What’s the Most Loved Pasta Topping in Italy? Statistical Favorites

Getting ready to dive into that scrumptious pasta dish? (Fingers crossed it’s al dente!) Ever wonder “What are the everyday pasta toppings in Italy?“

• Common everyday choices in Italian homes include pasta al Pomodoro, pasta Cacio e Pepe, and pasta with Pesto.
• In Italian restaurants, one of the most requested pasta toppings is Carbonara, as some statistics highlight.
• Italy’s diverse regions each have their signature pasta sauce variations, yet some favorites, like spaghetti alla Carbonara, remain universally loved.

In Italian homes, where convenience and taste merge, you’ll often find dishes like pasta al Pomodoro, pasta Cacio e Pepe, and pasta with Pesto leading the charge.

While Spaghetti carbonara — loaded with guanciale, eggs, Pecorino cheese, and black pepper — reigns supreme in Italian restaurants, the heart of Italy’s pasta culture can be found in its diverse regional sauces.

Whether it’s the renowned red meat sauce (ragu) or another ragu variant, each region adds its own unique flair.

Interestingly, despite this vast variety, some pasta dishes stand out as Italian favorites. So, what do Italians really put on their everyday pasta?

The core of these choices can change from region to region and lies in a combination of tradition, ease of preparation, and a deep-rooted passion for quality cuisine. Dive into the details below to discover more.

Top Pasta Dishes Italians Order (an Love) Most Frequently

1. Spaghetti carbonara
2. Tagliatelle with meat sauce
3. Gnocchi alla sorrentina
4. Lasagna
5. Penne all’arrabbiata
6. Amatriciana
7. Spaghetti allo scoglio
8. Tortellini panna e prosciutto
9. Penne with salmon
10. Tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms

As an Italian, I don’t find that surprising; everybody loves spaghetti alla carbonara!

Now, if I’ve made you want to cook some spaghetti carbonara, forget the cream and read on.

As I’ll show you through some data I’ve gathered, spaghetti carbonara (here, you can read the commandments of an Italian-proof carbonara) is the most consumed and requested pasta sauce in Italy. Therefore, it is also the most loved!

In this ranking compiled by mastercard.com, which investigated all the comfort foods that Italians cooked the most during the pandemic years when we were all at home, at the top we find the timeless spaghetti carbonara, the most-cooked dish for 50.5 percent of Italians.

Top Comfort Foods Italians Love to Cook Most

1. Spaghetti carbonara (50.5%)
2. Tiramisu (43.1%)
3. Lasagna Bolognese (43%)
4. Cannelloni (33.6%)
5. Pasta and beans (33%)

Meanwhile, another ranking, conducted by the food delivery app JustEat, analyzed the trend of pasta orders over the past year and recorded as many as 32.000 kilograms of pasta ordered at home. In the ranking, guess who we find in first place?

Spaghetti carbonara again tops the list, although here we are talking about the kinds of pasta most ordered via delivery in Italy.

Given these rankings, we see that spaghetti carbonara is always in the first place. Whether we are talking about the most cooked pasta by Italians or the most ordered pasta by Italians, we can conclude that carbonara sauce is the pasta sauce that Italians use the most on their steaming pasta plates.

Alright, we get it: spaghetti carbonara is the iconic pasta dish for the average Italian. But don’t be fooled; every Italian region boasts its own unique pasta dishes that might be lesser-known but are equally delicious. Check out this list of typical Tuscan pasta dishes. Have you heard of all of them before?