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Master chef secrets of making delicious italian pasta
from: MilkaThe chef’s secrets turn your Italian experiments into finger-licking
meals. Here’s how the chefs prepares delicious Italian pasta with simple tips
and tricks.
► Good quality pasta will not make the boiling
water cloudy or frothy. Stir the pasta in the beginning as this is when the
maximum starch is released and the pasta tends to stick. You’ll need 10 times
more water than the quantity of pasta used.
► Classic Italian cooking uses ingredients that are
fresh and in season such as tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, peas, bell peppers,
mushrooms, spinach, etc. So at the risk of Indian-ising your pizza in favour of
flavour, use vegetables such as marinated zucchini or eggplants instead of
tinned mushrooms.
► Fresh herbs taste
better than dried ones. Buy small quantities of fresh basil, oregano, thyme,
parsley etc. that you should use quickly. To store, wrap the fresh herbs in wet
paper tissues and refrigerate.
► Buy fresh meat, sea
food and use the bones, shells to make up some stock. When making sauces,
replace water with stock to bring in great flavours.
► Never add oil when
boiling the pasta, or hold it under running water; or toss it with butter
before letting it mix with the sauce. These prevent the sauce from coating the
pasta during final cooking.
► The perfect way is
to cook the pasta a minute or two less than recommended (Average cooking time
is between 8-10 minutes), adding about 7 grams of salt per litre, drain it and
toss it in the sauce for a few minutes (which is on medium flame), where it
will cook again, imbibing the flavours.
► With
over 200 kinds of pastas, pairing can be a bit tricky. A generic guide would
be: Thin and delicate pastas like spaghetti are best paired with smooth and
thin sauces which coat the surface evenly; Ridged pasta or tubed ones, like
penne go best with chunkier sauces (like arabiatta) which can be trapped by
their texture. Thicker pasta shapes like fettuccine go best with heavier and
creamier sauces.
► The
correct proportion of sauce to pasta is equal portions of both, but a couple of
extra spoons is fine if you like it that way.
► When marinating meats,
poultry or seafood, do not add salt, as it draws out the moisture. Salt your
proteins on the grill.
► Invest
in good quality olive oil for salads, preferably extra virgin oil. Olive oil
imparts a great taste and flavour when cooking.
► When
making the sauce, use wine to deglaze loosens burnt bits of sauce stuck at the
bottom of the pan. This is where all the flavour is.
The wine should be of moderate quality. Ideally, white wine should be used for
deglazing milder flavoured sauces that contain cream, seafood and vegetarian
ingredients; red wine is for red meats and sauces with stronger flavours such
as Rosemary.
► Put
day-old bread to use in bruschettas, sandwiches or paninis. These tend to be
crispier and hold toppings better.
► Always
sauce your pizza leaving a quarter inch of rim, and cover the sauce completely
with cheese and toppings, so that it doesn’t burn during cooking.
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