copyright, 2008, Maria Liberati
I am continuing to receive a lot of emails from you all about the wonderful products and events for World Pasta Day. Keep those emails coming!
As I always tell my readers, take any excuse you can to celebrate your meals..we certainly don’t have enough celebrations in our life. World Pasta Day sure is a great excuse to make a pasta meal more than a special meal. To celebrate World Pasta Day we usually have 3-4 pasta dishes..all using a different pasta and different sauce.. add some great wine or even a non-alcoholic wine..
Unfortunately, we are not able to include all of your emails and suggestions into our World Pasta Day posts, but we have selected some here for you..
I found some really interesting ravioli at www.marxfoods.com many shapes,sizes and colors and even tri-colored ones..always fun to add to a meal..and
Our friends at Sur La Table stores have written to let us know all the perfect ‘accessories’ they have for making your special pasta meals all year ’round from extra virgin artisan olive oils to pasta bowls ,plates ,olive oil drizzlers and and Pasta machines (see photo above of Atlas pasta maker available there) to make that ever so yummy..fresh pasta. If you have never eaten lasagne made with fresh pasta..treat yourself for World Pasta Day and make that one of your pasta dishes..you will not want lasagna made any other way once you taste this…
My friends at Carmine’s Restaurant in NYC, Atlantic City and Paradise Island wrote to tell me that their new family cookbook is filled with ‘family friendly’ pasta recipes to celebrate with..
Gibbs Smith Publishers have written to tell me about their new cookbooks-Mangia! all about food events in Italy and Trattoria Grappolo..containing authentic Italian recipes..of course many pasta ones!!
Lagostina USA couldn’t wait to tell me about this wonderful pot to cook your pasta, couldn’t make pasta cooking any simpler, I’ve never tried this one but hope to try it out one day and wil let you know. If anyone gets to try it out please write and let us know if you liked it, here’s some of the info they sent (see photo above ):
This mirror-polished, 18/10 stainless steel pot has an aluminum base that hastens boiling the water, and it comes with a close-fitting lid and perforated stainless steel insert for draining noodles. The unique double-loop handles stay cool on the stovetop and the Pastaiola is designed to make an effortless transition from the oven to the table. For more information on Lagostina, visit http://www.lagostinausa.com
Olivenation.com has sent me some guidelines to tell our readers about choosing pastas:
What is a good pasta?
You want a pasta that has the flavors of the original wheat but also holds on to the sauce. If sauce does not adhere to your pasta then you have that gloopy mess at the bottom of your plate. Its all in the baking and the type of pasta mold (to create the various shapes) being used. Nowadays they bake the pasta in 4-6 hours and then use Teflon or stainless steel molds – why? The pasta does not stick to the molds and you can produce more pasta per hour and therefore offer a cheaper product to the market. However, the really traditional way (the way the ancient Romans used to do it) – Bake the pasta slowly over 48 hours so that the original wheat flavor and moisture gets trapped inside the pasta. Then you use the “bronze mold” (sometimes called a die) t make the various pasta shapes. Bronze cuts into each shape just enough and create tiny abrasions just enough that when you mix the sauce into the pasta it holds on to the sauce. That’s a good pasta. Too bad that only very few small pasta makers do it nowadays.
Egg Pasta
Its the king of pasta. It really only should have some egg, flour and water. That’s it. If you get hold of a truly great egg pasta then all it requires is a little bit of butter and parmigiano. Well, maybe a few slices of truffles. You don’t need anything else. It’s a whole other experience. Again, its too bad that its not really available in supermarkets. The Campofilone area of Italy is known for their egg pasta and their legendary egg-pasta makers. Yes, its expensive, but then life is too short not to enjoy this special treat..
“Mangia bene, Vivi Bene”
For more great recipes get your copy of the bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at https://www.marialiberati.com and more great books at http://stores.lulu.com/marialiberati
Maria
