Making pasta like a real Italian
We whip up a little pasta on a weekly basis. But making and eating it, do we actually do that a bit ‘bene’? Therefore, through our neighbors from FavorFlav: the rules of an Italian eating pasta.
Easy for a quick craving, or just when you feel like letting a pot of ragù simmer for hours. Dutch people eat a lot of pasta, but do we all do it right? This is how you eat pasta according to Italians, and otherwise, there will be consequences.
Italians have a whole bunch of strict rules when it comes to pasta. Of course, you can just continue your life and ignore all these rules. But if you really want to be taken seriously as a pasta lover, this is how you should proceed from now on.
Water
It all starts with the water in which the pasta cooks. Salt it until it tastes like seawater, not too stingy. Oil in the water to prevent sticking is a myth; the oil just floats to the top of the water. It's better to stir the pasta occasionally to prevent sticking.
The water absorbs starch from the pasta during the cooking process, always save a little of this before draining. A small splash of this stirred into the pasta at the end makes the sauce wonderfully creamy.
Al dente
Overcooked pasta is never the intention; it's mushy and lacks any structure. Al dente is what you want. That means pasta that is cooked but still has a bit of bite. I actually never look at the cooking time on the package, but just start tasting after a while. About every minute, until you have the perfect bite.
Mixing in the pan
From the sight of a blob of red sauce on a plate of dry pasta, I get shivers all over my body. Dry pasta will stick together and form a lump. Therefore, after draining, you always put the pasta in the sauce pan to stir it through the sauce there. Besides preventing sticking, the pasta also absorbs all the flavors of the sauce this way. This brings me immediately to the next point.
Like seeks like
Different shapes of pasta exist for a reason. The structure determines how the sauce is absorbed. Long thin pasta like spaghetti goes best with oil-based sauces, such as aglio olio e pepperoncino. Tagliatelle is wider and can therefore handle heartier sauces; bolognese is traditionally served with it. Penne and rigatoni have ridges on the outside, which allows them to grab thick sauces very well. A nice tomato sauce, for example.
Fork
You eat pasta with a fork, only a fork, and nothing else. A knife is already a faux pas, but even a spoon shouldn't come near your plate. If you struggle with this, here's a mini workshop.
