Pasta

In Italian cuisine, pasta has always played an important role. Everyone knows that food means so much to an Italian, and that pasta is at the top of the list.

Pasta is simply a serious matter for us, especially when it comes to how to cook it.

Is it difficult to cook pasta, you might ask yourself. Well, I answer you.

It's not that difficult to cook pasta, but you have to follow some rules.

You can buy the most expensive and best pasta sold in the store, but if the pasta is overcooked, we'd say you've ruined everything.

Pasta should be al dente. That means there should be some chewing resistance.

You can find an infinite number of shapes and forms of pasta. Some estimate that there are more than 350 different types.

  • Fresh pasta with eggs: tagliatelle, tagliolini, fettuccine, pappardelle, etc.
  • Fresh pasta without eggs: trofie, orecchiette, cavatelli, gnocchetti, etc.
  • Dried pasta consisting of durum wheat and water: long pasta shapes such as spaghetti, linguine, bucatini, trenette, short pasta shapes such as sedani, farfalle, fusilli and small pasta shapes such as ditalini, stelline, ditaloni, etc.
  • Dried pasta with eggs: tagliatelle, pappardelle, garganelli, etc
  • Filled fresh pasta: agnolotti, tortellini, casoncelli, cappelletti, panzerotti, tortelloni, etc.
  • Fresh pasta with potato: gnocchi

How to cook pasta:

  • Cook the pasta in plenty of water: 1 liter per 100 g of pasta.
  • When the water boils, add 10 g of salt per liter of water.
  • Add pasta and cook uncovered.
  • Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the package.
  • Drain the pasta and mix it with the sauce in the frying pan or in a bowl.
  • Serve it right away.

NB: I recommend tasting the pasta along the way and finding the perfect consistency and chewing resistance, approx. 2-3 minutes before the package recommendation. Remember that in most recipes the pasta should be mixed with the sauce in the frying pan.

The cooking time for dried pasta is 8-10 minutes, for fresh pasta 3-4 minutes.

Calculate: 70-80 g of pasta per person if you are going to serve several dishes.

100-120 g of pasta per person if you eat it as a main meal.