Elizabeth Taylor's Favorite Pasta Is A Tomato Lover's Dream

Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor was known for many things, and among them was a zest for decadent foods. Her tastes ranged from the more mundane — fried chicken was her favorite dish — to the exorbitant, like beluga caviar — a lavish seafood product once banned in the United States — and expensive vintages of Dom Pérignon. The actress enjoyed vacationing in Portofino, Italy, and spent four honeymoons out of eight marriages there, so developing a taste for Italian food was a given for the star. Her go-to pasta was a classic dish that placed tomatoes in the spotlight: spaghetti with tomato sauce.

The simple, traditional dish was one Taylor regularly ordered during her frequent stays at Splendido, a luxury hotel in Portofino where many celebrities, past and present, have retreated to relax and revel in life's finer things. While we don't know precisely what Taylor's spaghetti order consisted of in those days — was it generously sprinkled with Parmigiano Reggiano, for instance, or perhaps tossed with fresh basil? — we do know the glamorous gourmand reportedly enjoyed consuming the dish outdoors on the hotel's terrace. Taylor was also a big fan of alcoholic drinks, so it's a safe bet her classic spaghetti dish was likely paired with some form of high-end cocktail or fine wine.

Splendido still remembers its famous guest, who died in 2011. A refined spaghetti pomodoro now graces the menu at La Terrazza, one of the hotel's restaurants, in Taylor's honor. The dish features datterini tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes, along with Verrigni spaghetti — the world's only pasta drawn from die molds made of gold — and basil from the city of Prà, which is the most sought-after Italian basil.

In addition to her affinity for one of the most fundamental Italian pasta dishes, Elizabeth Taylor's varied tastes included a love for a treat known as toffee fudgies. The dessert, a gooey brownie/fudge hybrid, featured four different forms of chocolate, Heath toffee bits, and espresso powder. The star reportedly kept some in a small fridge in her bedroom so it was always an easy grab if a craving struck.

While Taylor utilized the services of personal chefs during her lifetime, she also knew her own way around a kitchen. When she did her own cooking, one dish she specialized in was grilled chicken breast accompanied by a sauce made from cream, avocado, and cognac. It was a recipe she sometimes made for actor husband Richard Burton, whom she married not once but twice. The pair shared a love for both traveling and feasting, and their time spent together often included consuming large amounts of both food and alcohol. A favorite drink of Taylor's was by no means upscale, comprised of chocolate syrup, vodka, and Kahlua.

Among her expensive tastes, the actress also had various other, more prosaic favorites. At holiday time, she enjoyed fried turkey legs and cranberry sauce right out of the can. She was a regular patron at famed Hollywood restaurant Chasen's, but while the menu featured delicacies like her beloved beluga caviar and veal scallopini a la Marsala, her go-to order was the establishment's chili. She loved it so much that she asked the restaurant's owner to ship it to her in Italy while she was filming "Cleopatra."