While there are many ways for cooking Italian pasta, a few offer the user a nicely cooked non-sticky noodle to work with. In many of the dishes that the Italians make, noodles are used in conjunction with other ingredients. A sticky, starch ridden noodle is not only not as tasty, it is hard to work with, and not as appealing to look at. When you are cooking you want your dish to not only smell and taste good, but to also look good too. There are ways to ensure that your pasta is cooked right and can be used easily as part of a dish or the main course.

Cooking With Oil

When you begin to boil your pasta the best way to help make a great non-stick noodle is to add a tablespoon of olive oil to your water. Cooking Italian pasta this way ensures that when you are ready to drain your noodles they separate easily and do not have a starchy build up. Noodles that stick together can truly affect the dish you are making in a negative way. Lasagna needs to have noodles that are not torn or bunched. If you have a huge build up of starch and try to separate the noodles for use, you risk destroying them and therefore destroying your dish’s presentation. The oil will not affect how the pasta tastes or other ingredients that you add later. It just coats the noodles finely to guarantee that they come out unscathed.

The Cold Water Trick

Do not have oil to use, or cannot use it? Then try using the cold water trick when cooking Italian pasta. What you do is boil your pasta as usual. Then rinse it thoroughly with cold water. This is can be tricky if you are making pasta as a main dish and want it hot. But what you are doing is rinsing the starch off the noodles so that you can easily separate them without breaking them. This is a very reliable method in pasta cooking for spaghetti and lasagna. These pasta dishes are heated with sauces and other ingredients so the rinsing does not usually affect them. You do not need to rinse the noodles too thoroughly. A quick rinse and stir with your hand in the colander usually does the trick and is enough to get the starch’s sticky nature off the noodles. Most times this will only cool your pasta a bit and not make it too cold.

A Touch Of Salt

When cooking Italian pasta you will want to use a pinch of salt. The salt is not for flavoring and will not get into your noodles. It is to help bring your water to a quicker rolling boil. Salt helps to raise the salinity, which lowers your boiling point of your water. This makes cooking faster and shaves off some time that it takes to get the process going. Boiling water already takes long enough, By adding salt you can cut that time in half so you and your family do not have to wait too long for that homemade Italian meal.

Anna Fiori writes food related articles for the Italian Traditional Food website at http://www.italiantraditionalfood.com

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Afghanistan – Yahoo! News Photos

FILE – In this file photo from Feb. 25, 2009, Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta speaks with reporters, weighing in on the intelligence and counter-terror issues facing the Obama administration, at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va. The Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 attack that killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in Afghanistan is likely to raise questions about whether the agency could do more to protect its operatives on dangerous assignments.

Technorati Tags: Italian cooking

Italian Food Recipes – 3 Tips For Choosing The Best

Italian food recipes have grown over the internet landscape the past 2 years with more added each day. You have a wide choice to choose from in today’s marketplace of taste. The dishes can range from hearty and robust to light and flavorful with many in between the two extremes. So with all these choices, along with the new kid on the block ,healthy Italian recipes, how do you pick the right ones?

I’ve noticed many mistakes people make when it comes to choosing a recipe. But I’ve noticed just a few that keep coming up among people, especially new cooks. But I’ve also watched older more experienced cooks fall into a trap or two the newbie’s fall victim to.

Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the mistakes, they’re what people can often describe as little, but when overlooked they can often cause a big flop with your Italian recipe.

I’ve listed 3 solid guidelines to follow that will help you choose the best recipes. There’s a simple system to choosing the best dishes. If you take the time to follow these suggestions you’ll get better at choosing the best. The more you stick to these tips the better and more consistent your results.

1. Ingredients Are Easily Obtainable. – At first this appears to be a no-brainer, but many cooks can easily make this mistake if they’re not careful. In their excitement to start on the recipe, they can gloss over an ingredient the dish calls for and not realize it until it’s too late.

2. Invest In The Right Cooking Tools – This is an area many cooks underestimate. They choose to cook an elaborate recipe that have more steps than normal – with the wrong cooking tools. Doing this not only waste time, it can ruin a recipe, making the final product disappointing.

3. Can You Speak Recipe? – Many cooks overlook the importance of understanding recipe terms. They try to wing it and leave themselves open to make little mistakes that cause bigger problems. You’ll have a different result if you cube and the recipe said to mince, or you boiled and the recipe said to sauté. This can cause your result to go into the trash instead of your mouth.

As you pay attention and remember these simple tips you’ll find your Italian recipes taking on a better look, feel and taste. There’s a popular saying that “the little foxes ca
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n spoil the vine,” meaning little mistakes can spoil a lot. Now know you see how you can avoid the little mistakes and make your Italian cooking a big hit.

By: Roy Primm

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

See the top 10 Italian recipes chosen by readers this month. Enjoy video demonstrations and watch the recipes come allive. Go to Free Italian Recipes

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Italian Cuisine: A Trip To The Island Of Sardinia

The island of Sardinia perhaps most quickly conjures up the idea of sardines. A small island off of the western coast of Italy, it certainly incorporates seafood in to much of its regional cuisine. However, Sardinia has such a rich and various history that it bears little resemblance to the traditional idea of Italian cooking. Like many other Italian regional cuisines, Sardinia’s regional taste is often a surprise for a palette that is expecting red sauce and parmesan cheese to be the beginning and end of traditional Italian cooking. While it is a region of Italy, Sardinia’s history is shared with explorers of many European nations, such as Greece, France, and Spain. This diverse history of people shows in the traditions and culture of this isolated island destination.

While, being an island, seafood, especially shellfish, plays a large part in the regional cuisine of Sardinia, very few Sardinian meals do not incorporate lamb, a rich resource in the mountainous inland of the island of Sardinia. In addition to the lamb’s meat, a favorite of Sardinian chefs, very few meals are complete without the company of sheep’s milk and wild fennel. Stews and roasts are popular choices for the people of Sardinia. Looking at any Sardinian recipe, it is easy to see that the cuisine of this hilly island is a veritable stone soup of the many different cultures that have passed through the island over the years.

The seafood traditions of the Greek isles can be found in the mussel stews and roasted lobster dishes that keep the island’s fishermen busy. Malloreddus is a Sardinian pasta that can be found in many stews and pasta dishes accompanying chicken or rabbit basted in fennel or saffron. Malloreddus is a grooved pasta that very much resembles gnocchi in taste and texture, and is made of semolina flour and sometimes seasoned lightly with saffron, while most gnocchi is made with potato.

Stews are very popular in the regional cuisine of Sardinia, and even meat and poultry dishes are served in rich cooking sauces that could just as easily be served as soups. For this reason, accompanying a Sardinian entrée with a hearty crusted bread or a side of potatoes makes for a very filling meal. Pasta, in the traditional sense is not as large a part of Sardinian cooking as in other regions of Italy. The p
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astas of Sardinia are more commonly associated with Middle Eastern cuisine. Hearty grains and fusilli more commonly accompany the dishes of Sardinian regional cuisine, as opposed the lasagna, spaghetti or linguine that Americans more commonly associate with Italian cooking.

Between the diverse history of Sardinia’s people, from France to the Middle East, and the various different landscapes and resources that can be found throughout the island, it is hard to put Sardinian cuisine into one category. One thing is for sure though, while you will find many different types of food on the island of Sardinia, it is unlikely that you will find anything like it anywhere else in the world.

By: Kirsten Hawkins

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.

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Simple Italian Recipes – 3 Most Embarrassing Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Simple Italian recipes continue to grow in demand as more people look for ways to feed their families on less money. Cooking at home continues to grow in popularity. Eating out can cost almost twice as much as cooking meals at home. This has led more cost conscious families to flock to Italian recipe sites for tips and ideas on how to make their meals at home more exciting.

Everyone loves Italian food. It has a long and storied exciting taste, robust flavors and aromatic sensations. Everyone has their favorite dish. Some like the romance of ravioli, the excitement of a well made lasagna or the simple thrill of spaghetti and meatballs. Whatever your favorite you can tell when it’s not cooked right. Many new cooks make simple mistakes when it comes to cooking simple Italian recipes. Most new cooks discover cooking these dishes is simple but not always easy.

I’ve uncovered the top 3 mistakes many new cooks make. Take heed to what they are and the solutions to fix them. Do that and you’ll enjoy many tasty meals that will satisfy you and your family.

1. Italian Sauce Too Thin – This is a common mistake new cooks. They put too much water in the tomato sauce. Many new cooks are guilty of doing this in an attempt to save money or stretch the contents.
A quick way to fix this is to stir in instant mashed potato flakes. This will quickly thicken the sauce without being noticeable. Be careful not to put too much try adding a spoonful at a time until your sauce reached the desired thickness.

2. Washing The Pasta – Many Italian cooking newbie’s (and some old) make the mistake of washing the pasta under a faucet when its done to rinse out the starch. This is a mistake because the starch is what helps the sauce cling to the pasta, instead of sinking to the bottom of your plate.

3. Failing To Understand The Recipe – In the rush of excitement to started (or finish) many new cooks make the mistake of not finishing when they read the recipe, causing them to miss an important step or ingredient. Many also fail to understand a specific cooking term. They chopped when they should have minced, or the stirred instead of mixed.

By taking the time to heed these simple mistakes you can overc
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ome many obstacles new cooks make. You’ll find yourself cooking your favorite Italian food recipes with more confidence and flair.

By: Roy Primm

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

See the top 10 Italian recipes chosen by readers this month. Enjoy video demonstrations and watch the recipes come allive. Go to Free Italian Recipes

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Ok so you might find the next few links interesting. These are from around the web, just random snippets that I’ve picked up in my reading, but I found some very cool information in them. You might too. Here goes…

Suggestions For Hands-on Italian cooking Class In Washington Dc?

Looking for a hands-on class to take with my girlfriend. I've searched around the internet alot and haven't found too much. La Academie de Cuisine would be great except their menu options aren't what I'm looking for. Ideas please?

HOW TO ENJOY YOUR Italian cooking SCHOOL TOUR TO THE MAX.

They ran their prototypal European cooking, intoxicant and travel journeying in 1995. Margaret and her topical European journeying partners substance preparation edifice tours every over Italy. You poverty to learn italian? …

Do you like Italian cooking or French cooking? | Cook Like a Pro

Which do you like the most? I would pick Italian over french cooking for sure. . I do like one or two French dishes, (the onion soup in Paris is wonderful)

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

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Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…

Special Report Moschino Rewrites the Recipe

Moschino invitations are famous for giving clues about the collection's inspiration, so the assumption was that the show had a cooking theme. … Read More…

Socastee woman wins New York City cooking competition

The Socastee woman won the Santa Margherita Great Taste Challenge and earned cooking lessons with Fabio Viviani. He is the owner of Café Firenze, Italian … Read More…

Culinary calendar

ITALIAN COOKING CLASSES: Series of classes with Italian native Wally Maria. Learn how to prepare dishes, where to shop and how to combine courses for … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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This question is for Italian cooks only.?

I'm not Italian but having lived with an Italian family for a few years, I became very fond of Italian cookcooking, especially the sauce that goes with pasta. Here is the way I make it. Please tell me if my recipe would meet with your satisfaction. Brown 2 pork chops in olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, add 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 or 2 cans tomato paste, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp sugar, maybe a pinch oregano. Cook slowly for a couple of hours. Sometimes I make bracioli (cubed steak rolled up with thin slices garlic and tied with thread) and brown this with chops. Mmmm. What would a few anchovies do?

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What is the real name of an Italian potato soup with the following ingrediants?

Spicy sausage, russet potatoes and cavolo greens in a creamy broth.

It is supposed to snow in Denver and I want to make this soup tommorow.I can't find a recipe,any help would be appreciated!

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