It's hard to overstate the popularity of spaghetti around the world. In Italy, the average person eats more than 57 pounds of spaghetti a year, while in the United States, the figure is close to 20 pounds a year. From a simple combination of flour, water, and sometimes eggs, we have unlimited possibilities. These possibilities shape some of the most representative dishes in the world, from spaghetti and meatballs in the United States to stir fried stews in China, and all the beautiful pies in Italy. We interviewed Steve Samson, chef of Rossoblu and sotto restaurant in Los Angeles, to uncover the myth of ordinary pasta and the secret of special pasta. When he grew up in Bologna, he said, "my grandmother rolls out pasta every morning and serves lunch and dinner - twice a day!" Whether you're an experienced pasta chef or someone who wants to make it, these unexpected discoveries may change your mind about the next plate of pasta.
Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Advertisements all the food rooms have universal flour, the effect is very good when making dough, but this is not the best choice. AP flour is a mixture of high protein and low protein wheat varieties, and the products are incredibly versatile, but not necessarily suitable for all recipes. Different flour made from different varieties of wheat contains different amounts of protein (i.e. gluten), and the percentage of protein will affect the texture of the final product. In addition to AP flour, you may see a pasta recipe that calls for coarse flour. According to achitoff gray, spaghetti is another kind of flour for "00". "Or, as Italian says," doppio zero, "according to Samson," double zero flour has nothing to do with protein content, it's the degree of grinding of grains. You want fine grinding because it's easier to develop gluten when making dough. "Getting the right proportion of gluten will give the dough the perfect elasticity and provide the ideal taste for your dough. Next step: Here's how much water you really need to cook noodles. Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo if you are taught to add a little oil to the cooking water to prevent the pasta from sticking together, you will be misled. Samson said, "I won't do it. It's a waste of oil! " Due to the relative density of water and oil, the oil added to the pot will only gather at the top and will not cover the noodles. How can you prevent noodles from sticking together? According to Lopez alter of serious diet, "when the starch on the surface of pasta gelatinizes and binds together, it sticks together, which happens in the early stages of cooking. So the only thing you have to do is stir the pasta in a minute or two. After the spaghetti is drained, drizzle and toss will keep the water in. Ned's pasta, from a post chef group, "but that's only if you plan to keep it for later use. Otherwise, skip the oil immediately and season. Next step: that's why the weight of pasta water is worth gold. Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo if you follow Lopez alter's advice and start cooking pasta in much less water, you'll actually have more efficient pasta water than traditional pasta cooking, starch molecules per liter.Higher concentrations. Samson encouraged chefs to "put a little bit of the primer on the pasta and finish it in the sauce so that the pasta will release some starch in the second pot and make it more even." He added that "a little spaghetti water always helps" mix the sauce together. Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photo Advertisements 1. Of course, the dough can only be made of flour and water. But to get the perfect texture for hand-made dough, you may need more than just water to hydrate the flour. If you make fresh spaghetti at home with only water and flour, it will become light and sticky, according to Niki achitov gray of serious diet magazine. But adding eggs can solve many problems. "The yolk contains 48% water, 17% protein and 33% fat," explained architof grey. More yolks [in your dough] will provide more color, more egg flavor and more silky noodles. " For Samson, the introduction of eggs is related to geography and culture. " Macaroni in southern Italy is usually made only of pasta and water, while in northern Italy it is made of eggs and double zero flour. In Piedmont, the traditional practice is to use four yolks per 100 grams of flour. "The more eggs, the more spaghetti." Previous step: don't think universal flour is the best way to make spaghetti.
2. Always use universal flour
Credit: livestrong.com/scott Clark photos. You need a large pot of water to cook spaghetti. Although it is generally believed that spaghetti must be cooked with a large pot of quick boiled water, scientific research cannot prove this. Cooking pasta with plenty of boiling water is not a problem in nature, but it is certainly inefficient. "It all depends on the shape of the pasta," Samson explains. If you make dry noodles like Penn, you can use less. "If you want to save on gas or electricity, try a decent diet of spaghetti like J. Kenji Lopez alt." "Put your spaghetti in cold water, boil it, then close the lid and turn off the heat," Lopez alter suggested. "Your cooking time will remain the same and you will save yourself (and the environment) energy bills," he explained. How does this work? Using less water is the key to the technology: you just need enough water to cover the pasta in your small saucepan. Yes, when you add pasta, the temperature of the water will be much lower than that of a large pot of water, but because of its small specific surface area, it will return to boiling state faster than in a large soup pot. Next step: adding oil to water can prevent pasta from sticking together, right? 4. Be sure to add oil to the cooking liquid
5. There's no value in using water for pasta cooking. Every famous chef and grandma in Italy will suggest you to save water for pasta - but why is it so important? During the whole cooking process, pasta will release tiny starch molecules into boiling water, which is the reason why water becomes opaque. Starch molecules in solution are very useful. A little water can thicken any sauce, from tomato sauce to soy sauce. At the molecular level, you actually create a kind of emulsion in a pan and use starch molecules to combine different ingredients (such as oil and water) into an adhesive unit that can be silky covered on your spaghetti.
6. The shape of pasta is randomly matched with sauce. Although it looks strange, the shape of pasta is very accurate in reality. In many cases, noodles are a tool for delivering sauce to your mouth. Because all condiments are a little different, each condiment needs a unique carrier to succeed. Traditionally, says Steve Samson, "you want thinner seafood pies and stronger meat sauces." Long and thin noodles (pasta, spaghetti, vermicelli, etc.) are best served with light sauces (oil-based, cream or instant seafood sauce). Wider ribbons (tagliatelle, pappardelle, fettuccine, etc.) perfectly deliver heavier, meatier sauces such as gravy from the plate to the mouth. The twisted shape (fusilli, gemelli, radioriori, etc.) is very suitable for a smoother and thicker sauce like garlic sauce, because the ridge provides a hidden gap for the sauce. Test tubes (penne, Rigatoni, Paccheri, etc.) are great with cheese sauces and can be well preserved in baked dishes, while smaller shapes (Orzo, fregola, orecchiette, etc.) are designed to float in soups and stews. Last step: do you think noodles only come from Italy? Think again.
7. All pasta comes from Italy. Throughout Asia, you will find that noodles are made of wheat, rice and bean powder. In China, "noodles" refers to "wheat noodles" (such as fried noodles, fried noodles, etc.), while "noodles" refers to "rice noodles or other starch noodles" (such as fried noodles, fried noodles, etc.). Although it is difficult to trace the exact origin of spaghetti, it is believed that Marco Polo introduced spaghetti into Italy after his visit to China in 1271. There is also a popular ramen, which belongs to its own category. According to Harold McGee, "adding alkaline ingredients (like traditional Ramen) has a significant effect on the texture, color and flavor of noodles." By changing the chemical environment of the dough, the ingredients in the flour change their behavior, and they change in various ways. "Samson advises anyone who makes Ramen from scratch that rice flour and wheat flour don't drink the same, so you have to be careful about adjusting the amount of liquid in the recipe." Next step: are you allergic to gluten? There is still hope.
8. Allergic to gluten? "I think it's interesting because people don't eat wheat anymore because of carbohydrates and think it's unhealthy," Samson said. While wheat can definitely be part of a healthy, balanced diet, there are plenty of noodles to choose from for people who can't tolerate gluten. Technically, many of these gluten free noodles are not pasta, but they are well preserved in some of your favorite dishes. The spaghetti pumpkin is a member of the pumpkin family. When it is cooked, its interior can be crushed into spaghetti like filaments. The zoo is a bunch of zucchini, which can be boiled, cooked like spaghetti, or eaten raw with sauce. Brandy noodles, on the other hand, are made from starch from Japanese sweet potatoes. These noodles are low in calories, do not need to be cooked, and taste neutral. Some versions are mixed with tofu, resulting in a richer noodle with more protein. Mung bean noodles - also known as cellophane because they are translucent when cooked - are generally sold as dried products that can be softened by cooking in small quantities or soaking in hot water. These noodles work well in fried chips and soup. Next step: we need to expose a huge myth.
9. Healthy eating means eliminating spaghetti. Why is spaghetti so popular in the United States as an unhealthy food? According to Fred Plotkin, the author of the authentic pasta book, there are three aspects of the American problem: "we overcooked pasta, we oversupplied it, and we oversold it." Samson agrees with Plotkin. "I usually weigh out 80 to 90 grams of spaghetti," he said. If I had more, I would have nowhere else to eat! " In a merica, when we talk about the liquid on the pasta, we will mention "sauce", but in Italy, it is called "seasoning", translated into seasoning. So if you want to stay healthy, don't eat a bunch of spaghetti that's soaked in sugar ketchup and covered in cheese and meatballs. Instead, eat a purposeful and delicious "seasoning" of high-quality pasta.
What do you think? Do you make fresh spaghetti at home? What kind of pasta do you like best? Are you surprised by these eye opening pasta discoveries? Please let us know in the comments.
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