250 True Italian Pasta Dishes

by Colletta, John

• ISBN13: 9780778802211
• ISBN10: 0778802213
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd

Summary

Packed with professional tips and techniques, "250 True Italian Pasta Dishes" presents pasta as it was meant to be prepared and enjoyed. Chef Colletta provides key instructions, skills, and great recipes for authentic Italian pasta dishes, each carefully tested.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

All About Pasta

Pasta Express: By the Time the Water Boils

Meatless Pasta: Rich Flavors from Poor Kitchens

Pasta with Poultry and Meat: Sauces with Substance

Pasta with Seafood: Something Special

Makeovers: Using Leftovers and Pasta

Pasta Salads: Contemporary Concoctions

Pasta for Kids: Cooking for Conservative Palates

Making Fresh Pasta

Simple Luxury: Fresh Pasta Tossed in Sauce

Baked Pastas: Make Today, Bake Tomorrow

Filled Pastas: Gift-Wrapped

Gnocchi, Polenta and Crespelle: Cooking Cousins

Dessert Pastas: For the Sweet Tooth

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

IntroductionWhy did I write this book? Not because the world needs another cookbook, much less another Italian cookbook. I wrote it because I want to inspire you to begin cooking one of the finest forms of Italian gastronomy: pasta.Home cooks are often challenged and frustrated by their inability to prepare high-quality restaurant food in their own kitchens -- perhaps not realizing that cooking that kind of food usually demands a large staff, specialized equipment and purveyors who deliver a world of ingredients to the door. However, there are some things you can make at home and produce better results than most restaurants. Pasta is one of those dishes.The pasta that my mother and father cooked for me when I was growing up in New York City, as a first-generation son of Italian immigrants, and the pasta I have eaten in Italy bears little resemblance to pasta served in most restaurants in America. My Italian friends, who prepare and enjoy pasta at home, refuse to eat it in restaurants simply because it is not as good as what they make themselves. In part, logistics are to blame. Restaurant customers don't want to wait for pasta to be freshly cooked for them, so most restaurants precook the pasta, then reheat it by dipping it in hot water. That means pasta rarely arrives at the table properly cooked. Not only are the sauces often overcooked and too salty, there is usually too much of them. Pasta should be lightly coated with sauce rather than drowning in it. And the ingredients are all too often mediocre. For all those reasons, I strongly believe that pasta is best made at home.The sole purpose of this book is to give you, the home cook, all the skills you need to produce delicious pasta for yourself, your family and your friends. I've also included an abundance of recipes for many different kinds of pasta -- fresh and dried, festive and everyday. Most are very easy to make and don't take much time, but some are more complex and time-consuming, suitable for special occasions.Italy's history makes it very difficult to write about "Italian" food because, until 1861, when Italy became unified, the country was a collection of 20 separate kingdoms ruled by a disparate group of foreign invaders. (If you want to know more about this subject, you might enjoy reading Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, by Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari, Columbia University Press, 2003.) These occupiers brought their own food traditions with them, which is why you'll find marzipan (originally from Persia) in Sicily, crespelle (which resemble French crepes) in Tuscany, and sauerkraut soup in Trentino. And yet, despite this foreign domination, a strong internal culinary regionalism and rivalry emerged in Italy. Each of the regions developed its own ingredients and cooking styles. For centuries recipes were passed on from mother to daughter and from father to son, and prepared only in the immediate area because many of the ingredients were not available elsewhere. Interestingly, this practical reality also influenced social attitudes. For instance, at the turn of the twentieth century, if a Tuscan man married a woman from Alto-Adige it was frowned upon as a "mixed marriage."While the recipes reflect the regionality of Italian cooking, they also speak to simplicity, approachability, our lifestyles and our palates. Most are simple and quick. A few of the sauces, such as Bolognese and some of the other ragugrave;s and sugos, are time-consuming because they take a long time to cook, but they are not complicated to assemble. I have kept these recipes to a minimum.The ingredients called for are readily available. Yes, anyone can get white truffles from Alba, bottarga (cured fish roe) from Sardinia, and buffalo burrata from Apulia. But because many regional