Have Pasta for Dinner – It’s Cheap and Easy
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.
When cooking pasta as the main dish, you will need to consider how much to cook. As a general guideline you will want to cook about 4 – 5 ounces of pasta per person. That means that a family of four will need to cook about a pound (16 ounces) or a little more depending on your appetites. Always bring the water you are using to a boil in a pan large enough for the pasta to expand. Once your water is boiling, add plenty of salt.
A tablespoon or so as you want your water salty like the ocean (salting prior to your water boiling may pit your pan). Some people add a few teaspoons of oil to the boiling water, so the pasta doesn’t stick, but I find that I generally do not need to do that. Be sure to stir your pasta a few times as it cooks. Cook your pasta to the al dente stage. Meaning still firm to the tooth. Once your pasta is cooked, drain it, but don’t shake all the water out or you’ll have a sticky mess. Add a little butter to your cooked pasta to keep it from getting gummy, and place it on a plate or platter and cover it with sauce. You can simply slide the pasta into the pan of sauce and turn to coat and serve from there.
Think about what pasta shape will work well with your sauce. Tube shape pasta such as Penne or Rigatoni holds thick sauces well. Smooth sauces complement flat or long pastas like Vermicelli or Linguine. F.Y.Ipasta names can vary by manufacturer. If the name of pasta ends in: oni. This indicates larger size pasta like Conchiglioni or Macaroni. The opposite of this would be pasta names that end in: ini or ette meaning smaller pasta like Capellini (Angel Hair).
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.
If you love pasta, it’s an artist’s palette. Just think of the foods you love and incorporate them into a basic sauce. Be adventurous and try a new pasta shape. Kids will love that and you may have made a masterpiece.
Want to find out more about healthy home cooking recipes, then visit Lisa Andrews site, www.homecookingconnection.com on how to make fun and delicious dips and appetizers like artichoke dip or spinach dip.
categories: italian cooking,easy recipes,red sauce,white sauce
Tags: EASY RECIPES, italian cooking, Pasta, red sauce, white sauce
