Restaurants devote their menus to this favorite food: pasta. Why, because we love it, it’s healthy, does not cost much, and dishes can be made in minutes. Pasta is manufactured with flour and water, and some varieties contain oil and eggs. Higher quality pasta often contains Durham Wheat which is most commonly found in dried pastas. It is recommended that you store dried pasta in an airtight container for up to six months and fresh pasta, refrigerated for up to one month. Fresh pastas pair well with rich sauces like Carbonara because it tends to absorb the sauce. Dried pastas are a good fit for heavier sauces that may contain meat or other ingredients like a red sauce with meatballs.
Cooking pasta is easy. Just figure out how much you’ll need and use a measure of about 5 oz per person although you could get by with only 4 oz. That means you’ll need 16 oz or a pound of pasta to feed a family of four like mine. Then just bring a large pot of cold water to boil. I like to use filtered water to prevent any change to the taste of pasta.
Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water that has been salted. You can add a couple of drops of olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking if you like. Stir the pasta 2 or 3 times as it cooks. Don’t over cook because you want your pasta to be al dente which is defined as firm to the tooth. As you drain your cooked pasta leave just a bit of water in the pan or add some butter right away to keep it for clumping and sticking. You can plate your pasta and pour the sauce over it or put the pasta directly into the sauce and stir to coat cooking just a minute or two longer. From there you can put it onto a platter and garnish.
The fun thing about pasta is that there are so many interesting shapes you can buy it in. Almost everyone is familiar with Spaghetti and Linguine, but there are also bow tie, or Penne or Rigatoni just for starts. Change them up to keep your dinners interesting!
There is also a ton of variety in pasta sauces. You can start with a basic white sauce made with cream as a base or a red sauce that starts with tomatoes as a base. But there are so many variants. And then there are pestos which is just garlic, an herb (Basil is the most widely used) and olive oil.
And no matter what you select a little fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese is always a great finishing touch. Since pasta dinners are usually quite economical, be sure to include them as a staple in your family dinner repertoire.
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