Making Italian Food With Pasta

NF - For many Italian food lovers and aspiring Italian food chefs, the first dish to be attempted from home is typically a pasta dish.  Pasta is known as an Italian food that is easy to make.  However, homemade Italian food dishes with pasta often end up falling flat.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing pasta at home.

First of all, your attempt at Italian food will only be as good as the pasta you use to make it with.  When shopping for your pasta make sure you are buying a good brand that uses only quality ingredients.  For instance, if buying dried pasta you should only buy brands that use just semolina flour.  Any other type of dried pasta will taste like counterfeit Italian food.  A good quality pasta will have a rough surface.  The texture of the pasta will determine if it will be able to hold onto the sauce that it is served with.  Smooth pasta is an instant indicator that you are dealing with an inferior brand.  It is also important that the pasta be dense and heavy for its size.

If the pasta is too light it will fall apart when it is cooked.  You want to make sure to avoid the mass produced and cheap pasta; otherwise your Italian food will not be satisfying.  When shopping for fresh pasta you want to make sure that you pay attention to the expiration date, unlike dried pasta, fresh pasta does not have a long shelf life.  Take a look at the pasta and if it looks cheap then it is.  If it looks to have a good quality color and texture and is heavy, then that is the pasta that will give you the best tasting Italian food.  The best bet when shopping for pasta is to see if there is a bakery that specializes in Italian food.  Many such bakeries make pasta fresh daily and the quality will far out do anything that you will find at the store.  The best way to get authentic Italian food is to get it from Italians.

Once you have bought your pasta you are halfway to enjoying good Italian food.  The most important thing to remember when cooking pasta is to not overcook it.  Mushy pasta is never good.  For good tasting Italian food you want the pasta to be tender, yet firm to the teeth.  Fresh pasta will take less time to cook than dried pasta.  You want to make sure and use a large pot with an abundance of water.  Bring the water to a boil and then liberally add salt.  If you don't salt the water then the pasta will taste bland compared to the sauce it is served with.  After you've salted the water it is time to add the pasta.  If you have plenty of water that is brought to a vigorous boil before adding the pasta then you shouldn't have problems with the pasta sticking and it should cook evenly.  Good Italian food sauce makes use of the water that was used to boil the pasta, so make sure to save a cup of it to add to the sauce.  Also, don't ever rinse the pasta after you've cooked it, otherwise you will be stripping away the flavor of your Italian food.

Hopefully these tips will help you make better Italian food.  If you haven't tried preparing Italian food yourself then give it a try starting with the most fundamental Italian food, pasta.

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