Pasta is a favourite among many foodies. But, that means many people have different ways they like to prepare and cook the carbohydrate filled dish.
And not all techniques bring out the potential of the much-loved Italian cuisine. After we celebrated National Pasta Day on October 17 with the five common mistakes of cooking pasta, we wanted to take it one step further.
Now we've established some of the biggest pasta peeves, we spoke with David Harrison, co-founder of artisanal Italian food producer Seggiano. The expert shared his insights on how to make the 'perfect' pasta – and it's all to do with a special Italian method.
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Chatting to Daily Star about how to 'perfect' a pasta dish, David told us: "There isn’t a specific amount [of ingredients for the perfect pasta] , however the first component should always be an organic pasta. Paying a few extra pounds for high quality produce is critical to the true Italian way of cooking, as it means you avoid possible residues from the pesticides and herbicides used to grow conventional wheat and the insecticides used to treat the flour.
"In terms of the sauce, the base of a traditional Italian pasta sauce – in Italian called ‘il soffritto’, meaning the fried element – is always made up of the same ingredients, but the quantity will vary on your serving requirements."
Although 'il soffritto' sounds fancy, any pasta-enthusiast can give it a go to improve their cooking. So, how do we master the traditional Italian pasta sauce?
David explained: "Start with finely chopped onions fried gently in a little oil until they become translucent, then add finally chopped garlic, and again fry for a few minutes before adding finely chopped carrot and celery. If you want to make a spicy sauce, add some chopped chilli towards the end of the fry. You can at this point add a glass of wine, increase the temperature and cook off the liquid till it has all evaporated.
“What you are doing with this process, is getting all the flavours of these base ingredients into the oil, so that when you add the rest of the ingredients – whether they be just chopped tomatoes or meat, seafood or other veggies – they all cook in the flavoured oil you have created."
However, this is not the part of the method of creating your dish where you can go take a moment on your sofa. For the process that takes about 15 minutes, you need to make sure none of the ingredients start to burn.
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But, if you get the ‘il soffritto’ correct, then it's looking pretty good for the rest of process to creating a delicious pasta dish.
The expert expressed: "So, for the time you take to prepare this base, keep a close eye on what you are doing, to ensure that at no time do any of the ingredients start to burn. Once you have completed this process, which only takes about 15 minutes, you can add your other ingredients – if you are making a Bolognese sauce, this would be minced meat followed by tomatoes, for example.
“If you get your soffritto right, the rest is easy, and the result is guaranteed!”
The pasta expert has spoken!
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