March 18th, 2010
Hi, this is the twenty eighth entry about the art of cooking Italian pasta.
In the last entry we told you about the Bolognese sauce or ragout (meat-and tomato-based pasta sauce).
Have you made it? Are you going to make it in the next days? Well, we want to tell you today about the most common mistakes people do with this traditional Italian sauce.
For example. Most people use to toss spaghetti with Bolognese sauce. It’s wrong! Look at the photo below.
It isn't an Italian recipe!
We found this photo easily in Internet but it isn’t a typical dish from Italy. Don’t toss spaghetti with Bolognese sauce! The right pasta is tagliatelle. Tossing spaghetti is an habit in the North of Europe.You can also use Bolognese sauce to make Bolognese lasagna or cannelloni.
In this photo there is another mistake. Don’t serve pasta with some tablespoons of sauce on the top! It can be a nice photo but we repeat: it’s a mistake. Follow our instructions. Cook pasta and when al dente stage drain it. Pour the pasta into the bowl or the pan, add the sauce and stir very well. So you’re sure the pasta doesn’t get sticky! Besides good manners tell us your guests must be at their ease. If they want to eat a tasty pasta they have to stir it in the dish and in this way they could get a sauce stain.!
Tomorrow we’ll tell you about the fantastic lasagna, Bologna -style.
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Greetings from Italy
Carlo & Loretta
Posted in Authentic traditional recipes, The art of Italian cooking | 1 Comment »
March 16th, 2010
Hi, this is the twenty seventh entry about the art of cooking Italian pasta.
Yesterday we showed you how to prepare a fantastic lasagna dish made with a green sauce.
Today’s entry is dedicated to people who love red sauce made with meat and tomatoes.
What is the most known meat-and tomato-based pasta sauce? Bologna sauce, obviously!
Bolognese or Bologna sauce
And what is the correct name? Bolognese, Bolognaise or Bologna sauce? In Italy we call it Bolognese sauce or “ragù alla Bolognese”. In fact this sauce was born in Bologna, Italy.
Look well at the photo above. Don’t you feel like making it, tossing a hot dish of tagliatelle and eating?
Mm … Gnam, gnam! It tastes fantastic, it smells fantastic ….
Make the real, authentic recipe we described in this page of our website.
Be patient: it’s a long-to-do recipe. But a recipe worth making.
Do you love Italian cooking? prepare this sauce! If you have any problem email us.
Once cooked it you can decide how to use it.
Tomorrow we show you how we use this fantastic sauce in Italy and what are the most common mistakes people make outside Italy.
Interested in all our entries? read this page!
Join to our community (We love you, Italy!) with Google Friend Connect!
Greetings from Italy
Carlo & Loretta
Posted in Authentic traditional recipes, The art of Italian cooking | No Comments »
March 15th, 2010
Hi, this is the twenty sixth post about the art of cooking Italian pasta.
Last post was dedicated to the instructions for making egg pasta at home.
Well, now we can show you some lasagna recipes. We begin with the last new recipe of ours: vegetarian lasagna made with asparagus, artichokes and spinach. A perfect seasonal recipe!
Read how to prepare it in this page.
Baked lasagna with vegetarian ingredients
We like it very much. It tastes fantastic and we think it’s ideal for a special dinner party (spring or Easter menu) according to the Italian style.
It is a vegetarian dish and it has no milk food. Besides if you use lasagna sheets with no eggs it becomes a vegan pasta recipe. But we think everyone can like it. It’s too delicious!
Do it ahead for the best result!
Interested in all our entries? read this page!
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Greetings from Italy
Carlo & Loretta
Posted in Our original home cooking, The art of Italian cooking | No Comments »
March 12th, 2010
Hi. This is the twenty fifth post about the art of cooking Italian pasta.
It’s time to speak about egg pasta for two reasons. We have showed you a lot of pasta recipes and pasta sauces in the last weeks but all the recipes are made with dry pasta. In Italy we use also fresh pasta very often, we like it very much.
Besides we have just published a new version of vegetarian lasagna that tastes fantastic! We’d like to join it with you.
But it’s necessary to tell you something about egg pasta before.
You can buy dry egg pasta or fresh egg pasta but you could also make it at home. What about this last idea? Don’t worry! Making homemade pasta dough isn’t easy but you can learn it. You have only to try!
You can read step-by-step instructions to make egg pasta in this page.
Making egg pasta
If you have no time to prepare egg pasta at home but you’d like to prepare a tasty lasagna you can buy fresh lasagna sheet or dry lasagna sheet as those you can see in the photo below
Dry lasagna sheet
When you buy dry lasagna sheets you have to read the instructions on the package very well. Some of them are no-boil lasagna. In other words you can prepare your lasagna directly in the baking pan without boiling them before.
But there are some dry lasagna sheets that must be boiled before preparing lasagna. In this case remember to add at least a tablespoon of olive oil in the boiling water. This avoids that pasta rectangles stick. Remove lasagna from boiling water with 2 skimming ladles, cool them in cold water and arrange on a napkin in order to let them dry.
Well, we’ll see you tomorrow for our new lasagna recipe made with spring vegetables!
Interested in all our entries? read this page!
Join to our community (We love you, Italy!) with Google Friend Connect!
Greetings from Italy
Carlo & Loretta
Posted in The art of Italian cooking | 3 Comments »
March 11th, 2010
Hi, this is the twenty fourth post about the art of cooking pasta.
This is the perfect period to describe you the most important sauces we make in Italy with the artichokes.
In fact the artichokes can be found easily from March to May. In Italy we find them longer, from October to May for the different cultivation method.
Artichoke anatomy
The artichokes are healthy food. They are rich in water, fiber and very low in fat, calories and carbo. The artichokes have also a lot of cynarin. Read more on this page.
People who must follow a healthy-eating plan should choose them in order to lower cholesterol levels and control blood sugar. Somebody could think pasta isn’t the best choice for a diabetic diet but the amount of pasta in the recipe we are telling you today is only 50 g (1 3/4 oz) per serving. Besides this pasta dish is a perfect one-plate meal.
In this recipe tagliatelle are tossed with a white sauce made with ricotta cheese and artichokes. So it’s the ideal sauce for people who can’t eat tomatoes or don’t like tomatoes. Read more about the recipe and healthy eating in this page.
If you’d like to learn how to clean the artichokes consult our “memebers-only area“.
Interested in all our entries? read this page!
Join to our community (We love you, Italy!) with Google Friend Connect!
Greetings from Italy
Carlo & Loretta
Posted in Our original home cooking, The art of Italian cooking | 2 Comments »
