Pasta cooking tips
Pasta cooking tips, easy pasta recipes become better if you apply some Italian cooking methods.
How to cook pasta?
Well, I mean all those small details that are not written on the labels and that can help you be successful in your cooking experience.
Cooking Italian food is simple. There are a few complex dishes, but it is mostly simple.
What makes it so good then?
The quality of the ingredients used. Good quality cheese, good quality meat, good quality vegetables, good quality oil, and.. good quality pasta!
The authentic italian pasta recipe is prepared using durum wheat. In some countries there are pasta made with common wheat and do you know what happens? It is no tasty and it does not resist to cooking, becoming too soft.
So, if you decide to make pasta at home, buy the right wheat, right?
• How much pasta should you cook for dinner?
Well, the restaurants' measure uses to be about 0.18lb per person. At home we commonly use 0.22lb per person. It will also depend on the appetite and if pasta is the only dish or if it comes with other sides.
• What kind of pasta should you prepare?
There are no fixed rules, but there are many “advices”. For example, pasta aglio e olio - garlic and oil is always spaghetti! The same for seafood …understand why they're named seafood spaghetti?
The pasta al pesto can be done with any pasta, but it is better with short ones because it is easier to mix, as the cheese and pine nuts could stick using long pasta as spaghetti or other.
Pasta all'amatriciana , in its original version, is done with bucatini (kind of huge spaghetti with a hole in its middle). It is good, but often it is done using tortiglioni (short shape), as bucatini uses to easily stain the eater's clothes!
• If you are cooking fresh pasta, it is better to add some oil (about a tablespoon) to the salted water. It will avoid pasta to stick one with another. But it doesn't mean you don't have to mix it once in a while.
• If you are seasoning your pasta with tomato sauce, try adding some grated parmesan cheese before adding the sauce. Mix it and then add the sauce. Use the pan you cooked it to mix it easily and better. After mixing, put it on the serving plate and take it to the table.
• Do not forget the cooking time, it's one of the most important pasta cooking tips! When you begin to appreciate a well cooked pasta (I mean cooked for the right time, al dente), you will not accept overcooked pasta anymore! It is like our mind, when it opens, it is not possible to go back!
• Pay attention when you buy fresh ravioli or other stuffed pasta. This pasta has to be done using eggs. Otherwise, during the boiling, they will open and loose their stuff.
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