The easiest way to lose a friend in Italy is to fiddle with a traditional pasta recipe. Experimenting with the dish to add a unique touch to it can ruin its taste. Apart from that, countless recipes online by non-Italian amateur chefs ignore the golden rules of cooking pasta to perfection.
What do you do once you buy fresh pappardelle pasta? If you don’t want to mess with the dish and wish to experience its authentic taste, then cook it the Italian way. Here, you will learn some golden rules for making pasta in the right way.
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Say ‘No’ To Oil
When making pasta, Italians don’t like to mix oil in the water. As oil doesn’t blend with water, it stays on the top and affects the dish. Adding oil can also lead to pasta sticking together. To avoid this from happening, use a lot of water instead of oil.
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Boil The Water
If you wish to make a delicious dish that won’t act like a glue, then make sure you use boiled water. It is because pasta needs to come in contact with water as little as possible. Boiling the water is also necessary to make the dish digestible by controlling starch in it.
Add salt to the water when it is boiling. Putting salt when water is cold can slow down the boiling process.
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Don’t Simmer The Dish
Unlike other dishes, you need to cook pasta at a high temperature to achieve its original Italian taste. It should always be cooked at a boiling temperature. Lowering the heat can alter its properties and make it a mushy dish.
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Don’t Break Your Pasta
Fresh pasta tagliatelle are flat, long ribbons that you don’t need to break. According to experienced chefs, length matters in the case of pasta because it makes it a lot easier to blend the sauce when eating the dish with a fork.
The best way to boil tagliatelle is to put the product in boiling water and push it gently. It is necessary to ensure that you don’t break these delicate ribbons.
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Bite To Check
Touching a dish is the most common way of checking whether it’s cooked or not. However, this is not the right way to ensure pasta’s uniform color. You need to bite it. It should be soft without feeling like a crunchy dish.
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Get The Right Sauce
Make sure you have prepared a large bowl of sauce. Add your pasta to it and heat it for some time. If it creates a thick paste when you add pasta, then pour some cooking water in it. A benefit of using the reserved water is that it sticks easily to pasta, thanks to starch in it.
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Serve It Hot
Similar to cooking it at a high temperature, it is necessary to serve it hot. A freshly prepared dish garnished with fresh herbs is more delicious than boring and cold pasta. In addition, don’t serve it as an extra food item or a side dish for meat. You can eat it as a traditional dish, which is complete in its form.
Final Words
In addition to following the right rules of cooking pasta, you need to buy the product from an Italian store known for selling authentic products like pasta, ricotta-stuffed peppers, and others. Understand different types of pasta available at the store and choose the one you wish to cook at home. It needs to be a product made in Italy by a reputed brand.
Follow these guidelines, and share your experience to cook like a real Italian with us.
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