Posted on
February 03, 2010 by
Stile Mediterraneo
We are back from three fantastic days in Milan where we attended an International Culinary Conference with some of the most important Italian, French and International chefs, such as Alain Ducasse, Moreno Cedroni, Andrea Berton, Frank Cerutti, just to mention a few.
I and Marika now have only one certainty! There is not a unique way to cook pasta. Each acclaimed Italian chef has his own theory on what the best way to cook pasta is.
Alain Ducasse even said that
his restaurant in Tuscany will be the only one in Italy, because Italians have too many different views on how to cook pasta!!
Of course there are some features all Italian chefs agree on:
- sea salt must be added to water before the pasta;
- it must be coarse sea salt;
- olive oil must not be added to water when cooking dry durum wheat pasta!
- Italian pasta must be eaten “Al dente“.
However, there are as many ways to make an Al dente pasta as the number of acclaimed Italian chefs!
It is not just a question of “gnocchi and pasta with eggs” versus “dry pasta without eggs”.
Within the dry pasta category, there are so many theories on how long pasta should be cooked for, how to drain it, what to do before putting it on the plate and serving it.
Even a simple “Spaghetti with tomato sauce” requires so much consideration, care and thought …if you want to reach the most delicious and tasty result.
And you, how do you make the “al dente” pasta? how long do you cook spaghetti pasta for? what do you do before serving on the plate and bringing on the table?
Tags: Italian cuisineItalian pasta
Category
Cooking tip, Hand-made pasta
Posted on
January 14, 2010 by
Stile Mediterraneo
Our guests attending our cooking classes in Puglia are always surprised at the fact that in the Pugliese cuisine we use garlic in a very delicate way.
Our guests’ usual comment after the first bite is: “mmmh…but I don’t taste garlic in my food!“. And we use to reply that if it did taste like garlic, than it would not be authentic Italian food (at least not from Puglia!).
I and Marika are big fans of garlic! We like it because of its flavor and most of all, its health benefits. During our cooking classes Marika loves explaining how good and healthy garlic is for cholestorol, blood pressure, digestion etc.
We use it in many successful recipes. However, it is true that we use it in a very delicate way, without letting garlic cover our food.
Most of the times we sweat a whole garlic clove in olive oil and then we remove it after a few minutes before adding the other ingredients.
Very rarely we use garlic, if we are already using onion in a recipe.
Lastly, if we need to use garlic (as in our famous veal meatballs), we prefer to chop it with a knife instead of crushing it.
And you, do you like the garlic taste? How much garlic do you use?
What was your favorite food with garlic you had in Italy?
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Tags: Italian cuisinePuglia food
Category
Cooking tip
Posted on
March 29, 2009 by
Stile Mediterraneo
What to cook and what NOT to cook!
The extra virgin olive oil is the key of the
Mediterranean cuisine. The extra virgin olive oil (which by definition means it is fruity….otherwise it can’t be “extra” virgin!) adds its fruity taste to your dish, without covering the original taste of the ingredients.: eggplants will still taste like eggplants; fava beans will still taste like fava beans etc.
However, in order to keep the fruity taste of the extra virgin olive oil, it is very important that you add it raw at the end of the dish preparation.
Of course there are a few methods to reduce the amount of dressing while you are cooking (for example, to soften the onion etc), but we will cover then in the next posts.
Please, also consider that recent medical research found out that the extra virgin olive oil, when used raw, has important benefits for your cardiovascular system as well as for cancer prevention.
For more information, please contact us at: info.stile@gmail.com
Tags: farmer market ItalyItalian cuisineMediterranean Healthy food
Category
Cooking tip, Mediterranean Healthy food, Puglia Extra virgin olive oil
