Printout courtesy of the gift of oil (www.giftofoil.co.uk) pasta
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Spaghetti alla Chitarra
Penne Rigate
Pappardelle
Paccheri di GragnanaOur artisan pasta from Trafila Ravida of Abruzzo, Italy is simply, amongst the very best that money can possibly buy.
It is an absolutely superb rough texture pasta made from the finest durum wheat semolina, extruded through bronze dies and then air dried at low temperatures for many, many hours.
The especially selected durum wheat semolina gives an optimal cooking texture. The bronze dies create surface micro striations which capture the sauce or rather let it stick to the pasta very easily when tossed, whilst the hours and hours invested in natural air drying, ensures all of the goodness of the semolina is retained and a much greater wheat taste enjoyed.
Our artisan pasta is in stark contrast to the widely available commercially produced pastas found in the supermarkets. Such pastas are formed using Teflon dies, as opposed to bronze, leaving the pasta slippery smooth and featureless and the sauce to simply fall off! They are also "blast dried" as opposed to naturally air dried, thereby leaving most of the natural goodness of the wheat annihilated as well as any remaining taste!
How to cook perfect pasta
- Fill a large pan with at least one litre of freshly drawn water (ideally 1.2 litres) and at least 10g of salt (ideally 12g) per 100g serving of pasta that you plan to make.
- If you were cooking a full 500g pack of pasta you would use 6 litres of water and 60g of salt and should be using a very large pan!
The addition of salt is vitally important to the cooking process, as it ensures even cooking throughout the depth of the pasta. If you don't add salt, the integrity of the surface of the pasta is destroyed and it acquires a slimy texture when cooked. Very little of the salt stays with the pasta when it is served as it is all in the cooking water. So there is little reason for those on a low salt diet to worry about the amount of salt that goes into the water. - Start boiling the water.
- When the water comes to the boil and is bubbling hard, add all of the pasta in one go and stir to separate the pieces.
- Whist cooking stir occasionally to prevent the pieces sticking to each other or the pan.
- A minute before the pasta cooking time is up (as stated on the packet instructions), scoop out a piece of pasta and check to see if it's done.
- Good pasta tastes better al dente (firm to the bite or literally "to the tooth") not floppy!
- Break open the piece of pasta. If you see a thin white line or dot(s) in the middle, it's not quite done yet!
- Check again, and as soon as the broken piece is almost a uniform translucent yellow, drain the pasta at once.
- Add the drained pasta to the sauce already warmed up in another pan and then simply toss the sauce and pasta over a medium heat for a minute or two.
- Serve and sprinkle with a few torn fresh basil leaves, a good drizzle of quality extra virgin olive oil and a little freshly ground black pepper.
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