Pasta Latini

If common pasta never seems to overcook—because it’s pre-cooked in a sense during high temperature drying—Pasta Latini reaches its optimum point of cooking naturally because it was dried at truly low temperatures.

That’s why it needs to be treated almost the same as a fresh pasta, with a little caution and good sense. Low temperature drying (at 40-45°C) leaves protein and starch molecules intact, while hot drying fuses the molecules making ordinary pasta seem glazed.
Try putting your nose over a pot of our pasta in boiling water and you’ll note a distinct aroma similar to bread dough. If you do the same with a pot of ordinary pasta, all you’ll smell is the boiling water.

Cooking
Here are a few simple steps to follow to cook the pasta just right

1. use at least one liter of rapidly boiling salted water for every 100 grams of pasta, salting the water to taste.
2. pay attention to the cooking times suggested on the package, but remember that they can vary somewhat.

The cooking time for each type of pasta also depends on how high you are above sea level and the amount of chlorine, calcium, magnesium—in other words the mineral salts—in the water.

3. when the water boils rapidly put in the pasta and stir it with a wooden fork or spoon.

4. your own taste is the best determinant of the ideal cooking time
5. a couple of minutes before the end of the suggested cooking time, bite into a bit of pasta to decide when to drain it.

Remember that the pasta continues to cook for another 30 seconds after being drained.

Once the pasta is drained, put some on a plate and try it right away without sauce. You’ll sense the nuances of odor and taste while noting the firm texture and distinct personality. Now is the time to try it with a little extra virgin olive oil. Oil captures and conveys the aroma and flavor of pasta as nothing else can. Now add a grating of Parmigiano or Grana, which enhances all of our pasta types, stir in the cheese and wait a couple of minutes When the oil and cheese are fully amalgamated, that’s the moment to savor our pasta at its very best.

Sautéeing in the pan

Keep following my advice but let yourself be the guide in dressing the pasta with your favorite sauce

1. Don’t forget that you’re using a pasta with a rough surface that absorbs a lot of sauce.

The bronze dies give leave our pasta rough on the surface and porous. This is a great advantage. In fact, as the aroma of the pasta issues from those pores the sauce enters.

2. A word of advice: your sauce should not be quite finished cooking when you mix it with the pasta. A little bit of extra liquid should remain, or else add a ladle of the boiling water, so that the pasta remains moist enough to avoid sticking together.

At this point you’ve made a very good first course, but with a little bit of extra effort you can create something really special.

3. Drain the pasta a minute before it reaches the perfect point of al dente, the right moment to sautée it with the sauce in the pan.

The pan should be wide with a low rim, large enough to mix in the freshly drained pasta.

4. Put the freshly drained pasta in the pan with the sauce cooking over the flame, and, if you know the technique,mix the contents both vertically and horizontally with deft flips of the wrists. Otherwise, and the results are just as good, remove the pan from the heat and stir the contents with a wooden spatula or spoon until thoroughly mixed.

Buon appetito!!


	52nd Summer Fancy Food Show - Come and meet us!	In The Kitchen	The Los Angeles Times prefers Pasta Latini