In Italy there are strict rules to cook pasta. It’s an art to know what kind of pasta is good tor not, which kind of pasta you use for what sauce and the cooking water is very valuable.
Everyone has has own way to make their pasta. We all love pasta and everybody perfected it in their own way. Cooking pasta is something special and valuable for many many people.
These tips help for everyone who still is trying to perfect their techniques.
- Less is more: Keep it easy and keep the portions small. Because for the perfect pasta you need to used the best and freshest ingredients, therefore you don’t need much to make the dish stand out.
- Buy the best pasta possible: There is no big price difference, but the result is enormously different. Good pasta needs to be al dente. Then it has an even bite. Bad pasta will always end up mushy outside and hard on the inside. Good paste has a rough surface, so the sauce sticks to it. Because of this surface it also gives up a lot of starch to the cooking water, and so the sauce will combine perfectly. Perfect pasta has a nice subtle flavor of corn. Tipp for in the supermarket: De Cecco is the best.
- Form and sauce: Tagliatelle al Ragu, Spaghetti Carbonara, Linguine con Vongole. The name of the dish already tells you exactly what kind of pasta you need to use for the authentic dish. Also one rule easy to remember: fish made past for sauces that are based on egg or cream or very heavy sauces like ragu. Dried pasta for olive oil based sauces. Short and thick pasta for sauces with big chunks in it. Long and thin pasta for very creamy and liquid sauces.
- Don’t be stingy with the oil: Italians use a lot of olive oil. It just tastes better and the sauce stays longer warm.
- Honor the cooking water: The starch fro the pasta stays in the cooking water. The secret why pasta is so much better in Italy or a very good Italian restaurant is because they add to the sauce some of the cooking water. The starch from the water maces the sauces even creamier.
