Pasta Night - Cooking Group

Hi Cooking Group!

We had a wonderful and educational Pasta and Sauces Night Thursday night. Thank you to Shirley Morain for opening your house again and thank you to Sarah Lockerman for demonstrating fresh pasta! Fresh pasta, though it takes a lot of prep and elbow grease, is hands down tastier than packaged!

Speaking of Packaged Pasta, we taste tested three of the top brands (gleaned from several chef blogs and articles) that can be found at your local supermarket. As a side note, if you want authentic, traditional and straight from the Old Country, Martelli Pasta is the number one rated if you are willing to pay around $10 for a 1 lb bag. The three brands I cooked were Barilla, De Cecco, and the O Organics spaghettis (several taste tests across the web used spaghetti, but Brittany mentioned that using a different type pasta could help differentiate in taste testing). They were all measured 8oz dry and boiled in three different pots with 1 gallon of water + 1 TBSP salt in each pot. Why 1 TBSP? According to an Italian chef, the key is to salt your water as the sea. 1 TBSP: 1 Gal : 8oz dried pasta 

We all agreed the salt does flavor the pasta. Some preferred less salt. The most preferred of the three brands according to one site was De Cecco, but surprisingly, our cooking group chose Barilla, which happens to claim it is the #1 preferred brand in Italy on its box. Barilla is also the most inexpensive to buy of the three, just under $1 a box when on sale. According to one blog, the way the pasta is cooked is more important than what brand or kind.

Sarah did a great job demonstrating fresh pasta. 

Pasta Dough

2 C Flour (all purpose)

3 Large whole eggs

1/2 tsp salt

Splash of Olive oil

Form a well in the middle of flour and add all the ingredients.

Knead all ingredients for 15 min.

Let the dough rest at least 1 hour, but from her family's experience, let the dough rest in the fridge for 24 hours. This is also confirmed from one of the blogs I read. The colder, firmer and more hydrated the dough, it will be easier to roll through machine. Shriveling dough after rolling means, let the dough rest.

She made fettuccine using a pasta rolling machine (hand crank style). Laminate (fold over several times) and roll through a few times until you get a good looking pasta sheet. She then made fettuccine noodles and placed on a noodle rack that looks like a tree. Then we boiled (using same ratio of water to salt) the fresh noodles. 2 min=al dente (firm to the tooth) and 5 min for softer. Most everyone liked the 5 min for softer texture. 

We tried Sara Seipert's Spaghetti Bolognese which was amazing (thank you!).She made it in the famous Insta-Pot! Her recipe is found here: https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-spaghetti-bolognese/?utm_source=socialshare&utm_campaign=mail 

Dina, her friend, was gracious enough to send Sara with some brown rice pasta (which takes a bit longer to cook). The brand is Jovial. Dina has tried several gluten free pastas and this brand and kind of pasta is the best tasting. Some at our gathering would say it has a faint nutty taste. We enjoyed trying it and it tasted pretty good! Thank you Dina!

Another option for gluten free was Crystal's spaghetti squash. I was first introduced to this fun vegetable by Crystal and glad she came yesterday with it! Crystal cut the spaghetti squash in half and placed upside down on a baking sheet and baked for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then you remove the seeds and pry the "noodles" apart with two forks. It goes really well with cheese and sauce. If you are watching carbs or calories, one cup is just 31 calories! Or 7g of carbs! It is filling too!

As for sauces, Sarah brought a homemade, nut free basil pesto. I didn't miss the nuts and the sauce was chock full of beautiful flavor. Maybe the difference was she grew the basil herself? It was delish!

We tried Brittany's Victoria sauce from Costco and also Classico Riserva (one brand that came in 3rd from a Chefs' taste testing). We all liked the Victoria sauce. The Classico Riserva had a more zesty/zingy taste and was thicker, whereas the Victoria sauce was more mild and a little thinned with small chunks of tomatoes (which is actually what a good sauce from Italy looks more like). Both were marinaras. According to Italian Chef Rana, in Italy, sauce is a condiment, not something you douse your pasta with, like in America. Pasta is queen and herbs and cheese make the dish king. But we went ahead and ate like Americans that night :D ~Andrea

Pasta do's and don'ts

From https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/food/8862766/youve-been-cooking-pasta-wrong/

• YOU might think it's one of the easiest dishes to make, but did you know you've probably been cooking pasta wrong this whole time?
• Giovanni Rana - pasta maker and founder of the Giovanni Rana brand - and his daughter-in-law Antonella, have revealed the secrets behind the perfect Italian dish - and they're super easy.
• "... Fresh pasta is the quickest. We’re talking about just two minutes.
• "I personally love to drain the pasta 15 seconds before the full cooking time... this way you don't overcook [it]."
• The pasta guru also advised flavouring the pasta with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmigiana Reggiano - especially when it comes to tortellini.
• If you must add sauce, just a small spoon is recommended.
• "As Italians, we try not to cover it too much with the sauce," she explained.
• "The queen is the pasta and the sauce is the tool."
• And on the subject of sauce, tomato ketchup is a total no-no while choosing extra virgin olive oil - as opposed to just olive oil - and a specific type of cheese, is crucial.
• "When you buy extra virgin it means they’ve pressed the olives just once and they press the pulp – the colour, flavour, nutrients and everything is better," said Antonella.
• "Always buy Parmigiana Reggiano in a whole piece where you can see the crust and the stamp. Never buy it already grated, as you’ve already lost half the flavour."
• And when it comes to seasoning, you'll need two types of salt - rock to place in the water while cooking and flakes to season.
• Antonella also explained a few basic herbs will finish off your dish perfectly.
• "The last basic is fresh herbs such as basil, thyme and chive," she said.
• "I believe that when you cook with fresh herbs, [washed and chopped] roughly, your dish is already king."

From https://www.chatelaine.com/recipes/how-to-cook-perfect-pasta/

1. DON’T put oil in your water or on your pasta. Adding oil to the water, or to cooked pasta to keep it from sticking will cause your sauce to slip off the noodles. You’ll also end up with greasy pasta, yuck. So, now that the don’t is out of the way, here are all the dos!                                                                     

2. Fill your pot properly. Use enough cold, fresh water that once the pasta begins to cook and expand, there will still be plenty of room for the noodles to move freely. You also want enough water to balance the heat once the pasta is added, allowing it to come back to a boil quickly. The rule of thumb is at least three litres of water to every 250g of pasta.                                                                             

3. Salt your water like the sea. Salting the water is your only opportunity to season the pasta itself. The water needs to “taste like the sea,” in order to flavour the pasta. Three litres of water requires a minimum of 1 tbsp salt.                                                                                                                                   

4. Bring water to a rapid boil before adding the pasta.Starches absorb water instantly and you want the water temperature to be extremely hot to begin cooking the noodles properly. Noodles that are added too soon with be soggy and improperly cooked.                       

5. Drop and stir.As soon as you drop your pasta in the water, stir it. This prevents the pasta from sticking together, or to the bottom or sides of the pot. Stir occasionally during the cooking process.                                                                        

6. Check the package for timing. There are lots of methods for testing if pasta is properly cooked, but your best starting point is to read the package. Every variety and brand of pasta designates a proper cooking time and it’s indicated on the package. Long thin noodles tend to be very fast cooking while small denser pasta tend to take much longer. Start testing your pasta about two minutes before the indicated time, just to be safe. You’re looking for ‘al dente’ which means tender but firm to the tooth. If your pasta will be cooking further in the a saucepan with sauce, you can remove it from the water slightly before the al dente stage.                                             

7. Always save some cooking water. Before you drain your pasta ladle a cup of cooking water into a bowl or measuring cup and reserve for your sauce. (We’ll come back to this.)                                                                              

8. Drain don’t dry. Drain your pasta enough to remove most of the water, but don’t let drained pasta sit and “dry off”. As it cools, the starches will firm up and the pasta will stick together.                                                                                         

9. Add pasta to sauce — not the other way around.Always have your sauce prepared before you cook your noodles. The pasta cooking should be the last step in making your dish. Keep your sauce warm in a large, wide saucepan, big enough to add your noodles to. Add immediately after they’ve drained.                                                                 

10. Add some pasta water. Adding a touch of pasta water to your sauce when you add the noodles helps the sauce adhere better to the pasta. The water adds a bit of richness and flavour and the starchiness can help bring a split sauce back together. The best piece of pasta-related advice I can give is this: Remember that the actual cooking of the noodles should be the last step in your meal preparation. The sauce should be ready, the salad on the table, everything ready to go before you drop in the noodles. Once pasta is cooked you want to add it to the sauce immediately otherwise it will begin to stick and become gluey. You can’t fix that.