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The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

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Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#11

Post by jillesvangurp »

Not bad advice. Another good tip is to use the right pasta for the right sauce.

As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bolognese. Basically, they'd serve you a tuna & tomato sauce. Nothing wrong with that of course. But if you want their famous meat sauce, order pasta alla ragu. Very different experience.

Italian food done right is pretty yummy and not that hard to master for a home cook. Half the success is using good ingredients. The other half is mastering some simple techniques. Pasta especially is not that hard and doing it right makes a huge difference.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#12

Post by ryanbrunner »

batiudrami wrote: post #3

This is pretty standard cooking stuff, I thought. At least in Australia I haven’t seen pasta sauce served on top of pasta in a restaurant for decades.

Utilizing pasta water is something that Italians have been doing for ages but until recently wasn't a common feature of American pasta recipes. I'm sure restaurants were doing it, but your average mass market cookbook only started mentioning it in the last 5-10 years or so.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#13

Post by InCityDreams »

zabzonk wrote: post #10

call me mad, but i like the sauce both dumped on top, or mixed in the pan. i do like controlling the cheese myself though. and the pepper - can't stand those waiters coming round with giant phallic grinders!

Never figured grinders as particularly 'phallic', but beauty, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#14

Post by justsomehnguy »

Ah shit, here we go again.

> which translates to around 1 or 2 tablespoons of kosher salt per quart or liter.

Yes.

> You also don't need a huge amount of water—just enough to be able to keep the pasta moving

That's highly depends on the pasta itself. There are some cheap local brands what greatly benefit from having way more water (1L for each 100g of dry weight) than usually needed for a proper one. Sure, if you want some soggy mess what you need to rinse, because otherwise it would cook itself to a single slob in just seconds after draining in a colander - it is all up to you.

> Pasta water gets added throughout the process in order to adjust consistency. Don't be afraid of it!

Can't agree enough. There is no one true recipe what would always work.

> Pasta don't wait around for nobody

Yep!

Amusingly just an hour ago I did a variation of 'pasta with sauce' what would be heart-attack inducing to anyone snobby enough about Italian cuisine: two big onions, chopped, steamed, fried, a bit of soy sauce, leftovers from a veg salad, harissa, tomato paste.

I can do 'a proper' one, but I can do 'not a proper' one too. And I can be just lazy enough today.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#15

Post by jgord »

ps. make sure you get bronze-nozzle extruded pasta, not teflon extruded .. [ if you get dried pasta ]

It creates a nice rough micro-texture on the pasta surface when extruded, which helps it cook easier, and hold more sauce.

Swear, not making this up ..

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#16

Post by nicbou »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #11

Not bad advice. Another good tip is to use the right pasta for the right sauce. As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bologne…

The last line is so true. Italian cooking is a really good way to measure your progress as a cook, because you can use the exact same ingredients and get a completely different result with better skills. The simple recipes are a great testbed for the techniques you are picking up.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#17

Post by mmasu »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #11

Not bad advice. Another good tip is to use the right pasta for the right sauce. As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bologne…

Anthony Bourdain said: “Encapsulate the essential Italian philosophy of cooking here: Get a very few excellent ingredients, then proceed to not fuck them up.”

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#18

Post by isilofi »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #14

Ah shit, here we go again. > which translates to around 1 or 2 tablespoons of kosher salt per quart or liter. Yes. > You also don't need a huge amount of water—just enough to be able to keep the pasta moving That's highly depends on the pasta itself. There are some cheap local brands what greatly benefit from having way more water (1L for each 100g of dry weight) than usually needed for a proper one. Sure, if you wan…

> Amusingly just an hour ago I did a variation of 'pasta with sauce' what would be heart-attack inducing to anyone snobby enough about Italian cuisine: two big onions, chopped, steamed, fried, a bit of soy sauce, leftovers from a veg salad, harissa, tomato paste.

Just declare it as "Indian", "Phillipino" or something other south-Asian and it will be fine. There is a huge variety of cuisines there and there are less self-proclaimed experts on them in the western world.

Re: The right way to sauce pasta (2016)

#20

Post by klez »

lproven wrote: post #19

Today I learned that Americans cook pasta with the sauce. Just when I thought I could not be more appalled after how Americans make tea. >_<

If you're referring to the article they say to finish cooking in the sauce, which is not bad advice at all.
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