Luca Cesari got his first taste for pasta as a child in the 1970s in his native Bologna when his grandmother lovingly served him two Italian specialties: tagliatelle alla bolognese and tortellini. Now, in adulthood, the food historian and writer has chronicled how a wide array of pasta dishes made the Italian food staple so influential around the world in his first book, The Discovery of Pasta: A History in Ten Dishes.

“For Italians, pasta is a very identitarian food,” says Cesari, who also contributes to Gambero Rosso magazine and writes a food column for the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. “These 10 dishes I have chosen are the most representative pasta dishes in Italian cuisine.”