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21. As a chef I can't agree with him more. He is so totally correct. And being 100% American born Italian, that is exactly how my mother does her spaghetti, or any pasta for that matter. Oh, and dont forget....twirl that spaghetti in a soup spoon too. No sloppy spaghetti strands hanging all over the place 22. Whenever I serve a pasta dish, I sauce it and put extra sauce in a gravy boat.... almost everyone adds sauce. Coming from a big family, I can see where Mom couldn't toss the pasta in the sauce pan and serve, so she poured the sauce from a large pot over the pasta. I think the extra sauce was needed because everyone needed something to push that bread in their other hand into. 23. Hey Frank #19 24. I am Italian from Northern Italy (Cesano originally). We lived in Genoa for many years and so, tomato sauce a la marinara style and pesto (with basil, pine nuts and all the real stuff) is the main, day to day sauces we cooked. There is no limit to how much of those 2 sauces you can eat; it is the pasta or the gniochi that one limits because we also serve salad with all our meals (eaten in the afternoon not in the evening); some sort of meat on the side is always on the table as well as good italian semolina bread and after dinner, we eat fruit as the dessert with an esspresso. The pastry thing is on special occasions/holidays, but we live on espresso morning, noon and night (and we can sleep without any trouble). We are not fat because the olive oil is good for your health, heart, skin and hair; and we do not load butter on the bread the way America shows italians do. On the contrary, red vinegar with olive oil, oregano, salt & pepper is where the bread gets dipped. None of the above is expensive until the American marketers get their hands on the knowledge and then, BAM, all these "diets" stolen from the mediterranean and northern Italy cause the price of your American groceries to go sky high. 25. I am Italian and love to cook. Pasta has always been a staple in my life. People should eat thier pasta however they like it. With lotsa sause or none at all. 26. And did you know........topping it off with parmesan is frowned on? 27. I grow my own tomatoes on the vine, pick them when they are ripe and sweet, then jar them with a sprig of homegrown oregano, basil, and one button of garlic. I use my own tomatoes to make the sauce, with the added spices, meat (or if he wants a fish sauce, the fish) and my Italian husband never had better! 28. Why don't you just put as much sauce on your pasta as you want? Some people like lots of sauce and some not as much sauce. It's like pizza sauce or salad dressing. Put as much or as little as you want on your food. Don't let that fat stupid Mario Batali tell you what is the correct pasta to sauce ratio. Someone should tell him to stop eating so much of EVERYTHING. What sucks is when you are eating food with sauce on it and you run out of sauce and you have to eat the last few bites with no sauce. You can always sop up the left over sauce with your bread. 29. we ate pasta twice a week and the meat sauce was called gravy - and the salad came after the pasta and meat!!!!!! 30. Pasta made the Italian way, al dente with the freshest of ingrendients, is the best. I have never had an American version of pasta with sauce (vegetable, meat, no meat, whatever) that could come close to the flavors and textures. 31. I'll go with "do your own thing", but would like to know who calls it sauce and who calls it gravy? 32. I don't think it' that serious, just sauce your pasta however you like! 33. WHO CARES?? If you like your pasta with lots of sauce, eat it that way, and vice versa. I think it's incredibly stupid to care how two chefs think pasta should be eaten. 34. personally, i like my pasta seasoned with the sauce on the side. that way i use what i want. then i have something to dip my bread in. the pasta stands out, as it should. 35. I disagree with Mario and other experts. When I eat pasta, the sauce is the star of the show for me. I want my spaghetti swimming in sauce, with plenty left to mop up with bread! 36. I love that Mario, but......since when does pasta have flavor ?? I'll tell you when,when you ladle on that great sauce !! PS- Cook up some pasta and just sit down and have a dish. YUCK !! 37. My family came from Sicily and we call it gravy. As for the way I serve pasta, I do it the same as my parents and grandparent did. First, you pour some gravy over all the pasta so it doesn't stick together. Then it's put on a serving plate and a bowl of gravy, a bowl of meat in gravy and a chunk of hard cheese with a grater are on the side. Everyone has it their own way. We never had garlic bread, just plain Italian or French bread to clean our plates with. And alway salad with vin & oil. We also never had napkins, just a dishtowel was passed around to wipe the gravy off our faces (yuk) 38. Zuchinni,Squash,or Cabbage, instead of Pasta, its a great 'no carb' alternative. And it won't leave you filling like you ate a mack truck. 39. I guess I was "forced" into the heavy sauce camp simply because my wife's thick, lean meat sauce is the best I've ever had. In fact, I'm starving right now after reading all of your interesting comments, wondering if I can make it until dinner tonight! Have a great day . . . 40. I have live in Italy for almost two years and have been coming here for over 10. All of my friends are Italian and, I have many of them who I have lived and worked with. I've been to countless dinners and lunches in just about every region of this beautiful country...from the far North to as far as the south of Sicily (where I live currently). Pasta is a staple food for almost all Italians, and I can promise you that most of them eat pasta at LEAST once a day which is normally lunch (depending on circumstances) which gives them time to burn it off through out the day. The difference is, they don't eat as much quantity as Americans and it is rare to see them ever eating bread at this meal. (Italians just do this intuitively as it is quite filling to have so much flour in one sitting). The truth is, they don't use a lot of sauce, just enough to cover the pasta itself typically. And every ingredient is fresh and normally simple. Every single pasta shape has a different sauce that goes with that shape. Which means, when make with a tomato sauce, mushroom sauce, vegetable sauce, meat sauce (not as common as people think), or with fish, you have a different shape - (though for me...I don't mind mixing sauce with shape - however I admit I have come to see the logic behind the shape/sauce combination;) Yes...the new day and age people here are trying to cut back on pasta and "some" are willing to try new things now, but basically, they are traditional and don't venture "out of the box" like some Americans do. Normally, most Italians will have some kind of salad AFTER the pasta. If it's a party or special meal with friends the second (course) of meat, chicken or fish is served. Not mixing the two at the same time like we do. I recommend a simple sauce that is very tasty, healthy and does not take a long time to make. Take olive oil, some chopped garlic, cut fresh tomatoes into chunks, a couple leaves of fresh basil (or dried) saute in a pan until bubbling, and right before adding to the pasta and stirring it all together (as almost EVERY Italian does...they don't put the sauce on top!) add some parely and pepperocini (red pepper spice) for zip! Now...you can add some fresh grated parmesan and a tad of extra olive oil for taste. I gaurentte you will be satisfied at the end of this meal! And if you really want to stretch the pasta or just use less because truly, a little goes a loooong way, add steamed veggies like, zuchini and eggplant. (Seeing that I was a nutrition consultant back in the states...I like to add steamed spinich...it has protein, it's good for digestion, and it's good for your blood...just as is a nice glass of Italian red wine;) Buon apetito! |
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