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Pasta,
The Star of the Show
Ideas for Pasta from  |
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Pasta,
The Star of the Show, when you dinner dinner ideas, Pasta can always come
to your rescue
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Pasta
- The Star of the Show
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| When
your stalled for dinner ideas, pasta can always come to your rescue. It's
probably the most flexible cooking ingredient around. No matter how bare
the cupboard, if you have a little pasta stashed, you have the basis for
a decent meal. For example, a bag of rigatoni sitting on the shelf, two
chorixo sausages in the freezer and half a green pepper in the fridge. When
all are cooked and combined with olive oil, freshly grated parmesan cheese
and garlic, you end up creating a delicious dinner with ingredients that
are just laying around in your kitchen. Now if you can make a good pasta dish when you're scraping the bottom of the fridge, imagine how delicious dinner can be if you plan a little and seek ingredients that you know will blend well and enhance each other. But before you go there, here a little more about pasta first, which is, after all, the star of the show waiting to be dressed up. According to the information packed, cookbook, Giuliano Bugialli's Foods of Italy, pasta was originally a southern Italian, particularly Sicilian dish. Because of its pure water, local grain and abundant sunshine, the first pasta industry was set up in Naples. The book goes on to say that Mussolini moved the cultivation of wheat, and |
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pasta, to other areas of Italy. Italian emigrants carried their taste for
pasta, and its many shapes and sizes, all around the world. Your local supermarket, corner Italian delicatessen or favorite gourmet internet site can provide pasta in its many guises, fresh or dried, from long noodles to filled crescents to giant shells and dozens more. Some pastas are made with just water and semolina flour made from hard durum wheat, which allows shaped pasta to hold together and retain its al dente texture when cooked. Other pastas may have the addition of egg, flavoring such as herbs, or colors obtained from spinach, tomato and other vegetables. Some cooks feel nervous about how to handle a food that comes in so many forms. But when it comes to basic cooking, the rules are pretty much the same for all. Most books suggest you boil the pasta in a generous amount of salted, boiling water. When cooking 18 ounces of pasta, Silvo Rizzi cook book, The Pasta Bible, recommends using 3 quarts of water flavored with salt. The salt heightens the flavor of the pasta, particularly important if yoy later are tossing it with just a few other ingredients and not heavily saucing it. The generous amount of water prevents the pasta from becoming overly starchy and sticking together as it cooks, something some cooks try to avoid by adding a little oil to the pot. Most guides advise against adding oil. They say the pasta sticks together only if you don't use enough water, and the oil will later prevent the sauce from adhering to the pasta. Some chefs however do pour in a generous amount of fragrant and flavorful extra virgin olive oil when cooking the pasta, but not to prevent the pasta from sticking, but to give it a more robust flavor. However, these pasta dishes are not topped with a tomato or cream sauce, but with vegetables that were cooked in the same oil. In this case, cooking pasta with oil definetly works. Once you pasta is cooked al dente (firm and tender to the bite), never leave it in the water waiting for the sauce to be ready, as it will expand and overcook. The sauce can wait dor the pasta, but not the other way around. When draining, never completly remove all the water or it will become dry and absorb too much sauce. If you're baking pasta in dishes such as lasagna or cannelloni, leave it a little underdone as it will finish cooking in the oven. Those are some tips on cooking pasta. Try some of the recipes we have featured, you will have the opportunity to put them into use. |
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How
to Sauce Your Pasta
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Different
types of Pasta seem to mix better with certain Sauces. Here's a guide
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| Stuffed
Pasta - Tortellini
and ravioli are examples of stuffed pastas. Because they are filled with
flavorful ingredients such as cheese, meat and mushrooms, sauces that are
simple, such as fresh tomato sauce, parmesan laced cream sauce, or simple
butter and chopped fresh herbs work best as they won't mask the stuffed
pasta's flavor. Long Pasta - String pastas, such as linguini, spaghetti and capellini, are best served with finer textured sauces that will cling to their long sides, such as tomato, ragu (meat sauce), pesto and cream. When tossing chunky sauces with long pastas, the chunks tend to end up at the bottom of the bowl. Small Pasta Shapes - These pastas, such as tiny shells, stellini (little stars) and orzo (rice-shaped pasta), are most often added to soups and sometimes, mostly in the case of orzo, are boiled and used in casseroles and side dishes that make excellent accompaniments to braised meats. Large Pasta Shapes - Rigatoni, penne and rotini are just three of the dozen of pastas in this category. Because of their shape, often hollow, ridged or cupped, they work best with chinkier sauces whose ingredients will get trapped inside these catchment areas. Ribbon-Shaped Pasta - Fettuccini and tagliatelle are long like spaghetti, but are flat and wider. They like the clingy sauces mentioned for long pasta but have a wider area that can warm to larger items, such as seafood, sliced mushrooms and crisped Italian-style bacon. |
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Homemade
Pasta
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| It's easy to make your own fresh pasta. Although the dough can be rolled out with a rolling pin, a pasta machine makes it easy. A machine thins the dough gradually, through a series of thickness settings controlled by a knob, which results in a n even, chewy texture. Support longer strips of dough as they come through the machine so they won't fold and stick together. Cut unwiedly lengths into more manageable pieces. You can refrigerate homemade pasta, tightly covered, up to 3 days, or freeze up to 1 month. Do not thaw before cooking. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Common
Pasta Dilemmas - Solved
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much do I make?
- Most package list a 2-ounce serving size, but a more generous main-dish
measure is 4 oz. dry pasta (3 oz. fresh) per person. For rich dishes you're
apt to use less. The cooked yield depends on the shape: 4 oz. of dried penne,
ziti, corkscrews = 2 1/2 cups cooked; of spaghetti, fettuccine, linguine
= 2 cups cooked; of egg noodles = 3 cups cooked. How should I store leftover noodles? - Toss them with a small amount of oil and store in a zip-tight plastic bag. What's the best way to reheat noodles? - Microwave them in a microwave-safe container or glass bowl on high for about 2 minutes, or simply place in a colander under hot running water just until warm; toss with hot sauce. What can I do with leftover noodles? - Layer them with sauteed vegetables and tomato sauce in a gratin dish, top with grated Parmesan cheese, and bake; use as an omelet or frittata filling; toss with salad dressing and a variety of crisp, colorful vegetables for a quick lunch. How can I keep cooked lasagna noodles from sticking together? - Rinse cooked noodles under cold running water, then return to saucepot with enough cold water to cover. Drain on a clean kitchen towel before using. Fresh vs. Dried? - There's no doubt that fresh, tender pasta is a delight to eat. But fresh pasta isn't superior to dried, it's simply different. fresh noodles (typical of the cooking of Northern Italy), are finer-textured and richer because they're made with eggs, and pair best with delicate sauces. By contrast, dried pasta (favored by Southern Italian cooks), which is made from flour and water, is more economical, lower in fat, and the best choice for robust, highly flavored sauces. |
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