Making Italian Food With Pasta

Article by Owen Jones

When a non-Italian thinks of Italian food, two dishes spring to mind: pasta and pizza. Kneading the dough for a pizza involves some effort, so the first meal that most people prepare if they think to ‘cook Italian’, they attempt a pasta dish.

Despite the fact that there are thousands of Italian pasta (and pizza) recipes, most non-Italians do not prepare a dish that an Italian would recognize as Italian. In the remainder of this article we will take a look at how to make these dishes more authentic without having to move home to southern Europe.

As this piece is about pasta dishes, we ought to start with the pasta itself. Assuming that you would like to use dry pasta and boil it, you ought to only purchase pasta that is made from durum wheat semolina flour. If you want whole wheat durum semolina flour, that is all right as well.

Do not be satisfied with a pasta just because it has an Italian name. Check the ingredients. Once you have the pasta, inspect it.

Feel it, even look at it under a magnifying glass. It ought to feel course and rough. When it swells up this coarseness will allow the pasta to gather up more sauce than ‘smooth’ pasta.

Durum semolina flour is course, rough and solid which is why it is used. It is not being used because it is cheaper, so do not let anyone tell you that pasta manufactured from high quality bread flour is better. It most definitely is not.

Pasta is best consumed al dente according to Italians, which translates as ‘to the teeth’ or a bit chewy. Pasta made from most flours other than durum will not attain that quality, because it goes straight from hard to soft or over-cooked. You can easily spot this low quality if the pasta collapses or breaks up.

Once you have purchased good pasta, you have to cook it well. Pasta is starchy and will give off starch, just like rice, so it should be boiled in a large pan with plenty of water. Add salt after the water boils, if you need to and then add the pasta.

Buying the right pasta is merely half the battle, unless you just want to pour some olive oil on it or eat it with a salad.

Different pastas take various amounts of time to cook, but most cooks will have begun the sauce long before cooking the pasta anyway.

However, if the sauce is too thick and the pasta water is not very salty, you could use some of it to water the sauce down before serving. This blends the flavours rather well.

The sauce is also of regional importance, but it contains tomatoes more often than not in the south and less so as you travel north, where it is cooler.

In the north a sauce to be served with pasta might contain more vegetables and oil than in the south or the pasta may be consumed in a salad.

About the Author

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with Italian Pasta Flour. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Gourmet Food and Good Health.

{January 26, 2012} {Tags: , , , }