Food: didn't know Italians were so picky about their carbonara!

[Keith_W]

Barilla is pretty good. I really enjoy La Molisana. The key for me is to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce for a few minutes with a bit of the pasta water. The starchy water helps to emulsify the sauce, thicken it up, and bond it to the pasta.

I disagree, Barilla is terrible. Not the new al Bronzo one in the red packaging, the blue packaged Barilla is not good pasta.

Agree with the recommendation for thickening the sauce with pasta water. But ... if you watch the videos on Italia Squisita, you will see that the pasta water they use is cloudy because they have cooked so much pasta in it. I typically cook 250g (half a packet), and that does not release enough starch into the water. I have a couple of hacks for that.

1. Add 1-2 tsp of flour into the water at the same time as your pasta.

2. Remove the pasta while it is still undercooked and finish cooking in the sauce, adding pasta water all the time until it is cooked al dente. This is halfway to an Italian method (I forgot the word they use) but the pasta is cooked like a risotto. This releases far more starch into the sauce. It doesn't work too well with any type of pasta lunga (long pasta) because they will break if you try to stir them around.

 

[cavedriver]

2. Remove the pasta while it is still undercooked and finish cooking in the sauce, adding pasta water all the time until it is cooked al dente. This is halfway to an Italian method (I forgot the word they use) but the pasta is cooked like a risotto. This releases far more starch into the sauce. It doesn't work too well with any type of pasta lunga (long pasta) because they will break if you try to stir them around.

"pasta risottata". Recently learned of it, haven't tried to make it yet. Agree that Barilla sucks. read an article recently that Rao's is the best of the grocery store brands. Some of the import "premium" brands are good but I can never remember which ones. Partanna is one I have some of now that's been decent. This article suggest Faella makes an excellent bucatini but I haven't tried it yet:

Bronze Dies and Slow Dried: What Makes the Best Pasta Brands?

These are the dried pastas that will keep your pantry ready for a weeknight bowl of pasta or a showstopping dinner party.

www.saveur.com

 

[cavedriver]

The article that picked Rao's for #1:

The Best Spaghetti You Can Buy at the Store

We tasted 15 brands of dry semolina spaghetti to find the very best one. Read on to find out which pasta didn't falter like a wet noodle.

www.epicurious.com

 

[Keith_W]

BTW, an Italian taught me how to buy good dried pasta (pasta secco):

- it has to be extruded via bronze nozzles (might be advertised on the packet)
- this affects the surface texture of the pasta, so it looks rough. The roughness helps sauce cling to it and gives you a more interesting texture in the mouth.
- any durum pasta that is dark yellow or brown is low quality (except the ones made with specialty wheats or have colouring added). This means that the pasta was heated to make it dry faster, causing a Maillard reaction and browning.
- any pasta that takes longer to cook (> 12 minutes) is better than a quick cooking pasta. Exceptions are small pasta shapes like risoni, pastina, stelline, and orzo, and dried egg pasta.
- irregularly shaped pasta usually means artisanal handmade pasta.

I feed a household of 2 people - my gf and myself. So I do not notice the cost of more expensive pasta. But it might add up if you have a small army to feed.

 

[Tremolo]

Barilla is terrible.

Who is picky now?
You guys have become more exigent than italians about pasta, funny. The classic Barilla is not the best pasta but is a good all rounder and sometimes an industrial basic product is a lot better than an unknown artisanal one. I tried myself artisanal brands that boasted ancient wheat of some kind, stone grinding, bronze noozle, low temp drying and all the stuff and that almost melted in the pot after few minutes.

1. Add 1-2 tsp of flour into the water at the same time as your pasta.

It is not a good idea, imo. What you put in the water affect the taste of the pasta. Why choosing carefully a "monograno" and then polluting your pasta with the first soft wheat flour you have in your kitchen?
If you want more amid in the water just use less of it to cook your pasta. The bad news is that the better the pasta quality, the less amid will release in the water. The good one is that you don't always need amid to get a creamy sauce, unless you are cooking "cacio e pepe" or another kind of "pasta risottata".
In carbonara, with all that fat and eggs, you don't need at all and usually I like my pasta well drained.

A rule of thumb to not buying really bad quality pasta is to avoid a product that have less than 12,5% of protein. The other is to taste, pasta is relatively cheap so you can experiment without serious damages to your wallet

 

[BlackTalon]

If you want more amid in the water just use less of it to cook your pasta.

This. We are largely taught (in the US at least_ to cook pasta in a metric spitton of water. Cooking in a lot less water increases the starch content. Another option is to boil down the pasta water, but that takes a loooong time.

 

[Tremolo]

Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong

From panettone to tiramisu, many ‘classics’ are in fact recent inventions, as Alberto Grandi has shown

www.ft.com

I can not share the article on FT but if you can read it. Some interesting things, some bs just to get attention and carbonara is involved

Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong​

 

[cavedriver]

This. We are largely taught (in the US at least_ to cook pasta in a metric spitton of water. Cooking in a lot less water increases the starch content. Another option is to boil down the pasta water, but that takes a loooong time.

good point, if you watch the european restaurant cooking videos they often have a "pasta cooker" integrated into the countertop. It's a set of square chambers that are deeper than they are wide and have baskets in them, kind of like a small fryer. This would yield a higher starch density with the lower water volume, plus if you cook in the same water all evening the water would get very starchy and a ladle could readily be used for cacio e pepe or whatever else. Of course we all wish we had a professional kitchen in our house...

 

[cavedriver]

Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong

From panettone to tiramisu, many ‘classics’ are in fact recent inventions, as Alberto Grandi has shown

www.ft.com

I can not share the article on FT but if you can read it. Some interesting things, some bs just to get attention and carbonara is involved

Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong​

Consider that the tomato was a New World disocvery that wasn't common in Italy until the 1600's. That means Americans and Italians had equal access to develop staples like tomato sauces and yet it was Italy that we identify it with. I don't think Italy has to show 1000 year tradition on everything to be able to claim invention. The idea of a Ferrari couldn't exist until cars did, but once the world got cars Italy made it theirs. Is the DOP concept an over-reaction? Maybe, but consider that America is the enemy here with our refusal to enforce quality restrictions on food products while simultaneously over-reaching on safety regs. For example, Morbier is a raw milk cheese that has been made in France for hundreds of years, but in the US you can't make it (or import it from France) because the process is not safe per FDA rules. Similar, there are no rules about what can be called "Gruyere" or "Parmesan" and so you get s*** if you buy US-made products in your grocery store. This is where my admiration for Italian (and French it should be added) seriousness about food comes into play. You can't have excellent risotto at any common little cafe if you don't take the ingredients and the process seriously.

 

[TulseLuper]

spaghetti all'assassina

Tried this last night. Gonna keep making it until we’re sick of it. So good!

 

[Keith_W]

This is going to upset a lot of Italians. An academic at the University of Parma claims that Carbonara was invented by Americans. That's the clickbait headline, but what the article actually says was that an Italian chef created Carbonara in 1944 to feed American GI's, using army rations of powdered egg, bacon, cream, pepper, and pasta.

 

[Rednaxela]

Knew it!

 

[dfuller]

This is going to upset a lot of Italians. An academic at the University of Parma claims that Carbonara was invented by Americans. That's the clickbait headline, but what the article actually says was that an Italian chef created Carbonara in 1944 to feed American GI's, using army rations of powdered egg, bacon, cream, pepper, and pasta.

That's certainly possible! And, post war, sub out the powdered egg for fresh, the bacon for guanciale or pancetta, drop the cream because you don't need it...

 

[Digby]

Italians on the thread have gone all quiet, perhaps out of shock?

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Italians on the thread have gone all quiet, perhaps out of shock?

Va fa Napoli!

 

[Keith_W]

It never ceases to amuse me how Italians are so passionate about authenticity in their food! I made this tonight:

I showed it to my Italian friend and said "spaghetti with mayonnaise. I added ketchup to it later". He went "NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

I had a little laugh but I was hoping for a more dramatic reaction . It's Cacio e Pepe, made with only 4 ingredients: spaghetti (I used Martelli), pecorino, pepper, and water. No salt added, not even to the pasta water. Italians seem divided about salting the water for cacio e pepe, and certainly with this dish which uses a lot of cheese, no extra salt was needed. I got the amount of pepper right, it was nice and toasted and peppery enough. I should have added more pasta water to the grated cheese, you can see it didn't melt properly to form the cream and made ugly clumps. These mistakes wouldn't pass muster in an Italian restaurant, but for home cooking, and a first attempt, it was great.

(EDIT for my reference): 300g pasta, 180g pecorino, 1 tbsp whole peppercorns. Serves 2 people.

- toast the peppercorns lightly in a dry frypan and set aside to cool. These need to be thoroughly cooled before grinding. Then grind into a powder.
- grate all the cheese and add 1/3 of the pepper and mix. Set aside.
- boil the pasta in unsalted water.
- Remove 1 cup of pasta water and allow it to cool to about 70C. Add it to the pecorino mixture and mix to form a cream. (I added too little and made a paste).
- Transfer the pasta to a frying pan with some pasta water HALFWAY through the pasta cooking time indicated on the packet. Add more pasta water, and continue to boil the pasta in the pan. The intention is to let keep all the starch in the dish. Add 1/3 of the pepper.
- When the pasta is al dente, remove it from the heat and let it cool to 70C. Add the pecorino mixture and toss until a creamy sauce is formed.
- Serve the pasta with the remaining pepper sprinkled on top.

 

[pablolie]

It never ceases to amuse me how Italians are so passionate about authenticity in their food! I made this tonight:

View attachment 335209

I showed it to my Italian friend and said "spaghetti with mayonnaise. I added ketchup to it later". He went "NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

I had a little laugh but I was hoping for a more dramatic reaction . It's Cacio e Pepe, made with only 4 ingredients: spaghetti (I used Martelli), pecorino, pepper, and water. No salt added, not even to the pasta water. Italians seem divided about salting the water for cacio e pepe, and certainly with this dish which uses a lot of cheese, no extra salt was needed. I got the amount of pepper right, it was nice and toasted and peppery enough. I should have added more pasta water to the grated cheese, you can see it didn't melt properly to form the cream and made ugly clumps. The other mistake, which I knew I was making from the beginning, was to use dried pasta instead of fresh. These mistakes wouldn't pass muster in an Italian restaurant, but for home cooking, and a first attempt, it was great.

No olive oil or (blasphemy) butter? One of my weekday dishes is pressure cooker cacio y pepe, they'd be horrified but it works pretty well. I'll add a pic next time I make it.

 

[Keith_W]

No olive oil or (blasphemy) butter? One of my weekday dishes is pressure cooker cacio y pepe, they'd be horrifed but it works pretty well. I'll add a pic next time I make it.

There was nothing else in the dish apart from the ingredients I listed

 

[Rednaxela]

It never ceases to amuse me how Italians are so passionate about authenticity in their food! I made this tonight:

View attachment 335209

I showed it to my Italian friend and said "spaghetti with mayonnaise. I added ketchup to it later". He went "NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

I had a little laugh but I was hoping for a more dramatic reaction . It's Cacio e Pepe, made with only 4 ingredients: spaghetti (I used Martelli), pecorino, pepper, and water. No salt added, not even to the pasta water. Italians seem divided about salting the water for cacio e pepe, and certainly with this dish which uses a lot of cheese, no extra salt was needed. I got the amount of pepper right, it was nice and toasted and peppery enough. I should have added more pasta water to the grated cheese, you can see it didn't melt properly to form the cream and made ugly clumps. The other mistake, which I knew I was making from the beginning, was to use dried pasta instead of fresh. These mistakes wouldn't pass muster in an Italian restaurant, but for home cooking, and a first attempt, it was great.

I make it too every once in a while. It’s quite technical but delicious. Yours looks amazing.

 

[pseudoid]

I got turned to some al dente pasta, simply smothered with plain yogurt and some garlic (and dash of salt).
I actually enjoyed its simplicity both in taste and time-to-prepare.
The offer was from someone that was born in Trieste, Italy. Go figure!