Sylvester Stallone's Go-To Dish Is An Italian Staple Fit For A 'Very Simple Eater'

Before his breakout role in "Rocky," Hollywood titan Sylvester Stallone used to consume a half a dozen raw eggs for breakfast because his New York City apartment had no refrigerator or stove for cooking. In reality, the potential risk of such a practice probably outweighs any benefits to drinking raw eggs. He famously recreated this gag-inducing morning ritual in the sleeper-hit film in 1976. Despite his connection with this meal, Stallone certainly doesn't count it as a favorite. Instead, the actor, who calls himself "a very simple eater," considers an Italian classic as the dish he adores above all others: rigatoni with meat sauce, as he recounted with Allrecipes.

Stallone openly admitted that he never developed much of a gourmet palate, having been largely raised on tv dinners, yet his Italian heritage seems to be inherent in his choice of saucy rigatoni as his favorite food. This didn't stop him, though, from becoming a founding partner in Planet Hollywood; once a juggernaut in the industry, Planet Hollywood dwindled to just two locations. The actor also enjoys fried chicken, a dish he has worked to perfect. These comfort foods are a long way from his raw egg breakfast and the dangerous eating habits Stallone developed while filming "Rocky III."

Sylvester Stallone didn't give specifics on how he likes his rigatoni with meat sauce, other than saying that it has to be topped with parmesan cheese. This dish can be made fairly quickly, or it can be an all day process. For the former, all you really need to do is brown your meat (It can be ground beef, Italian sausage, or whatever ground meat you prefer) and add it to your favorite jarred pasta sauce, then combine the sauce with cooked rigatoni. Many low-and-slow cooked versions of this dish are called rigatoni with Bolognese sauce, noting the classic, slow-cooked Italian meat sauce.

Bolognese sauce is traditionally made with aromatics sautéed in oil or butter, plus ground meat (beef, veal, pork, and bacon are often used), wine, spices, tomatoes, and milk or cream. It's excellent with rigatoni because not only do the pasta ridges cling to the rich sauce, but the sauce also creeps inside the large tubes. The longer cook time probably wouldn't qualify the recipe as "simple," but it does result in unparalleled flavor. You can even bake rigatoni with meat sauce. This version usually involves making a meat sauce and combining it with pasta, then placing the mixture in a baking dish and covering the top with mozzarella cheese (and sometimes layering it with creamy béchamel sauce, one of the five mother sauces of French cooking).