NOW READ: How to spot the good quality gelato in Italy – and how to suss out the fakes If you follow these guidelines, you will have the best pasta of your life and will make Italians proud! In Italy, leftover pasta is usually baked with other ingredients, such as cured meat, mozzarella, boiled eggs, and vegetables, to make what’s called a pasticcio (literally meaning 'a mess'!), or mixed with eggs and transformed into a sort of tortilla pasta, called frittata di maccheroni. Meat or fish are served afterwards with a side of vegetables.ġ0) Make a new dish out of your leftoversĭon’t reheat your leftover pasta: microwave or pan, it will still taste awful. This is to enjoy the delicate harmony of flavours in full. Pasta is traditionally eaten by itself, not as a side for meat or fish. You can enhance the flavour of your dish by adding grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano, or chopped fresh herbs such as basil or parsley. Pasta is best served hot and freshly cooked. If your sauce is too thick, then add some of the reserved cooking water, which has plenty of starch, enriches the sauce, and makes it stick to the pasta. Put the pasta into your cooked sauce, turn on the heat, and sauté for a couple of minutes. READ ALSO: Nine Italian summer delicacies you simply have to taste Also, you don’t want to stop the cooking process, which continues until the pasta is plated. ![]() Drain the pasta, but never rinse it: you want to keep the starches on its surface, to help the sauce stick to it. Once it is gone, the pasta is no longer al dente.īefore you drain the pasta, you might want to reserve some of its cooking water, in case your sauce is too dense. ![]() That is called Punto Verde (green point) in Italian and indicates that the pasta is al dente. ![]() In the middle, you should be able to see a thin segment that is paler than the rest. If you want the pasta al dente, look at the section of the bit pasta. The pasta should be soft enough to bite without feeling a crunch, but still quite hard. Other pointless methods include touching the pasta or breaking it to check whether the colour inside is uniform. To check whether the pasta is cooked, flicking it at the wall and waiting for it to stick is pointless. Put your spaghetti together in the boiling water, then gently push them down.įreshly made tagliatelle. When you wind the spaghetti around the fork, it will help you catch the sauce more efficiently. READ ALSO: Don't be put off by their names – these Italian foods are actually deliciousĥ) Don’t break spaghetti or other long pasta As soon as you lower the heat to simmer, you’ll end up with mushy pasta. It will cook the pasta quicker, and it’s the only way to achieve pasta al dente. However, when added to the boiling water, the salt will raise its temperature: the water is now as hot as possible. If you add the salt to cold water, it will delay the time it takes for the water to reach boiling point. Photo: Pete/Flickrģ) Add salt only once the water is boiling Another important aspect is that boiling water will gelatinize the starches contained in the pasta, making it digestible. ![]() If you want pasta al dente, then boiling the water is essential, as the pasta has to be in contact with the water as little as possible. You will need one litre of water for every 100 grams of dry pasta. This way, the starches will disperse in the water and won’t act as glue. The only way to avoid having blobs of pasta sticking together is to use a lot of water. Also, when you drain the pasta, the oil will coat preventing the sauce from sticking to it. The oil separates and floats on the top of the water, and won’t keep your pasta from sticking together. Silvana Lanzetta is a food writer and artisan pasta maker. So here are ten golden rules for cooking the perfect pasta al dente. For the passive method, you need to use a lot of water- about five litres- to keep it hot enough for gelatinization to happen.īut if you want to eat a plate of delicious pasta al dente, the way Italians enjoy it every lunchtime, then you have to learn how to cook pasta like an Italian. Why you won't find spaghetti bolognese in Italyįor instance, soaking the pasta and the practice of not cooking the pasta in boiling water prevent the gelatinization of the starches, which is an essential process if we want to make our pasta digestible.Īnd toasting the pasta destroys the lysine and all the B vitamins which pasta is so rich in.Eat away: Italian study shows pasta won't make you fat.How to decipher Italy's mind-boggling pasta menus.The fact is that all of these fancy methods affect the pasta in ways that many cannot even imagine, and some of them are even potentially dangerous to health. A typical comment from an Italian distressed at an unorthodox recipe.īut why do we get so upset? After all, 'it’s just pasta', they say in their defence.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |