sabato 18 giugno 2011
We're moving..
..to simpleitaliandishes.com. Be sure to update your bookmarks. Also, a new recipe is on its way.
mercoledì 15 giugno 2011
Our first recipe: penne pomodoro e basilico [penne with tomato sauce and basil]
This basic dish is very easy to make. It's basically penne (a very popular type of short pasta) with tomato sauce (which is not ketchup) and basil, which is just there to add some flavour (it can really make a big difference though). You can do this in serveral ways: we'll choose an easy one. You can use either fresh tomatoes or pre-made tomato sauce. This time I'll show you how to do it with tomato sauce, since I don't have any fresh tomatoes in the fridge at the moment.
What you need
On the ingredients
How you do it
First of all, you have to put water inside your cooking pot. You should put enough so the pasta never sticks out (however, you don't put the pasta in yet).
Place the pot on the fire and put some salt in the water. How much salt? It really depends on your personal taste. Try putting a teaspoon at first or "un pugno di sale" [a fistful of salt]: the more you cook, the better you'll become at choosing the right quantity of salt.
While the water heats up, take your frying pan and put a spoon of olive oil inside it, then throw in the tomato sauce, the basil and the garlic (one or two small pieces), then add some water (100ml, less than half a cup). Now put this on the fire and let it stay there for 10 minutes. Fire shouldn't be very intense.
As soon as the water is boiling, put your pasta inside the pot. You will have to stir it periodically so every piece receives the same amount of heat as the others. Stirring also prevents pasta from sticking to the inside of the pot.
You will have to cook your pasta for as long as is stated on the package. If you've already thrown it away.. dont worry: you can grab a penna from the water and eat it. Wait for it to cool down first, then bite it. If it is still crispy o too hard, put it back into the pot, you'll have to wait some more.
An important notice: don't trust the package too much. If you like to eat harder pasta ("al dente") just leave it less time in the pot. If you like it softer, take it easy and let it cook for a couple more minutes. In my opinion, pasta is good when it is still a bit hard (it absolutely mustn't melt in your mouth!). You decide how you like it best.
When the pasta is ready, pour the content of the pot in your sink through a scolapasta ["colander"] or just pour the water carefully so you don't drop your pasta in the sink.
We're almost done! Just put the pasta in the frying pan with the tomato sauce and the rest of the ingredients and add some salt, then stir the whole thing for a minute with the cooker on (you won't need much heat now: what we're doing is basically just to let the pasta absorb the flavour of the sauce).
Now pour the pasta into a dish and here you go.
If you want to add some flavour, add some Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) or Grana Padano.
Easy, wasn't it? Now enjoy your meal, and remember to check in soon for new recipes!
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| Penne pomodoro e basilico with parmesan |
What you need
| Ingredients for one person | Equipment |
|
|
On the ingredients
- If you have fresh basil, use it. Remember to wash it though.
- It goes without saying that good quality ingredients are very important to make a good quality dish. Choose yours carefully (there is a huge difference between different brands of pasta, Barilla and De Cecco are pretty good and can be found almost everywhere).
How you do it
First of all, you have to put water inside your cooking pot. You should put enough so the pasta never sticks out (however, you don't put the pasta in yet).
 |
| Standard cooking pot with boiling water |
Place the pot on the fire and put some salt in the water. How much salt? It really depends on your personal taste. Try putting a teaspoon at first or "un pugno di sale" [a fistful of salt]: the more you cook, the better you'll become at choosing the right quantity of salt.
 | |
| Not a very precise way to measure how much salt to use.. but it's very common in Italy |
While the water heats up, take your frying pan and put a spoon of olive oil inside it, then throw in the tomato sauce, the basil and the garlic (one or two small pieces), then add some water (100ml, less than half a cup). Now put this on the fire and let it stay there for 10 minutes. Fire shouldn't be very intense.
 | |
| Frying pan without water and with water |
 |
| Your current situation |
An important notice: don't trust the package too much. If you like to eat harder pasta ("al dente") just leave it less time in the pot. If you like it softer, take it easy and let it cook for a couple more minutes. In my opinion, pasta is good when it is still a bit hard (it absolutely mustn't melt in your mouth!). You decide how you like it best.
 |
| Pasta al dente (not fully cooked in the middle). I apologize for my horrible macro skills. |
When the pasta is ready, pour the content of the pot in your sink through a scolapasta ["colander"] or just pour the water carefully so you don't drop your pasta in the sink.
 |
| Scolapasta |
Now pour the pasta into a dish and here you go.
 |
| Penne pomodoro e basilico |
If you want to add some flavour, add some Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) or Grana Padano.
 |
| Penne pomodoro e basilico con parmigiano |
martedì 14 giugno 2011
Pasta
At first I thought I was going to photograph every type of pasta I could get my hands on.. but wikipedia has a very good set of images (which I will paste below) that show all the popular types. Don't get scared, you won't have to learn to recognize all different kinds of pasta, I'm just posting this so you have an idea of the many different forms in which pasta can come. Also, this can be a useful visual reference.
Long pasta:
Short pasta:
Pasta for soups:
Egg pasta:
Fresh pasta ("casereccia" means "homemade"):
Each of these kinds of pasta has its strengths and weak spots, each one is good to use with some ingredients and is wasted with others. Stay tuned and I will teach you the best combinations in an easy way. Tomorrow we'll start with something very simple: spaghetti pomodoro e basilico [spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil]. You'll be amazed how easy it is to make such a delicious and healthy meal.
Long pasta:
Pasta for soups:
Egg pasta:
Fresh pasta ("casereccia" means "homemade"):
Each of these kinds of pasta has its strengths and weak spots, each one is good to use with some ingredients and is wasted with others. Stay tuned and I will teach you the best combinations in an easy way. Tomorrow we'll start with something very simple: spaghetti pomodoro e basilico [spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil]. You'll be amazed how easy it is to make such a delicious and healthy meal.
Hello world
In this blog I will try to teach you how to cook italian meals. I am not a particularly good cook, so I will not tell you the ingredients to make the ultimate top-level chef dish, add some suggestions and then pretend I've actually taught you something. What I will do is I will try to teach you how to cook simple everyday italian dishes step by step.
I've had a hard time learning new recipes form books, the only thing that really helps me is learning from someone who is cooking right in front of me.
This is why I will provide photographs to show each and every step you'll have to take before you can taste your creation.
This blog is for those who want to taste real everyday cuisine from Italy (and therefore pretty unexpensive meals that you can cook everyday without spending endless hours in the kitchen) and prefer to take it slow and just watch as the dish comes to life, before trying to cook it themselves.
Let's start right away..
First thing we'll discuss is pasta, as probably 99% of the dishes we are going to discuss will have pasta as their main ingredient. I guess you already know pasta. If you don't, do your research but don't trust wikipedia. The english article on pasta is not very precise.
First things first: pasta is not an ingredient you put on something else. If you live outside Italy (which probably is the case if you're reading this blog, since most italians can cook good pasta and wuold not find this blog very useful) you may have seen some crazy things like.. pasta on a pizza, pasta with ketchup, sliced bread with butter and pasta.. well, forget about that. This blog is about doing it the simple way, but it is also about doing it the Italian way. The orthodox way. No heretics allowed!
No but seriously, you won't see any "Pepperoni Pizza", "Spaghetti Bologna", or Spaghetti with meatballs posted here. These.. things are basically the simplified and internationalized version of italian dishes. If you come to Italy and ask for "Spaghetti Bologna" people will laugh at you. The city of Bologna is not famous for spaghetti, but for Tagliatelle (and many other things), which are usually eaten with either tomato sauce or ragù, which is a meat-based sauce. I know at first the difference between spaghetti and tagliatelle doens't seem huge, but it really is. The type of pasta you use (I'm talking about shape, quality, cooking time in boiling water) radically changes your dish. Some kinds of pasta are more suited to a particular kind of sauce or condiment. In Italy pasta is not considered a single dish, but more of a food category. You don't just decide you're gonna cook pasta and take the kind of pasta you've got on hand and cook it the way you like. You think about what kind of pasta-based dish you want and then you think about which way you can cook it. What I'm trying to say is that there are so many different dishes you can make with this fantastic ingredient that you would really be ruining a good meal if you just took a random type of pasta (let's say penne or fusilli) and cooked it in the same way as you would cook your average spaghetti. Penne alla carbonara? Doesn't really sound good: tortiglioni or spaghetti are better for carbonara. Fusilli al tonno (fusilli with tuna)? Not a wise choice: better use spaghetti.
In my next post I'll try to show you different types of pasta so you will be able to tell the difference between them very soon. Don't overlook this one as it really is important.
I hope you will excuse my poor English. If you want to learn, you'll have to endure the sufferings coming from me butchering this language, which I love by the way.
I've had a hard time learning new recipes form books, the only thing that really helps me is learning from someone who is cooking right in front of me.
This is why I will provide photographs to show each and every step you'll have to take before you can taste your creation.
This blog is for those who want to taste real everyday cuisine from Italy (and therefore pretty unexpensive meals that you can cook everyday without spending endless hours in the kitchen) and prefer to take it slow and just watch as the dish comes to life, before trying to cook it themselves.
Let's start right away..
First thing we'll discuss is pasta, as probably 99% of the dishes we are going to discuss will have pasta as their main ingredient. I guess you already know pasta. If you don't, do your research but don't trust wikipedia. The english article on pasta is not very precise.
First things first: pasta is not an ingredient you put on something else. If you live outside Italy (which probably is the case if you're reading this blog, since most italians can cook good pasta and wuold not find this blog very useful) you may have seen some crazy things like.. pasta on a pizza, pasta with ketchup, sliced bread with butter and pasta.. well, forget about that. This blog is about doing it the simple way, but it is also about doing it the Italian way. The orthodox way. No heretics allowed!
No but seriously, you won't see any "Pepperoni Pizza", "Spaghetti Bologna", or Spaghetti with meatballs posted here. These.. things are basically the simplified and internationalized version of italian dishes. If you come to Italy and ask for "Spaghetti Bologna" people will laugh at you. The city of Bologna is not famous for spaghetti, but for Tagliatelle (and many other things), which are usually eaten with either tomato sauce or ragù, which is a meat-based sauce. I know at first the difference between spaghetti and tagliatelle doens't seem huge, but it really is. The type of pasta you use (I'm talking about shape, quality, cooking time in boiling water) radically changes your dish. Some kinds of pasta are more suited to a particular kind of sauce or condiment. In Italy pasta is not considered a single dish, but more of a food category. You don't just decide you're gonna cook pasta and take the kind of pasta you've got on hand and cook it the way you like. You think about what kind of pasta-based dish you want and then you think about which way you can cook it. What I'm trying to say is that there are so many different dishes you can make with this fantastic ingredient that you would really be ruining a good meal if you just took a random type of pasta (let's say penne or fusilli) and cooked it in the same way as you would cook your average spaghetti. Penne alla carbonara? Doesn't really sound good: tortiglioni or spaghetti are better for carbonara. Fusilli al tonno (fusilli with tuna)? Not a wise choice: better use spaghetti.
In my next post I'll try to show you different types of pasta so you will be able to tell the difference between them very soon. Don't overlook this one as it really is important.
I hope you will excuse my poor English. If you want to learn, you'll have to endure the sufferings coming from me butchering this language, which I love by the way.
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