Your favorite quick pasta

Most of us have a few really great pasta dishes in our hip pockets. Those quick old standbys that can be enjoyed in the time it takes to boil a pot of water.

Today I sauted some onion and garlic in extra virgin oil, then added a can of San Marzano tomatoes. A touch of salt, sugar, and pepper followed by ten or twelve torn basil leaves.

Boiled some linguini fini and grated some Reggiano. Sometimes I'll use Pecorino Romano or Roth Kase's 2 yr. old "Stravecchio". I usually top this with some thinly sliced serranp chile.

Evil

If cous-cous counts as pasta in your book, here's my favorite:

I like to dice some veggies, coat with olive oil and roast in the oven for 15 mins (squash, onions, green beans, whatever's handy). Meanwhile, boil up some chicken or veggie stock and make some cous-cous. Fluff it up, mix in the veggies, toasted almond slices or pine nuts, fresh ground pepper, fresh parsley, and serve (maybe with a dollop of sour cream or greek yogurt).

This works well for me by itself or with almost any grilled meat.

Evil Ronnie wrote: Today I sauted some onion and garlic in extra virgin oil, then added a can pf San Marzano tomatoes. A touch of salt, sugar, and pepper followed by ten or twelve torn basil leaves.

Boiled some linguini fini and grated some Reggiano. Sometimes I'll use Pecorino Romano or Roth Kase's 2 yr. old "Stravecchio". I usually top this with some thinly sliced serranp chile.

Evil

Evil,

Yours sounds good but, along similar lines, it goes for me this way:

Pick one: onion OR garlic, lose the sugar, use perciatelli or spaghetti, and there you have what the Angels in heaven dine upon. If you want heat, use dried red chili ground up; if so, leave out the cheese or else use only a sheeps milk cheese that is sharp, i.e., imported pecorino romano or incannestrato.

I'm a traditionalist and in this regard, I believe the Neapolitan tradition cannot be bested.

Antonius

Evil Ronnie wrote:Today I sauted some onion and garlic in extra virgin oil, then added a can pf San Marzano tomatoes. A touch of salt, sugar, and pepper followed by ten or twelve torn basil leaves.

Boiled some linguini fini and grated some Reggiano. Sometimes I'll use Pecorino Romano or Roth Kase's 2 yr. old "Stravecchio". I usually top this with some thinly sliced serranp chile. Evil

Hey Ronnie,

I do the same thing as you.

If I'm out of San Marzano's, I'll use some Trader Joe's jarred roasted red peppers. I also use a touch of turbinado sugar, or succinat, instead of white sugar. The fresh basil is huge. I add some ground red pepper to the sauce and I also use onion AND garlic.

For the pasta, I've been using DeCecco's whole wheat linguine or fettucini, until recently. Now we can't stop using Trader Joe's frozen Gorgonzola and walnut tortellini (made in Italy). Better than most fresh tortellini than you can easily find. A very nice, thin pasta. Topped with some grated Reggiano.

It's way too good for being that quick and easy.

Al

Penne takes exactly as long to cook as required for a quick roux, a bit of milk, and some grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese to turn into sauce. I'll often add some of the Paulina Market's tasso ham and a handful of peas or their smoked Italian sausage and a couple shakes of crushed red pepper.

Edit: Forgot to mention earlier that my favorite pasta is Abruzze (or something close to that), and it's sold at both Fox & Obel and Cost Plus World Market. The latter (believe it or not) is cheaper. And Ronnie, I'm looking forward to trying your recipe.

Al Ehrhardt wrote:Now we can't stop using Trader Joe's frozen Gorgonzola and walnut tortellini (made in Italy).

Hearty second for this TJ pasta.

Ronnie
Where do you get the Roth kase cheese. Its one of our favorites but haven't tried that particular one.
Paulette

My favorite quick pasta:

1 lb bucatini
1/3 c evoo
8-12 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
pinch of red pepper flakes
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
salt
1/2 c pecorino, grated

Cook pasta, saute garlic in oil (add pepper flakes early in this process for spicier flavor, later for more subtle heat). When garlic begins to brown at the edges, add the parsley and a pinch of salt and remove from heat. Drain pasta, reserving 1/3 cup of the cooking water. Add pasta and water to the garlic and oil, mix. Grate pecorino over pasta...

I know what's for dinner tonight!

Chopped San Marzanos Roasted with basil, garlic, white wine and thinly sliced onion over bucatini.

I love the whole wheat spaghetti that someone else mentioned too. When the pasta is almost done, drop in asparagus tips and cut-up stems. Drain it all together, then mix in fresh ricotta cheese, grated parmesan, and strips of lemon zest. Fresh and creamy.

Here's one of my favorites.It was sent to my by a fellow CH'er.

TONNARELLI CACIO E PEPE

a whole lotta pecorino grated
a lot of black pepper fresh ground--a whole lot;
tagliolini--if you make fresh pasta, this would be the thin setting on ordinary pasta machines (but it needs to by sort of thick, so stop at least three clicks before the end when rolling out);
good olive oil--you'll need to put it on fresh, so it should be tasty.

Boil the pasta (take out a cup or so of the water before the pasta comes out). Separate the pasta into its bowls. Pour in a good 1/4 cup at least of the water--maybe more. Pile a bunch of pecorino on top (let the pasta cool so it doesn't turn the cheese into clumps). Put on a generous amount of pepper (maybe about half a tsp or more). String a little oil of the top and voila'. There should be some liquid in the bottom of the bowls.

Jane

Almost everything in my quick eats repertory comes from Marcella. I love her Tomato anchovy sauce - where the anchovy is more or less transmuted into an additional dimension of savoriness and complexity - rather than just being "anchovy" flavor as such.

Carbonara is the classic quick sauce and I tend to go back and forth among several versions - some include a bit of white wine, or a bit of cream. Others are dead simple.

And, of course, all the aglio e olio variations. Add a bit of broccoli, or cauliflower, or not. A pinch of hot pepper. Or not.

Also Marcella's dramatic sauce of chopped raw tomato w/ fresh herbs (in season, obviously) cooked just the slightest bit by having sizzling hot oil poured over it at the last minute. A hissing steam cloud of flavor explodes into the air; then you serve and eat.

A classic amatriciana doesn't take longer to make than the water boiling and pasta cooking. Himself just loves it.

In the summer, before you leave for work cut up whole ripe tomatoes, tear in some basil, salt and pepper, a little pepperoncino if you like it. Cover it and leave it on the counter to weep.

When you get home, boil the pasta, really al dente (the tomatoes have LOTS of water by now). Cut some fresh mozzarella into fine dice and add to the tomato soup. Mix and serve with a little grano of whatever type you can afford.

This is also awfully good omitting the mozzarella and using ricotta salata instead.

I like the orchetti with broccoli from Bite- I really don't like broccoli that much but I will eat it this way..

When I make it at home I toss steamed broccoli with orchetti, olive oil, garlic, a few tsp of chili oil, sauteed pine nuts and golden raisins. I saute all that a bit, then top with parmesan.

-m

A.

annieb wrote:In the summer, before you leave for work cut up whole ripe tomatoes, tear in some basil, salt and pepper...

This is a nice dish and your version sounds really good and is really simple and quick. I do versions of this dish too in the late summer, if the fresh tomatoes are top quality. I must say, last summer, we got some very good tomatoes from our farmers' market and, as a Jerseyman, I don't often find cause to praise especially the tomatoes from around here -- not that they're bad but rather just that in my experience they have rarely matched up with the best tomatoes I've had elsewhere. (From what I heard from my folks, last year was not a good one for tomatoes in Jersey, on account of the weather, so it was finally my turn to gloat.)

A more complex version from Naples,

Antonius,

Does the Calabrian version call for cooking the lardo or is it raw?

I have always used Marcella Hazan's recipe for all'Amatriciana as it is so good. Onion, a little butter and vegetable oil (being northern she often uses this combo, I sometimes just substitute olive oil as I don't use much veg oil so sometimes I find even the small bottles I purchase have turned), pancetta (currently for this dish I favor a pancetta available at Whole Foods-Ashland location, not North Ave, what's with that??? that has a lovelyl smoky flavor) pepperoncino, tomato. Parmesan and Romano. Bucatini. Perciatelli isn't as satisfying. The fusilli bucati is good. In a pinch I will use the wider Greek hollow spaghetti, forget the name.

I have always loved MH's first cookbook, I have a copy that is falling apart as it is almost 30 years old. Her sauce of passata cooked with a lump of butter and an onion cut in half, to be served with gnocchi, is a masterpiece of simplicity.

Antoniuus,

Meant to mention re: tomatoes on the east coast. Some thoughts: soil is much more acid on the east coast, wonder how sweet the soil is in Italy. Also Jersey has some nice sandy soil, which will let them drain and not get waterlogged. Michigan has sandy soil and produces some pretty darn good tomatoes. Around here I find often that the tomatoes are watery, even if we've had hot weather, which they absolutely require.

I grew tomatoes in the foothills outside of Denver, and some that I planted in really rotten gritty soil, at 7800 feet where it gets cold pretty much every night, did very well. They were the ones that were just heeled in front of a large boulder on a south-facing slope that kept them warm all night and well drained. I gave them about a gallon of water every other day, if I was courageous enough to wade through the brush to do it. It was a really hot dry summer and the cabin we were living in was below a state park. The rattlesnakes were coming down from the park into more inhabited territory, looking for water and shade. The hose hookup was underneath the cabin, which was raised on posts, and the hose hookup had a slight leak, like one drop every 45 seconds. Just enough to create a nice wet cool shady place for rattlers.

The ones I planted in my carefully dug bed were pathetic, although the basil liked it well there, and the beets were the best I've ever grown.

annieb wrote:Does the Calabrian version call for cooking the lardo or is it raw?

Sorry I wasn't clear about that; the Neapolitan (the Calabrians surely do something similar too) lardiato involes frying the little blocks of lardo. This is done nowadays mostly with some oilive oil, I believe, to get things started until the lardo renders out some more fat. I suspect strongly that in central Campania (i.e., in and around Naples itself), where there is little production of olives and olive oil, some strutto, i.e. what we call lard, rendered pure pork fat, was used -- a little known and 'dirty' secret of Italian cookery is that old fashioned Neapolitan cooking used strutto very extensively (basic tomato sauce: strutto, onion, tomatoes) because of the scarcity and expense of olive oil. So then, fry the lardo, add the tomatoes, reduce at fairly high heat, finish with parsley, lots of black pepper and parmigiano (personally, I prefer pecorino on these porky dishes).

I have always used Marcella Hazan's recipe for all'Amatriciana as it is so good. Onion, a little butter and vegetable oil (being northern she often uses this combo...

I know there are lots of people who really love Marcella Hazan and her books; I don't really share this enthusiasm at all. She is a northener and I don't think especially reliable for things from the Mezzogiorno. I don't think this sort of limitation is genetic or inevitable (Bugialli, for example, a Tuscan, who can irritate in his own inimitable way, manages far better in really absorbing and understanding regional cuisines). Anyway, I don't want to criticise her too much, if for no other reason then that I know I will turn myself into an object of scorn for a number of LTH'ers... (hold yer taters, guys, I also say something nice about her below).

All'Amatriciana really should have olive oil... but I doubt butter would ruin the dish (!)...

Bucatini. Perciatelli isn't as satisfying. The fusilli bucati is good. In a pinch I will use the wider Greek hollow spaghetti, forget the name.

There are a few pasta manufacturers who market both bucatini and perciatelli and have to make some difference in thickness, but the two names are regional variants denoting pretty much the same thing; the name 'perciatelli' (cf. Np. dialect pertuso 'hole' vs. St. It. buco) is used in Naples and Campania. I buy the Greek Makar

HI,

I've been making Spaghetti a la Carbonara since I was maybe 11 years old. My Dad had returned from Italy raving about this dish. I inquired with my piano teacher who also liked to cook, who also recognized I was far more interested in food than piano. She supplied my favored recipe supplied via a Time-Life international series. She made it before providing the recipe. She would cook and her husband would clean up afterwards. He complained such a simple dish caused a disproportionate amount of dirty dishes.

I can my own tomatoes. I also make my own prepared sauces but I keep the seasoning dumbed down to allow variations when I do use them. Marinara and roasted tomato sauces are my basis for many dinners, which I don't puree when preserved because who knows what texture I may want later. I have pureed the marinara, then added cream for a cream tomato sauce. I also have found my canned ratatouille the basis for a quick vegetarian lasagna or with the addition of additional home-canned plum tomatoes a very decent pasta sauce.

I also favor Marcella Hazan's "Penne with Cauliflower, Garlic, (anchovies) and oil" from More Classic Italian Cooking. Rather than boiling the Cauliflower in 4-5 quarts of water for 25-30 minutes as recommended. To cook it fast, I put an inch of salted water into a pot, wide enough for the cauliflower to sit flat, this allows the coarser bits to boil while simultaneously steaming the tender bits. I test it occasionally with a knife until it is tender, which is long before the recommended cooking time in her recipe. I then proceed with the recipe always adding more anchovies and garlic than recommended.

In Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking, I will make her Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce, which somehow doesn't taste like tuna but rather lemony.

From an earlier post of mine

Sophia Loren wrote a cookbook in the early 1970's which featured Mushroom ... Sauce. Roughly it is:

In pan over heat add olive oil, then drop in several anchovy filets mushing them with your wooden spoon until they are a paste. Add garlic, then 1 pound of sliced, cleaned mushrooms. Once they have wilted, add 28 ounces of roughly chopped plum tomatoes, cook together for 25 minutes. IN the last 5 minutes, add 1-2 tablespoons of worchester sauce, a teaspoon of oregano and freshly ground pepper. Just before taking off the heat, I add a few tablespoons of chopped fresh flat parsley.

In the right age group, you can excite a few guys who thrill to eating something of Sophia Loren's.

I usually make this in quantity with 3-4 pounds mushrooms and freeze the extra sauce for another day.

Regards,
Cathy2

Spaghetti coi pèttini di mare

A considerable hankering has come upon me to make for dinner tonight a dish of spaghetti with sea scallops. To my knowledge, this dish is not a traditional or canonical dish (in the way that, say, spaghetti alle vongole is) and yet, it seems like the sort of thing that people who like both spaghetti and scallops surely do wherever the two are available. It would normally serve as a piatto unico (one-course meal) for us, followed by a salad dressed with lemon, but nowadays, Lucantonius, a shrimp addict, will have to be assuaged with a secondo of gamberetti fritti.


Here's my recipe:

1) Put up a pot with salted water for the spaghetti and get it to a rolling boil. At the appropriate time, add the spaghetti (see below about timing).

2) Make a simple tomato sauce, starting with a restrained dose of olive oil with freshly crushed red chile and a clove of garlic sliced thin; fry the garlic gently until it is on the verge of taking on colour; add San Marzano pomodori pellati and some of the juice from the can; a little salt and black pepper. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and cook over medium high heat to reduce for 15-20 minutes, no more. When the sauce is nearly ready to receive the spaghetti in the pan, add a few leaves of roughly torn fresh basil.

3) Heat a sauté-pan; add a little olive oil and at high heat quickly saute some seasoned (salt & pepper) sea scallops; if they are very thick, cut them through in half. Let them brown deeply on one side and flip only briefly as necessary.

4) The trick to this dish is that everything must be properly timed: The spaghetti should be getting drained at a very al dente stage (reserve a cup of water for adjusting the sauce and spaghetti in the sauce-pan) just after the scallops go into the sauté-pan and the basil is added to the sauce. Let the spaghetti finish cooking briefly in the pan with the tomato sauce.

5) When the scallops are done, remove the pan from the burner and give them a good squirt of lemon juice.

6) Plate the spaghetti, then adorn it with the scallops on top and pour the oil and lemon juice from the sauté-pan over the spaghetti (note: this is why I use a little less oil than usual in making the sauce). Garnish with some finely chopped flat-leaf parley.

7) At the table, freshly ground black pepper or more crushed chile flakes can be added. Cheese is absolutely inappropriate. A dry white wine from central or southern Italy -- I'm not picky-- is my preferred drink with this dish.

This is pretty straight-forward stuff but it's crucial to get the timing at the end pretty much right. A little frenzied work for the cook but a good pay-off for all, I think.

Antonius

The spaghetti should be getting drained at a very al dente stage (reserve a cup of water for adjusting the sauce and spaghetti in the sauce-pan) just after the scallops go into the saute -pan and the basil is added to the sauce. Let the spaghetti finish cooking briefly in the pan with the tomato sauce.

I started to write a post on cooking spaghetti, then abandoned it waiting to anchor onto something more substantative. I guess today is my lucky day!

First off, I don't like angle hair pasta. It just cooks too fast. It tends to be sticky because it cooks too fast. I just don't like the stuff.

To cook spaghetti, or any other pasta shape, I drop it into salted water at a rolling boil. I don't pay any homage to the time on the box. Once a suitable amount of time has passed, I guess we're talking experience here, I will lift a thread out and either bite (if it's just me) or cut into it (family or company). If I can see a white center in the middle, then it continues to cook. If the white is almost gone, then I keep close attention. Once the white has disapeered, then I ring the curtain down and remove the spaghetti. There is still bite to this spaghetti but not a crunchy bite --- I have decided this is my definition of al dente because I have never been quite certain what al dente means to the rest of the world; or is that Antonius???

I will keep a cup of liquid if I am going to sauce the spaghetti in a pot. The cup of liquid thins the sauce, which is not a biggie because the liquid continues to be absorbed by the spaghetti and the right texture returns.

On the rare occasions I make fresh pasta, I have to keep an eye on cooking because it is fast.

I don't always dump my spaghetti into a collander directly from the pot. There are some people in my family who just want their pasta plain, so I am often cooking a second batch of pasta. On those occasions, I use my Chinese bamboo handled brass mesh scoop to lift the pasta into the collander. The water is more starchy and likely to bubble over, but I have water which is already heated so I don't have to start from zero.

Ok, Antonius -- I'll sit back and wait for your (counter) opinion.

Maccarune, sautame 'ncanna!

Cathy:

I don't have anything that could really be called a counter opinion, just some minor notes and comments.

Cathy2 wrote:First off, I don't like angle hair pasta. It just cooks too fast. It tends to be sticky because it cooks too fast. I just don't like the stuff.

On (likely) too many occasions I have made snide comments about restaurateurs' fascination (and I guess a large segment of the restaurant-going population's fascination) with angel hair. Obviously the short cooking time would conceivably make it convenient in ways that other, slower cooking pasta is not, but it's so hard to get angel hair out and dressed and into the mouth before al dente is just a distant memory, that it is to my mind generally not worth the effort. So I guess I agree, though I would add that angel hair and cappelini are fine in brothy dishes where the al dente factor is less important. I like spaghettini (Neapolitan 'vermicelli') or fedelini for dishes where thin strands are appropriate.

To cook spaghetti, or any other pasta shape, I drop it into salted water at a rolling boil. I don't pay any homage to the time on the box. Once a suitable amount of time has passed, I guess we're talking experience here...

Experience is, of course the best tool, but the times on the packages of good Italian companies are quite reliable, insofar as if they say 10 minutes, that shape will cook to one's taste consistently in 9 or 10 or 11 minutes. Cheaper Italian brands probably don't control the quality of the wheat enough to be as consistent. I don't eat American pasta.

If I can see a white center in the middle, then it continues to cook. If the white is almost gone, then I keep close attention. Once the white has disapeered, then I ring the curtain down and remove the spaghetti. There is still bite to this spaghetti but not a crunchy bite --- I have decided this is my definition of al dente because I have never been quite certain what al dente means to the rest of the world; or is that Antonius???

My understanding is that al dente gives some resistence. In southern Italy, especially Naples, pasta is eaten more al dente than elsewhere in Italy and that texture would probably strike lots of people outside Italy as undercooked; it's not crunchy still -- that would be barbarous -- but it's just "very al dente". I like Neapolitan style but for, say, Greek pasta dishes, I do as the Greeks do and 'overcook' a bit.

I will keep a cup of liquid if I am going to sauce the spaghetti in a pot. The cup of liquid thins the sauce, which is not a biggie because the liquid continues to be absorbed by the spaghetti and the right texture returns.

The method I grew up with is to use a good size pan (I have a steel Dutch oven) to make the sauce in and one which is large enough to receive all of the pasta; the two cook together usually only very briefly but enough to allow for a little absorbtion of sauce by pasta; if the whole thing is too tight, than a little cooking water is added to restore. I think that's the same as what you're saying, no?

On the rare occasions I make fresh pasta, I have to keep an eye on cooking because it is fast.

Generally speaking you're absolutely right, but I usually make home-made pasta with semolina and no eggs; some of the shapes I make can actually take frighteningly long times to cook, especially if they have dried out a lot. At some point I realised that this is precisely why some of the earliest Neapolitan cookbooks (from the Renaissance) talk about cooking the pasta for un' ora, presumably not litterally an hour but that likely just means 'a long time', i.e., perhaps a half hour. Note too that the best brands of Sicilian anelli need some 20-25 minutes to get to al dente.

Ok, Antonius -- I'll sit back and wait for your (counter) opinion.

Eccola!

Ciao,
A

Antonius!

The method I grew up with is to use a good size pan (I have a steel Dutch oven) to make the sauce in and one which is large enough to receive all of the pasta; the two cook together usually only very briefly but enough to allow for a little absorbtion of sauce by pasta; if the whole thing is too tight, than a little cooking water is added to restore. I think that's the same as what you're saying, no?

Yes, there is always a balance between too dry and just right.

I'm still fuzzy on the al dente issue frankly. I have a friend who believes spaghetti is cooked once it is totally puffy and mushy to the tooth. She probably thinks my pasta is undercooked. I have the feeling you may suppose it is just a bit overcooked by your standards. I really don't have a grip on al dente. Certainly, you almost never encounter it in a restaurant.

In Highwood, just north of where I live, there is a small Italian community. I have heard the women will get together for making tortellini and other stuffed pastas. The filling is made before the women arrive and probably the pasta dough is prepared. Once everyone is in place, they start cranking out the dough, cutting the dough into shapes, stuffing and shaping. In an afternoon, they may make 1000-1500 pieces, which they divide equally amongst themselves. It is somewhat an insular community because I have tried many times to make some inroads to participate in a pasta shaping party. Believe me, I am deferential, circumspect and respectful; and get absolutely nowhere.

Anyway forgive me for my bold statement you would offer your opinion; counter or otherwise. However, it is fairly predictable you will be the one to respond.

Cathy2 wrote:I'm still fuzzy on the al dente issue frankly. I have a friend who believes spaghetti is cooked once it is totally puffy and mushy to the tooth. She probably thinks my pasta is undercooked. I have the feeling you may suppose it is just a bit overcooked by your standards. I really don't have a grip on al dente. Certainly, you almost never encounter it in a restaurant.

Restaurants usually do disappoint in this regard, but then don't the vast majority precook and then just quickly reheat for a moment before the dish is finished and served? Of course, precooking is convenient in restaurant kitchens but it's generally not the best way to prepare pasta for your average pasta asciutta dish. In any event, I try not to be too neurotic about these things; especially with certain shapes of pasta, I really like the sort of extra al dente texture but I'm sure the way you do it would make me and like minded-people happy.

By the way, does your puffy-and-mushy-spaghetti friend have a good sense of how al dente is and consciously reject it? That wouldn't really surprise me and in fact, despite all the food-craze and especially Italian-food-craze of recent years, I think, a lot of Americans just actually prefer soft pasta. That's fine by me so long as they don't invite me over for a spaghettata...

In Highwood, just north of where I live, there is a small Italian community. I have heard the women will get together for making tortellini and other stuffed pastas... It is somewhat an insular community because I have tried many times to make some inroads to participate in a pasta shaping party. Believe me, I am deferential, circumspect and respectful; and get absolutely nowhere.

I can believe that... Maybe it's just a social matter but maybe too they don't want an outsider getting any arcane information. Wouldn't you agree that a lot of traditional cooks are very reluctant to give away secrets? From what I hear, my grandmother, when giving a recipe, would often leave out some little secret trick or ingredient. I can understand that well enough and, I guess, I sort of do the same sometimes... depending on context...

Anyway forgive me for my bold statement you would offer your opinion; counter or otherwise. However, it is fairly predictable you will be the one to respond.

No problem... You're only right; but good posts like yours, when they touch on things I know (or like to think I know) about, stimulate my desire to participate in the conversation.

A

Hi Antonius,

Restaurants usually do disappoint in this regard, but then don't the vast majority precook and then just quickly reheat for a moment before the dish is finished and served?

My understanding they cook the pasta up to a point. Once they have an order, the pasta is return briefly to hot water to heat up: like 1-2 minutes (probably shorter). I have done it myself when I had a time sensitive situation, like I don't know when they're coming and dinner has to hit the table when they come because we're heading out for something. Not ideal but not terribly abusive either.

By the way, does your puffy-and-mushy-spaghetti friend have a good sense of how al dente is and consciously reject it?

Well, my friend is 81-years-old who probably learned to cook spaghetti in the post WW2 era. I am certain she is doing what she believes is correct from her frame of reference. I guess at this point I am not going to change her mind.

Wouldn't you agree that a lot of traditional cooks are very reluctant to give away secrets? From what I hear, my grandmother, when giving a recipe, would often leave out some little secret trick or ingredient. I can understand that well enough and, I guess, I sort of do the same sometimes... depending on context...

I freely offer recipes, though I do not guarantee the results in their hands. Any recipe is interpreted differently by the cook with variations derived from experience as well as selection of ingrediants. I really don't think you need to withhold an ingrediant or muddle the instructions to maintain the secret recipe; because I can guarantee there will always be a different result. The only time I have ever refused to offer a recipe was when it wasn't mine in the first place.

I was almost thrown out of a bakery because the owner thought I was food spy. I was in an ethnic bakery which I was considering writing a post about. I wasn't interested in a lot of baked goods, so I chose one of everything different from my experience and likely from this ethnicity. The owner immediately demanded who these pastries were for. I stammered these were for my interests alone. She heatedly explained these were her exclusive recipes, that I could not copy them. I cannot imagine where she believed I could or would copy her recipes or if I was considering doing more than sampling her wares. There was a momentary stand-off as I offered my money and she considered granting me her pastries; it was clear she was deliberating. Ultimately she allowed me to take her pastries, though I could feel everyone's eyes on my back as I left. I'm really glad her offerings did not impress me, as I'd loathe to be her customer again.

Regards,

Maccarune e matremmuonie caude caude!

Cathy2 wrote:My understanding they cook the pasta up to a point. Once they have an order, the pasta is return briefly to hot water to heat up: like 1-2 minutes (probably shorter). I have done it myself when I had a time sensitive situation, like I don't know when they're coming and dinner has to hit the table when they come because we're heading out for something. Not ideal but not terribly abusive either.

If one must do so, I would imagine it would not bring about the end of the world, but I think Italians would never do that at home. And indeed, it is because of this practice that maccheroni in restaurants is hardly ever al dente and often has a rather pale, sad and un-Italian complexion. There are a couple of rules that go along with pasta-eating for Mangiamaccheroni clans (or at least the majority of them):

1) at the moment that one puts the pasta in the water, everything that needs to be done before dinner is either done or scheduled for completion well before the moment of the removal of the pasta from the water (the exceptions being matters of cooking which may take precedence); all non-essential kitchen personnel should be seated and bearing a properly respectful but expectant mien.

2) once the pasta arrives at table and people are served or have served themselves, they should not just feel free to -- but in fact are under moral obligation to -- commence eating immediately; the rule of etiquette according to which everyone must be served before anyone can start eating is antithetical to the proper consumption of pasta and is always suspended under acute 'pasta conditions'; only a sciocco or barbaro would sit and stare at a plate of pasta even one minute past it's divinely mandated moment for manducation.

In short, the 'throwing down' (buttare gi) of the pasta sets into motion an irreversible process which can not be interrupted or delayed by any force natural, supernatural or foreign.


Antonius

P.S. I enjoyed your story of the suspicious bakers... Pastry espionage...

i simply like to boil up whatever pasta i have on hand, steam some broccoli (i do this over the pot of boiling pasta), sautee lots of garlic and toss it all together with evoo, chopped walnuts, black pepper and romano.

fast & tasty

sharon

Antonius wrote:
In short, the 'throwing down' (buttare gi) of the pasta sets into motion an irreversible process which can not be interrupted or delayed by any force natural, supernatural or foreign.

This reminds me of a standard announcement often made by guests as they are just arriving for dinner in Italy.

"Butta la pasta" (throw in the pasta) is shouted from the front door, or from the intercom box down on the street, or from the cell phone as the car is pulling into the driveway. The presumption (usually correct) is that the sequence has been completely preped, primed and loaded, and the trigger is pulled by throwing the pasta into the water already boiling on the stove.

It is a beautiful process.
Alfonso