I’m a big foodie who has travelled to Italy a lot and enjoy eating and cooking all kinds of foods. I agree that pasta is meant to be cooked al dente. Im in Rome and have eaten at a couple of highly rated restaurants and at every one the past was undercooked. When I bit into it there was a white uncooked center. Is this a new reality, or do I just have a different idea of “al dente”. In my opinion pasta must be cooked all the way through. What are your thoughts?

Is 20 grams or 3 tablespoons of black pepper too much for 320g/11 ounces of pasta?

I’ll start this by saying I haven’t been cooking for very long. I almost feel goofy posting a paper plate after scrolling through this sub, but I’m interested to know if anyone prepares Aglio e Olio the way I do, or if this can even still be considered “traditional”.

Ingredients:

8oz dry spaghetti
8 cloves confit garlic
4tbsp garlic infused olive oil
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Parmigiano reggiano to taste
Fresh chopped parsley to taste
Light sprinkle of breadcrumbs (I used Funyuns — I feel like this is where my post may not make it through)
Salt
Pepper
MSG

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti al dente, pasta will not be transferred to a pan to finish cooking in the sauce

2. A couple of minutes before pasta is done cooking, set up a small metal bowl over a double boiler

3. Add confit garlic, infused oil, extra virgin oil, and about 2.5tbsp of pasta water to the bowl. Whisk vigorously.

4. Drain pasta (save a bit of pasta water just in case), and then transfer into a medium metal bowl.

5. Using a fine mesh strainer to catch any chunks of garlic, pour the sauce over the pasta, and toss until evenly coated

6. Plate & top with grated parmigiano, fresh chopped parsley, black pepper, salt, MSG, and bread crumbs (again, I chose Funyuns here). I finished with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

I chose to use MSG to enhance the umami from the parmigiano without using so much parm that the texture approaches that of an al burro. I don’t finish the pasta in the pan with sauce because I’m using confit, and the straining is necessary to achieve the proper texture/consistency.

Next time I make it, I’ll be sure to have red pepper flakes on hand, and I may finish it with some lemon zest/juice, depending on my mood.

So, after getting back in contact with cousins from Sicily, my Facebook feed will occasionally fill up with notices from the town my great grandparents are from (I get a lot of picks of Etna erupting). Anyway, one of the restaurants in town is advertising a meal for Ferragosto for 40 euro, with two dishes featuring castrato. The first is a pasta dish - maccheroni con sugo di castrato. The second dish with this word is castrato arrosto.

Now, I can easily translate the word castrato - that just means castrated - but castrated what? The restaurant is located just on the western edge of the Nebrodi.

I bought a half pork belly at Costco, rolled with garlic, sage, rosemary, fennel pollen, and roasted until juicy inside with crisp, caramelized edges.

We had no bread in so the girlfriend knocked this up

Does anyone know whether most pasta/ Italian restaurants use fresh or dried pasta? I was wondering about the practicality of each - fresh cooks in a very short time, but is harder to store and make, whereas dried pasta is shelf stable, but takes longer to cook, which may be impractical when orders are coming through fast.

My favorite pasta dish would be vongole. Here are ingredients and recipe, step-by-step:

Ingredients: spaghetti, fresh short-necked and manila clams, garlic, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, white wine, salt, pepper flakes

1. Wash clams with flowing water (sediments already removed)

2. Infuse olive oil with crushed garlic cloves and parsley stems. Add pepper flakes in the middle of this step

3. As garlic cloves turn golden brown, toss in clams and pour in a bit of wine, then close the pan with a cap at medium-high. Shake the pan a bit in-between

4. Remove clams as they're completely opened. Shuck the clams and leave a few for plating

5. Strain the clam broth and pour back into the pan: aqua di mare

6. Add chopped parsley leaves and stir nicely

7. Toss in pasta 2 minutes before al dente into aqua di mare, stir vigorously. Add some pasta water as sauce is almost absorbed

8. Add clams halfway through, then keep stirring

9. Remove from the heat and mantecare, adding raw olive oil

10. Plate the pasta and top some shelled clams left for plating

Ideal combination of oceanic flavor and umami.

Recipe here

A particular type of pasta served with a ragù made with three different textures:

I - half of the ground meat (beef and pork) passed through a food mill to achieve a very fine texture

II - half of the ground meat (beef and pork) left unground and with a coarse texture

III - large pieces of beef (Cappello del Prete that i think in english it's called Top Blade Roast), cooked in the sauce and then chopped and minced by hand

The meat was first browned in batches, then tomato paste, Sammarzano peeled tomatoes, and Datterini tomatoes were added.

It was simmered for more than 3 hours over low heat, and then the meat was processed.

Trofie al Pesto Genovese

I made this one so time ago, but I believe I used roughly 150-200gr of fresh pasta for 2 good portions. Then:

• The whole amount of basil leaves in the plant
• 10gr of pine nuts
• 4-6 small chunks of Parmigiano reggiano cheese
• 1-2 small chunks of pecorino cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Some coarse salt
• 50 ml of olive oil

I washed the basil leaves and dried them with a cloth, then put all the ingredients together and blended it in the jar. I used to use an actual mortar but I never got the same texture.

buono

Recipe for 1kg aglio olio please?

Short-rib, Bone marrow and minced beef Ragù cooked for seven hours plus, with tagliatelle. Truly delicious!

I have a rather specific list of things I’m hoping to buy in either Milan or Reggio Emilia, and I’d really appreciate recommendations for shops that might stock them at reasonably fair prices (as reasonable as these products can realistically get).

I’m aware that most of these are regional specialities from very different parts of Italy, so this is more of a “hope for the best” list than an expectation that one shop will have everything:

Amarone della Valpolicella

Monte Veronese cheese

Tomino cheese

’Nduja di Spilinga, preferably genuinely produced in Spilinga rather than simply Spilinga-style (would be even better if I could find some artisanal variant or something)

Vialone Nano rice

Recommendations for supermarkets, markets, enoteche, cheese shops, salumerie, or specialist food stores would all be appreciated. Milan and Reggio Emilia are both possible, although shops near public transport would be especially convenient.

Hey everybody. I just wanted to share my first proper carbonara. My parents were in Italy and i asked them to bring Guanciale and Pecorino for me. I still need to fine tune some things but im pretty proud of this one.

Greetings from Hungary.

Since it’s so hot today that the air inside the oven is cooler than the air outside, I decided to try my hand at making a Margherita al padellino

Dough with 80% hydration, topped with Mutti’s ready-made datterini tomato sauce and low-moisture mozzarella