Aug 03 2010
Secrets For Cooking Pasta
Easy Pasta Recipes
Easy pasta recipes aren’t just easy to make, but they are pretty easy to find as well. As soon as you do a web search, for example, all sorts of lists will come up from all sorts of websites like www.epicurious.com or www.allrecipes.com, each with extensive recipe collections. Yet one of the keys to making all those easy recipes even easier is to start cooking the pasta the correct way right from the beginning. When you’ve got your pasta cooked properly, then the rest of the recipe will indeed be easier.
To make any pasta meal, whether using easy or more involved pasta recipes, you always must get the pasta to the right consistency by beginning the same way.
Provide enough water for it to “swim” in, so it won’t stick, and also to expand to about twice the size it is when dry. Salting the water will help it taste good, without adding excessive amounts of salt to your diet.
Put the pasta into boiling water and stir for the first few moments, again to prevent sticking, and cook at a gentle boil for the amount of time indicated on the package. A quick and easy way to tell when it’s done is to bite a piece; it should be tender, but firm enough that it’s not totally limp.
Next consider size, shape and types of pasta. If you’re creating dishes from stuffed pasta like tortellini or ravioli, then you’ll want a light sauce so the ingredients inside the pasta aren’t drowned out. Big and heavy noodles like lasagna, will take a much heavier type of sauce than fine noodles like vermicelli, which works better with lighter, creamier sauces. You can improvise some easy pasta recipes simply by learning which sauces work best with which pasta types.
Learning some of these elementary cooking tips can help you turn your various recipes into more easy pasta recipes before you even get going on preparing other ingredients.
Knowing the right way to cook pasta will get you started out on the right foot. And being able to recognize which types of sauces and accompaniments work best with which shapes and sizes of pasta can then cut out other areas of uncertainty.
For the ultimate in pasta dishes, you can’t beat the taste and texture of fresh homemade pasta. If you’re ready to take your love of pasta to the next level, click here to learn about the advantages of a pasta rolling machine, and the difference between a hand crank pasta roller and an electric model.
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