa alla Romana), here in the PIATTO™ kitchen we tend to use:

cans of whole peeled tomatoes from Mutti or Pomì (Amazon affiliate links)

To find out more about why, check out our guide on best canned tomatoes for sauce!

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means at no extra cost to you, PIATTO may earn a small commission if you click the links and make a qualifying purchase.

Other Italian Tripe Recipes

Check out the traditional recipe for Trippa alla Fiorentina (Florence Style Tripe) on our website!

Discover More Roman Food Recipes!

Rome Food

Sardinian Food

Sicilian Food

Tuscan Food

Umbria Food

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means at no extra cost to you, PIATTO may earn a small commission if you click the links and make a qualifying purchase.

Italian Tripe Recipe – Trippa alla Romana

PIATTO RECIPES

The traditional tripe dish of Rome! The tomato sauce—with tomato, mint, white wine and pecorino cheese—is divine.

4.98 from 44 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 2

Total Time 2 20

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean

Servings people

Calories 266 kcal

Ingredients

2.2 lb beef tripe cleaned
1 onion for pre-cooking the tripe
1 carrot for pre-cooking the tripe
1 rib celery for pre-cooking the tripe
1 onion chopped
½ carrot chopped
1 rib celery chopped
28 oz crushed tomatoes
handful fresh mint minced
4 tbsp pecorino romano cheese finely grated
½ cup dry white wine
4 tbsp olive oil or as needed
fresh chili peppers to taste
fine salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Instructions

Pre-Cook the Tripe

Boil the tripe for 15 minutes in salted water with a whole onion, carrot and celery to remove the last of the odor. Drain and set aside.

Sauté the Tripe

Coat the bottom of a skillet generously with olive oil. Sauté the chopped onion, carrot and celery over medium-low heat until the onions start to appear translucent.
Add the tripe to the vegetables and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes over medium heat.
Add a ½ cup of white wine. Stir, and cook until the wine has evaporated.

Make the Sauce

Add crushed tomato and a 1 1/2 cups of water to the tripe.
Bring the sauce to a boil. Add a handful of fresh mint and a pinch of salt.
Cover and cook the tripe in the sauce over medium-low heat for 2 hours.

Finish with Pecorino Cheese

After the two hours, turn off the heat and add about 4 Tbs of freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Stir to melt the cheese.
Feel free to top with more pecorino when you serve the dish.

Video

Watch this video on YouTube.

Nutrition

Sodium: 358mgCalcium: 152mgVitamin C: 24mgVitamin A: 4360IUSugar: 13gFiber: 6gPotassium: 813mgCholesterol: 5mgCalories: 266kcalSaturated Fat: 3gFat: 16gProtein: 6gCarbohydrates: 23gIron: 3mg

Keyword healthy

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Papalina Pasta: the Legend

Fettuccine alla Papalina was a dish that was allegedly invented to feed Pope Pius XII’s request for a ‘lighter’ and more refined version of the traditional Spaghetti Carbonara recipe. Papalina pasta has:

a creamy egg and cheese sauce
prosciutto (instead of the guanciale or pancetta found in traditional Carbonara)
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese ( instead of the pecorino cheese found in Carbonara)
onions and butter (not in a traditional Carbonara at all!)

In our opinion, the traditional Papalina Pasta recipe is definitely not ‘lighter’ (hello: butter), but it is certainly gourmet! It is delicious and it is serious comfort food.

How to Make Papalina Pasta

Ingredients for Fettuccine alla Papalina!

Sauté the Onion in Butter, Add Prosciutto

To make this dish, we start by sautéing minced onions in butter— with a ladle of hot pasta water.

Once the onion is translucent, we add prosciutto. For Papalina pasta, we need thick slices of prosciutto—cut into strips. The thickness of the prosciutto should be about 1/4 inch (1/2 a centimeter). One slice of our prosciutto weighed around 4 ounces (120 grams).

Thick slices of prosciutto, cut into strips replace guanciale in this Roman pasta dish!

The prosciutto in this pasta recipe is cooked just to heat it and to lend its flavor to the butter and onions. We don’t need to make the prosciutto crispy, as we would with guanciale in a traditional Spaghetti Carbonara.

Prepare the Creamy Egg Sauce

Slowly adding a bit of hot pasta water to the egg and cheese.

Papalina Pasta is often thought of as a ‘Carbonara’ with prosciutto, onions and butter because it does have an egg sauce that is similar to an authentic Spaghetti Carbonara recipe.

For the Papalina Pasta sauce, we follow our traditional Carbonara recipe:

one egg yolk per person
plus a whole egg for the pan

To create the egg and cheese sauce, we start by just mixing the cheese with the egg.

While pecorino cheese is traditional for Spaghetti Carbonara, finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is mixed with the egg to make Papalina Pasta sauce. For the best flavor, freshly grate the cheese. We’ll also need a bit of hot pasta water for our egg sauce, but first we need to….

Cook the Pasta

The pasta traditionally served with Papalina Pasta is fettuccine!

For this dish, we cook the fresh fettuccine almost entirely in the pot. This is in contrast to some other Roman pasta recipes like Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe, in which the pasta is only partially cooked in a pot and then transferred to a skillet and finished in a sauce or infused water.

Fresh Fettuccine Cooks Quickly!

Fresh fettuccine requires only two to three minutes to cook. Add less salt to the pasta water than you normally would—to account for the fact that prosciutto is quite salty and will add salt to the finished dish.

Finish the Pasta with Sauce

While the pasta is cooking, we slowly add a little less than a ladle of hot pasta water to the egg and cheese—mixing continuously! This will help the egg and cheese to bind together. By adding the water slowly a bit at a time and mixing constantly, we prevent the eggs from reaching a temperature at which they would coagulate. We don’t want a clumpy egg sauce!

When the fettuccine is al dente, strain it and add it to the onion/butter/prosciutto in the skillet. After mixing to combine the pasta with these ingredients, remove the skillet from the heat and add the egg sauce—off the heat!

Eggs begin to coagulate at a temperature of about 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit)— so it’s important not to cook the eggs over direct heat.

Tips for Making this Papalina Pasta Recipe

Salt the Pasta Water Less!

Salt the pasta water less than you would normally for cooking Italian pasta. Why? Both prosciutto and Parmigiano cheese are quite salty. Taste the finished pasta and add more salt if needed at that time.

Add Egg Sauce off the Heat!

Eggs can coagulate quite quickly over a heat source. Carbonara sauces (like this one) should always be added off the heat to avoid making clumpy sauce.

Carbonara: Frequently Asked Questions

Are the eggs in Carbonara sauces safe to eat?

Eggs that aren’t thoroughly cooked do carry the risk of foodborne illness like salmonella.

The FDA recommends heating eggs to a temperature of 160° F in order to be safe from foodborne illness. This is tough to do in a carbonara sauce manually without cooking the eggs—and ending up with clumpy sauce.

However, if you use a sous vide or another machine that can continuously whisk the eggs while maintaining a specific temperature, it can be done. We’ll address this technique in another post.

How is an Authentic Italian Carbonara Recipe Prepared?

You are looking for this Spaghetti Carbonara recipe —considered traditional in Italy today!

Is there a Spaghetti Carbonara with Cream and Bacon?

If the Carbonara recipes that you love have American bacon and cream, you are probably looking for something like the WWII Spaghetti Carbonara recipe!

This ‘American-style’ Carbonara is in fact one of the origin stories for Carbonara, and we have re-created the recipe for you using the memoirs of the Italian Chef who said he invented it!

WWII Carbonara with Cream and Bacon— if we believe the legend, this could be the ‘first’ Carbonara!

Discover More Cheesy Italian Food Recipes

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means at no extra cost to you, PIATTO may earn a small commission if you click the links and make a qualifying purchase.

Papalina Pasta Recipe

PIATTO RECIPES

A dish that was allegedly invented to feed Pope Pius XII's request for a 'lighter' and more refined version of the traditional Carbonara! Fettuccine alla Papalina has prosciutto, butter, onion and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

4.99 from 147 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean

Servings people