World Pasta Day lands on October 25, and Costa Cruises used the occasion to show off just how seriously it takes the stuff. The Italian line says its fleet carries more than 100 different pasta preparations across its shipboard menus — and on a typical seven-day sailing, guests get around 80 chances to eat their way through them.
The pitch is simple: pasta isn't just a meal on a Costa ship, it's the line's whole culinary identity. The company frames it as a slice of Italian culture, the idea of gathering around a table as part of the travel experience rather than just refuelling between excursions. Priscilla Reyes, head of sales for Costa Cruises North America, put it in terms most travellers will recognise — guests can stick with a dish they already love or push the boat out (literally) with something unfamiliar.
So what's actually on the menu? Current standouts include spaghettone with green pea carbonara and mortadella, penne with arugula pesto and buffalo mozzarella that's made fresh onboard, pumpkin tortelli with basil pesto and shrimp ragout, Sardinian gnocchetti with sausage, broccoli and chilli, and mezze maniche with swordfish, Taggiasca olives and slow-roasted cherry tomatoes. It's a mix of regional classics and modern riffs, which tracks with how Italians actually eat pasta at home.
A few numbers worth knowing if you're planning to graze your way through a sailing: over 20 dishes come stuffed or filled, with fillings running from meat and ricotta to shellfish and truffle cheese. At least 32 seafood and fish pastas lean on the day's catch. Lasagna fans get 15 creative takes on the baked classic. Pesto shows up in 10 variations, tomatoes feature in at least 18 dishes, and lemon stars in at least four. Shapes range from the familiar — spaghetti — to the less travelled, like trofie, scialatielli, agnolotti, quadrotti and ferriceddi.
For anyone weighing up a cruise holiday, this matters more than it might sound. Food is a big part of what separates lines from each other, and Costa leaning hard into its Italian kitchen is a genuine point of difference against the more Americanised mega-ships. If the idea of a different pasta every night for a week sounds like your kind of holiday, that's basically the offer. It also means even picky eaters have an anchor dish they'll recognise while everyone else experiments.
The obvious audience: couples and families who want a Mediterranean itinerary with proper Italian dining built in, and anyone who books cruises partly for the food. Costa sails throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, so pairing ports like Naples, Genoa or Barcelona with onboard meals inspired by exactly those regions is the easy upsell to yourself.
Story via Cruise Industry News.
