Day: July 17, 2013

How to boil spaghetti …

Pasta 101 or the art of preparing pasta. It comes down to just a few simple elements. And getting them exactly right. It’s not hard. Even if you only have one pan you can still make a plethora of incredible pasta or spaghetti dishes. Just boil spaghetti or cook your pasta properly. In this article or recipe if you will, we help you learn how to boil spaghetti to absolute perfection!

The proper way to boil spaghetti is of course AL DENTE. That’s firm and just slightly crunchy.  Yes, slightly crunchy. Pasta’s incredible nutty flavor can only be achieved if it is cooked extra firm. I know, I know, this might be foreign to most people. But once you’ve tasted pasta which is truly AL DENTE you’ll understand why Italians adore pasta.

So, the essential thing is boiling water. Specifically, well salted boiling water. How much water depends on how much pasta or spaghetti you’re cooking. Plenty of water is best, but, even if you’re limited to a small pan, don’t fret. You’ll learn how to boil spaghetti even in a small pan with salted boiling water.

In a perfect world a large, oversized pot would be best. But, if you’re cooking, let’s say, a pound of pasta for a group to enjoy, even an eight cup/two quart pan will do just fine. Yes, eight cups or two quarts of water will do the trick to boil spaghetti up to one pound.

Bring the water to the highest boil you can. Then leave it at that temperature. Add enough salt (I recommend sea salt for both flavor and mineral content). Just enough so that you can just taste it in the water. Too much salt is as bad as too little salt. Part of learning how to boil spaghetti is learning how much salt works best.

Once the water is boiling fiercely add the pasta and stir it briskly in the pan until it comes to a boil once again.

Here’s an old professional pasta cooking trick for when you’re cooking any type of spaghetti or long pasta. BREAK THE PASTA IN HALF before dropping it into the pan. Not only will it fit perfectly into just about any sized pot but it will cook evenly. You’re not waiting for the pasta to cook and bend itself into the pan. That can take over a minute. Your pasta will have the same perfect AL DENTE (firm, slightly hard, slightly crunchy) texture all the way through. In addition, it is MUCH EASIER to eat. It also takes on sauces much better than foot long plus pasta. Try it and write me to tell me how much better your pasta tastes.

Most pasta packages recommend that you boil spaghetti for a certain number of minutes. In almost every case, if it’s written in English, you will be told to boil spaghetti way beyond it’s AL DENTE phase. Why? Because most Americans are used to pre-cooked pasta at restaurants. It’s prepared hours in advance (gag!) and placed in a refrigerator to be reheated with your chosen sauce when you order. Or, they are accustomed to (Oh my God, no) canned pasta products. So, use the cooking time as a very rough guide. But the key to perfect pasta is to drain it the minute it begins to fold easily. It MUST have a bit of crunchiness to it. The only way you can boil spaghetti to perfection is to keep an eye on it. Stir it regularly as it boils and test it with a fork or spoon. Remember, once you drain it the pasta will keep cooking on its own. By the time you add it to your sauce or accompaniment, over a moderate heat in a pan, it continues to cook as well. This technique is called “in padella” . Meaning “in the pan,” in Italian.

Thick macaroni products (ziti, farfalle, rotini) will take slightly longer to cook than spaghetti varieties. The thinner the spaghetti variety, the LESS time it will take to boil spaghetti al dente. Angel hair pasta can take less than two minutes to cook if you’re going to finish it properly. Meaning “in padella” where it will continue to cook or soften.

And NEVER, EVER, EVER rinse pasta. You will destroy its flavor, make it soft, and destroy the ultimate pasta experience. So remember, NEVER, EVER, EVER rinse pasta.

Another excellent professional pasta cooking tip is to save a cup or so of the cooking water before draining. Then, later add it to your to your sauce or accompaniment if that needs more moisture. Adding fresh water will destroy the pasta’s flavor as if you’ve rinsed it. So, just in case, keep a cup of the cooking water handy.

If this sounds like a more complicated process than you’re used to, relax. I assure you it becomes second nature after you’ve tried the technique just a few times. More about “in padella” in another post. Meanwhile, happy trails learning (always, by doing) how to boil spaghetti.

Lasagna Napoletana is La Gran Lasagna di Carnevale Napoletana

An appropriately distinguished full name for this feast day dish to enjoy on Sundays and for special celebrations. Essentially, it’s party fare to relish at gatherings of family and friends. Once Lasagna Napoletana was associated with Mardi Gras. That’s the last day of meat eating before the Catholic Lent fast begins. Hence “Carnevale” which literally translates as “meat is valid”.

This recipe has three elements. (1) The Ragù recipe, which should be a classic Naples Ragù recipe. But made only with pork meats and sausages. (2) The Pasta recipe, ideally using durum wheat rippled Lasagna sheets. (3) The Filling recipe. That always includes little meatballs, ricotta and sliced hard boiled eggs. It also includes a grating cheese for the top. And either the fresh Naples sausages called “Cervellatine” or else spicy Napoli Salami, but never both. The Lasagna Napoletana recipe can also include sliced Mozzarella. Although it must be cows’ milk labeled Fior di Latte. It must not be Mozzarella di Bufala. That’s too watery to use in the recipe. You can play with these recipe elements. Then make your Lasagna Napoletana as you prefer adding more of this and less of that. You can omit the eggs. Or you can use a simple tomato sauce recipe instead of the classic ragù recipe. My advice is to keep the cheese elements of the recipe to a minimum. Cheese is very hard to digest. And this can also make this gloriously rich Lasagna Napoletana uncomfortably heavy.

Lasagna improves with waiting. It likes time for the flavors to blend and the elements to settle. Some make the recipe a day or two ahead and reheat by covering and steaming. Others simply leave it to wait in the turned off oven. Sometimes for two, even three hours before serving. Lasagna Napoletana is best savored when eaten just warm, not hot.

What you need to make Lasagna Napoletana:

• 2 liters of Naples meat ragù slightly watered down. Make this recipe a day or two ahead
• 350 g Lasagna sheets, ideally with rippled edge. And absolutely not the pre-cooked kind
• 100g Pecorino Sardo or Parmigiano-Reggiano for the recipes cheese topping

For the Polpettine Recipe:

• 250 g very finely ground pork
• 50g crust-less dry bread soaked in milk
• 50 g Pecorino Sardo or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1 egg
• Evo for frying

You can make this recipe ahead. It will freeze well.

For the Lasagna Filling Recipe:

• 250 g Ricotta
• 250 g Fior di Latte Mozzarella
• 250 g either narrow fresh plain pork sausage or Naples Salami
• 3 eggs hardboiled and sliced

How you prepare for making the Lasagna Napoletana recipe:

• Cook the Lasgana sheets 2 or 3 a time in plenty of salted boiling water. Dip each into cold water as soon as it is cooked al dente. Then place on clean kitchen towels to dry.

• Grate the cheese into a bowl then break the egg into the same bowl.  Mix the two together. Then combine thoroughly with the crumbled soaked bread and the ground pork.

If your pork is very lean, add a tablespoonful or two of ricotta to the recipe mixture to soften it.

• With water dampened hands shape into tiny spherical meatballs no bigger than a hazelnut (filbert).  Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet and fry the meatballs, rolling them round so they brown evenly.  Place on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.
• If using the Cervellatine sausages, cut in thin slices. Brown briefly in the pan where you cooked the meatballs.
• If using the Napoli Salami, cut into small diced pieces.
• Grate the cheese you will be reserving for the topping. That’s Pecorino Sardo or Parmigiano-Reggiano.
• Mix the ricotta in a bowl mashing out any lumps. Then add 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of ragù. Blend  perfectly to a creamy consistency.

How you assemble Lasagna Napoletana:

• This Lasagna Napoletana recipe calls for 5 layers of pasta and filling. So butter a rectangular baking dish that’s deep enough.
• Place a small amount of ragù on the bottom of the dish. Then cover the base completely with pasta squares. Avoid overlapping the pasta pieces but cut to fit instead.
• Place a good layer of the ricotta cream as a bed. Then distribute a quarter of the meatballs, sliced egg, sliced Mozzarella, and either sausage or salami all over the ricotta. Top with ragù.
• Repeat 3 times so you have 4 layers of pasta sheets, toppings and ragù.
• Place the 5th layer of lasagna sheets on top of the last layer of filling. Top it with ragù. Then sprinkle the grated topping cheese over the whole surface.

How you bake and serve Lasagna Napoletana:

• Cover the dish with foil and bake in an oven. Preheat to 375 ° for 25 minutes.  Turn the oven off and leave the Lasagna Napoletana covered. Have it wait in the turned off oven for two to three hours. At the end of that time remove the foil. Turn on overhead heat or broiler. Give the Lasagna 20 minutes to crisp and color the cheese on top.
• Wait at least 20 minutes before serving lukewarm. That’s the best temperature for fully savoring this culinary masterpiece!

You can bake and refrigerate then heat it up for eating the following day. You can also freeze the whole Lasagna unbaked.

Carmelita Caruana runs the Cook Italy Cooking School based in Bologna, Italy. An Italian food expert and culinary consultant, her writing has been featured in major British newspapers and food magazines. Carmelita has appeared on British TV and held classes in various U.S. cities.

“Most Italians would pull a face at the very thought of spaghetti and meatballs. For at best this combination makes no sense.”

Spaghetti and sauce should come together in one mouthful. And large meatballs, as well as Bolognese ragù, should slip and slide off the slippery cylindrical spaghetti.

So where do spaghetti and meatballs come from? And what’s the most authentic spaghetti and meatballs recipe out there? The answer is Abruzzo, Italy. And Carmelita Caruana’s spaghetti and meatballs recipe at The Pasta Channel! 

In Abruzzo, the hand made Spaghetti alla Chitarra are not cylindrical. They’re square in the cross section. The Chitarra (Italian for guitar) is a special kitchen tool. It has strings pulled tautly across a wooden frame. The spaghetti dough is rolled out as high as the space between the strings. Then it’s cut on the Chitarra. They’re about a dime and a half thick. And the meatballs, called “Pallotte” in dialect, are tiny. No bigger than a hazel nut (filbert). Made this way, this spaghetti and meatballs works. And the spaghetti, sauce and meatballs combine in a single tasty mouthful as they should.

If you can buy packaged Spaghetti (alla Chitarra) for this spaghetti and meatballs recipe, great. If not, use Linguine. Or use your own dough recipe. And roll it out no thinner than the third setting on the pasta machine. And cut it into ribbons using the narrower setting. For this spaghetti and meatballs recipe, you really must keep the meatballs very small. Some would say no bigger than the finger nail on your little finger. That’s the secret for coming close to the authentic original Abruzzo dish, “Maccherone con le Pallotte”.  And this spaghetti and meatballs recipe gets very close to the original.

Here’s the ingredients to make your own spaghetti dough for this recipe. 4 ½ cups semolina flour, 4 eggs, 1 tbsp of olive oil, and a little warm water. More if the dough needs it. Leave the dough to rest in a plastic bag for 30 minutes. And after cutting the noodles, place them on clean cloths. Then leave on a natural woven basket to dry for about an hour.

For the Spaghetti Sauce recipe you need:

• a small onion and half a carrot very finely minced
• a quarter onion pierced with two sweet cloves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 x 28oz cans Italian peeled plum tomatoes
• a fresh bay leaf
• a small fresh red chili
• salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp. Evo

For special occasions, you can modify this spaghetti recipe. Cook diced lamb and crumbled pork sausage in the sauce for 2 to 3 hours.

For the Meatballs recipe you need:

• 7 oz finely ground lamb shoulder. Or half lamb and half pork or veal.
• 5 oz stale bread
• milk to soak bread
• 3 ½ oz grated Pecorino Sardo or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Romano is too salty.
• 1 egg
• fresh grated nutmeg to taste
• olive oil for shallow frying
• salt and pepper

Preparing the Spaghetti Sauce recipe:

• Prepare the tomato paste by diluting it in ¼ cup of hot water.
• For this recipe especially, put the contents of the cans of tomatoes through a food mill. This will eliminate seeds, peel and hard bits. Then discard anything left behind.
• Heat the olive oil in a wide deep skillet. This is where you will later toss the cooked spaghetti.
• Add the diluted tomato paste, the sliced chili and the fresh bay leaf. Fry for half a minute to darken the tomato paste as you stir and mix.
• Add the sieved tomato passata. Stir to combine and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Turn the heat down and leave to simmer gently, uncovered. Simmer for at least an hour. 2 or 3 hours is even better.
• Be sure to add small amounts of water. Otherwise the sauce reduces and thickens too much.
• When you are ready to serve the sauce, taste and adjust seasoning.

In summer, prepare the spaghetti sauce recipe using fresh vine ripened tomatoes. The sauce recipe can be made ahead and frozen.

Preparing the Meatballs recipe:

• Cut crusts off the bread and discard. Break the rest up into small pieces and soak in milk.
• Beat the egg lightly with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Place meat and grated cheese in a bowl.
• For this meatballs recipe especially, make sure there are no hard bits left in the softened bread. Then add it to the bowl.
• Tip the beaten egg in and mix everything well by hand. Force the meatballs mixture through your knuckles over and over.
• Dip your hand in cold water. Take a teaspoon full sized amount of the meatballs mix and roll into tiny meatballs. For this meatballs recipe, sizing of meatballs is important.
• Heat the olive oil in a wide shallow skillet. Then fry the meatballs on moderate heat for a few minutes. And roll the meatballs around so they brown evenly.
• Season meatballs to your taste.
• When the tomato sauce has been cooking for an hour, take about 1/3^rd of it and place in a small pot over low heat.
• Add the meatballs to the small pot. Then cook meatballs in the tomato sauce over low heat for 30 minutes.

To Serve the spaghetti and meatballs:

• Cook the spaghetti al dente. That’s critical in this spaghetti and meatballs recipe. Then scoop it up using a pasta fork or tongs. Place immediately in the skillet with the plain tomato sauce. Set over lowest possible heat.
• Toss well to mix. If the sauce has reduced too much add a little of the pasta cooking water to loosen it.
• Transfer spaghetti to individual plates. Or you could use a family style serving platter.
• Top the sauce-dressed pasta with the little meatballs in their sauce and serve at once. Pass around the Pecorino Sardo or Romano cheese and the grater. Have everyone help themselves!



So, there you have it. The best and most authentic spaghetti and meatballs recipe on the web! Enjoy!



Carmelita Caruana runs the Cook Italy Cooking School based in Bologna, Italy.  An Italian food expert and culinary consultant, her writing has been featured in major British newspapers and food magazines. Carmelita has appeared on British TV and held classes in various U.S. cities.