Al Dente

My room mate and I recently had a slight disagreement over cooking pasta and what it means to properly cook pasta. As all my Italian relatives will know, I've been raised with the expectation that pasta should be cooked al dente, from the Italian, literally meaning ' to the tooth'. This means the pasta has a little resistance, some spring still left in it.

We often share food, particularly pasta because it is easy to cook a large amount of it and silly to cook a very small amount. It's pretty much impossible to mess up pasta so for a while I was trying to figure out why something wasn't quite right when he made it. I finally realized it was just a bit too soft, a point he emphasized when he complained to me last week that I hadn't cooked it enough. I argued it was al dente and that's the way it was supposed to be, but he insisted it was undercooked. I suppose it's a matter of taste and what you grew up with. Eating some pasta he cooked tonight reminded me to write about it. We could also argue over sauce, but I admit I'm somewhat of a sauce snob so that's not even worth it.

For those who insist on getting their pasta just right, there's even a device to tell you when time is up. I'm not sure if anyone actually uses this but it's good for a laugh. Apparently this singing al dente timer will play opera for you after 7-9 minutes of cooking your pasta.

Yes, his name is Al and sadly he seems to no longer be available. Sad days.

Adventures in Gluten Free

Although I'm sure my Italian family, both living and dead, would likely have a panic attack if they are or were able to read this, I am nevertheless going to write about my experience with Gluten Free Pasta. GASP!!!

I'm not a huge fan of food trends, that is, suddenly becoming obsessed with some type of food for no apparent reason, however as I'm sure I've mentioned before, I have been curious about the anti-gluten craze. Generally speaking, most gluten free is out of my budget and since I haven't been tested and told I'm allergic to gluten, I don't feel the need to rush out and buy tons of it. That said, I've read a bit about gluten and it really is in almost everything we eat. I'm fairly distrusting of the processed foods we eat on a regular basis, so I'm curious about these products, plus I grew up having all kinds of crazy digestive problems, so I find alternative concepts interesting.

I purchased gluten free pasta (gasp!) some time ago and have yet to have the motivation to try it, until the other day. This brand was called Tinkyada and is made of brown rice. Yea, I was skeptical too. How could this possibly live up to REAL pasta? The package claims it will be al-dente and not mushy, which I'm guessing is a problem with some other gluten frees.
As I watched it cook up in the boiling water I was a bit concerned about the residue in the water, which had a different look from pasta water, obviously. It did deliver on texture though. I tasted one to make sure it was ready and sure enough it had the right texture, much to my surprise. Eaten just on it's own without any sauce it tasted a lot like brown rice, but I cooked up a nice mixture of peas and onions to go with my sauce and poured it over the top.





It was good! It really was. I don't think I would have known the difference if someone just handed it to me. I'm genuinely astounded and I'd recommend this brand to anyone who finds themselves in need of gluten free.

As far as nutrition though, it really doesn't differ much from regular pasta. In fact, it has slightly higher sodium, slightly less vitamins and about the same of everything else. So, maybe it won't win any awards as far as ultra healthy, but it is made of brown rice, which can be good in moderation ( or possibly not, as brown rice contains some substantial amount of arsenic apparently. But can't everything possibly kill you?). Either way, it's a tasty pasta alternate, although there doesn't seem to be a tremendous benefit to eating it over pasta unless you have to. Thumbs up gluten free.
Stay tuned for my investigation into the pros and cons of Soy products.

Quiche Number Two and Grandma's Sauce

Somehow my quiche posts seem to coincide with pasta. Actually, I just haven't gotten around to the pasta post until now.

Last weekend I decided to finally make grandma's sauce. Every Italian family thinks they make the best sauce, but obviously mine is right. There's not a lot involved in the recipe but it does call for a 3 hour simmer, so I have been putting it off. I found a pretty neat Italian supermarket recently and so I had purchased a bit of chopped sirloin to make meatballs with. Unfortunately it sat in my fridge for a number of days so I had to toss some of it. The rest I made in to very makeshift meatballs. I forgot to buy breadcrumbs so I mixed up Parmesan cheese, parsley, egg and some bread that I toasted up in the pan quickly, together with the meat. It had a little trouble holding its shape, but it wasn't bad tasting. I fried them up in a pan and then put them aside to go into the sauce at the end. I was worried that the meat I had cooked also went bad but it turned out to be just fine. The sauce is pretty good, somehow not as good as grandma's, even though I fried up some garlic to put in it. It is nice to have some decent sauce now.

Today, quiche is the name of the game. I've had a crust in the freezer for quite a long time and finally decided it was time to use it. I also froze my excess collard greens from a few weeks ago and it seemed like a good experiment. Once again, I didn't quite have the right ingredients so instead of milk and/or yogurt I had milk and sour cream. Same principle though. The collards are a new twist as well.

I fried up some garlic and onions and just for fun I put in some fake bacon for more flavor. The fake bacon doesn't really get crispy, which is really the only issue, but it still adds a nice flavor. I guess it's sort of a twist on quiche Lorraine.

The big problem is still with the crust because it's not a very good crust. It got stuck and kinda broken and its a bit freezer burned maybe. Otherwise, it cooked well, the sour cream was a success, the quiche has a smokey sort of flavor, which is a bit of a change from my normal quiche. This is much more of a quiche win than last time!