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Abbiamo cento grammi di pasta, ne cucino cinquanta.

Abbiamo cento grammi di pasta, ne cucino cinquanta.
We have a hundred grams of pasta, I am cooking fifty.
From Lesson 95:The partitive pronoun (ne)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Abbiamo cento grammi di pasta, ne cucino cinquanta.

What exactly does ne replace in this sentence?
In this sentence, ne replaces the phrase grammi di pasta. When you state a quantity like cinquanta (fifty) in Italian but don't repeat the noun, you must use ne to mean 'of it' or 'of them'. So ne cucino cinquanta literally means 'I cook fifty of them'.
Why is ne placed before the verb cucino?
Like other small pronouns you have learned (such as lo, la, or mi), ne is a clitic pronoun and must be placed immediately before the conjugated verb. Even though the quantity cinquanta comes after the verb, the pronoun ne still has to go before it.
Why do we just say cento instead of un cento for 'a hundred'?
In Italian, you never use the word un (a/one) before the exact numbers cento (100) or mille (1,000). While English says 'a hundred', Italian simply says cento.
Why do we use the preposition di before pasta?
Whenever you use a unit of measurement, such as grammi (grams), chili (kilos), or un litro (a liter), you must connect it to the noun using the preposition di (of). It matches the English translation perfectly here: 'hundred grams of pasta'.

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