Mary Ann's Blog
Pasta Waits For No One
April 23, 2012
An old saying goes: “Cooked pasta waits for no one.” Amen to that! There is nothing worse than being served a plate of cold pasta. I keep that quote on my refrigerator door! Believe it or not there are ways to make sure that the pasta about to served is piping hot when placed in front of someone. One trick I have learned is to heat individual pasta bowls in the microwave or your oven while the pasta is being sauced. The other trick I use is to drain the pasta in a colander set in the sink over a large serving platter; the boiling hot water heats the platter which is then discarded and the platter remains hot.
The best way to sauce pasta is in the pot in which the sauce was made. That way the pasta is evenly coated, not drowned in the sauce. Italians never serve it with a big glob of sauce sitting on top of naked pasta.
Twirling pasta on a soupspoon is not done in Italy. Winding it around a fork is; and long pasta (spaghetti, fettucine and vermicelli) is never cut with a knife unless it is a lasagne or some other type of filled pasta.
Seafood based pasta dishes are rarely if ever served with grated cheese to sprinkle on top. If you have ever been to Italy and asked for cheese to go with your clams and spaghetti, you know what I mean. You will get a blank stare from the waiter!!
We are all sometimes guilty of large portions, but a pound of pasta serves 8 – two or one. We can’t help it because we love it so much. One way around eating too much pasta is to load it up with lots of vegetables or fish so that the ratio of veggies or fish is greater than the amount of pasta. Try these tricks the next time you cook pasta.
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