Pasta, pasta, pasta. Who doesn’t like a really good and creamy pasta that melts in your mouth? It may seem quite impossible to fail to make a good pasta, but there are some mistakes we make when we are cooking the Italian delicacy.
1. Serve the sauce aside
All the times you served the sauce alongside the pasta are completely wrong. If there is something you should always do with the pasta, it is to cook it in the sauce. Start boiling it as usual in salted water. When it’s almost cooked, poor the pasta in the sauce and let the pasta cook. When you cook the pasta in the sauce, the pasta will taste the sauce and the result will be absolutely wonderful. You will wonder why you have never done it before.
2. Throws away the pasta water
When the pasta is cooked, do not pour all the pasta water, as you should have in your pasta sauce for a bit. The pasta water causes the sauce to thicken and gives flavor, some pasta sauces actually contain almost only pasta water.
3. Uses butter and cream to create a creamy sauce
A real Italian pasta rarely contains neither butter nor cream to make the sauce creamy. Usually the pasta water, oil and a little white wine is enough to make a good sauce. If you want to make the sauce a little extra creamy you can have in eggs or cheese. In a Carbonara, it is not really cream but it is the cheese and egg that make the pasta so wonderfully creamy. So skip the cream and test yourself with pasta water, eggs and cheese.
4. Forget the acid
A secret weapon to make a good pasta is lemon. It provides a perfect acid that makes your dish feel fresher and a little lighter. Try to have some lemon juice in your pasta sauce and your diners will think they eat at a restaurant.
5. Slack with the raw materials
If you have really good ingredients, your everyday pasta can be transformed into a luxurious meal. A good pasta dish requires fresh and good ingredients such as a good tomato sauce, a good cheese and organic eggs. You will really notice the difference if you use a good Parmesan or a tired household cheese. If you want to make it a little extra luxurious, you can try making your own pasta. It’s not at all as difficult as it sounds. All you need is 4 eggs and 5 dl flour, mix together and knead together a smooth dough. Well then you have made your own pasta.
