Dag: 13. februar 2015

Dried pasta (pasta secca) is the most-eaten pasta in Italy and all over the world. Light and comfortable to digest, it is easier to handle than fresh pasta and can be stored for longer, so you can keep a wide selection of shapes in the pantry tosuit different moods and sauces.

Don’t scrimp when it comes to buying dried pasta. go for quality rather than price, and be sure the pasta is made with proper durum wheat (which allows the pasta to be cooked al dente).

With cheaper pasta, the quality will likely be compromised by the use of inferior wheat and to rapid drying process Your safest option is to buy Italian. the south of italy is where the drum wheat grown and where, over centruries, the art of slow-drying has been perfected.

There is nothing more horrible than overcooked pasta – mushy pasta can spoil the best souces. I beg you to cook dried pasta only until it is al dente , which means «to the tooth» or giving a slight resistance to the bite.

I surgest  boiling the pasta for one or two minute less than the time recommended on the packet, but you should learn your own preffered al dente point by pulling out strands of pasta during the last three or four minutes of the cooking and biting on them to test their readiness.

Always reserve a little of the cooking water before you drain the pasta. You can use it to loosen the souce if it has become too thick and its strarch content will also help the souce cling to the pasta.

Of cource when it comes to combining dried pasta with sauces, the posibilities are almost ifinite, but to get you started here are some of the most populare shapes of dried pasta and their  «perfect match» sauces:

• Ribbon pasta such as spagetti, vermicelli, linguine and bavette goes with light  tomato souces, seafood, butter and oil based souces, pesto and light cream souces.
• Shaped pasta , such as cavatelli, conchiglie, farfalle, fusilli, gemmelli, lumache, and orecchiette, goes well with tomato sauces, meat sauces pesto, chunky sauces and cheese sauces.
• tublar pasta such as rigatoni, tortiglioni, ziti, pacchieri, penne, manicotti, macchereroni and garganelli, goes with thick tomato salsas rich ragus and thick dream sauces

As a footnote, i would surgest that you never serve dried cappelli d’angelo (angel hair) with a souce that strands are much too thin to hold a sauce and are better eaten in a broth.

Present in all regions of Italy, ragus are are interperented in different ways from the north to the south. The word comes from the French ragout, which is a meat stew cooked slowly over low heat; it might contain veal, beef, lamb, goat, rabbit, hare or other meats.

In Italy, there are also differences in the herbs and spices used, the type of wine and the base (soffritto) of the sauce in which the meat cooks. Some ragus are served as a two-cource meal. The sauce is used to dress pasta, which is eaten first, then the meat, sometimes with vegetables, becomes a secondo. Sometimes the meat is minced and used to dress pasta. but it still makes for a substantial meal.

For Italians, all the ragus have two important things in common: sundays and family memories. They are usally made on a sunday, because that is when there is more time to spend on cooking. Every Italian recalls a mother or grandmother stirring a big pot of ragu as it bubbles away in the kitchen – and the distinctive scent it gives off, from the strong and sharp smell of the onions in the soffritto to the more reassuring aroma that indicates the meat is almost ready. Ragu is the sense memory of conviviality!

I hope you can build up memories for your family and friends with one of the following ragus. Just remember that the most important ingredient for making any ragu is time

In addition to the recipes for classic Bolognese and Ligurain given here, i’ve also included recipes for some of my other favourite ragu-style pasta sauces :

• Neapolitan ragu
• Neapolitan meat sauce – Le Genovese
• Sicilian meat sauce
• Lasagnette with a tomato ragu
• Lasagnette with rabbit sauce
• Capsicum pappardelle with oxtail
• Chocolate tagliatelle with wild boar