Pastaholics…Attention Please !

Trying cooking pasta at home but still a failure and you don’t know why! You are in the perfect place!

Pasta with all its types and different sauces is so easy yet so tricky. As a big fan of  Italian food, I have spent a quiet big time as self-taught cook to finally have pasta at home as same as you are eating it in an origin Italian restaurant.

I will share some common mistakes and some key ingredients that illustrate the delicious pasta taste in all its shapes and different sauces upon personal experience and definitely what my stomach craves to taste. It is not dos and don’ts upon neither academic nor profession background.

“Toxic relationships are like good pasta that has been overcooked.”

― Asa Don Brown,

Cooking the pasta is the easiest part in the process for most of the people or it is how it appears! Actually it is the most critical part and upon this step all following steps will be very easy and rewarding in terms of final result!

My grandmother used to cook the pasta in boiling water till it becomes mostly dough again! It is how most of the Egyptians cook pasta! They over cook it which leads that any added sauce will turn to be like pasta pudding. Surely my mom did the same and so am I.

When I tried many Italian restaurants around the world, I found that the pasta is meant to be cooked to be firm to the bite. So I discovered the first fatal mistake I was making.

After many trials at home here is my final way to get the perfect cooked pasta “Al Dente”.

•  Boil water in a large pot; add 2 tablespoon vegetarian oil to avoid stickiness and salt.
•  Add your favorite pasta and stir the first minute.
• Leave it boiling for more 4 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and leave the pasta in the pot for two minutes to continue cooking without boiling.
• If you are serving it in a while, drain it without wash it with cold water like the Egyptian legend says, don’t worry it won’t stick, we added oil!
•  If you are serving it immediately, remove it from cooking water both using a spoon-shaped claw or a scoop and put it in its sauce.

And Voila! You have “Al dente” pasta

Many of Egyptians have fallen very hard for the pasta white sauce yet they have try it many times at home and the comment mostly said it does not taste like my favorite restaurant.

After many researches through my friends and my friends’ friends including myself, we have all done it!!

We made white sauce two ways only; either milk and flour which makes Béchamel not a creamy white sauce or using fresh cream and add two tablespoon flour which complete idiot and I have done both !

White sauce = fresh cream! That simple!

Don’t worry, if it seems loose it will get more sticky when the fresh cream cool down!

Two key spices go really well with all pasta sauces in my opinion; black/white pepper and dried thyme. Both have magical effect on whatever sauce! Tasty, not too strong, goes well with other ingredients.

The final secret ingredient that helps all flavors to appear strongly on your craving mouth is my all-time favorite final kick! Parmesan Cheese! Yes it is! The combination of moderate saltiness, creaminess and richness in taste put the final call on whatever pasta you are preparing! It is quite expensive in Egypt but it worth the try at home if you want a glimpse of the Italian taste in your home!

See guys! Such simple tricks can turn your ordinary pasta meal to tasty delicious pasta dish and pure Italian!

All my pastaholics fellows, I urge you to try this at home! And send me pictures of the final results.