Basics for the novice cook

Pasta

Associated with Italian cuisine, pasta is a healthy option of carbohydrate made from durum wheat flour. It can be made at home, it can be bought fresh, or it can be bought dried. We’ll only be talking about the latter.

Dried Pasta

Dried pasta is readily available at UK supermarkets and comes in several shapes and sizes. A few of the more common shapes are spaghetti, tagliatelle, and fusilli, and of these, spaghetti is probably the most famous through it’s association with the Italian dish Spaghetti Bolognese (or “spagbol” for short !). Eating spaghetti, without sauce splattering everywhere, can be a bit of a challenge, and I find that tagliatelle, which isn’t too dissimilar in profile after it’s cooked, is probably more manageable. For children, the profile of fusilli is better still.

Pasta is cooked in boiling water. Add salt when the water boils. The recommended cooking time for your dried pasta can be found on the packaging (normally around 10 – 12 minutes).

If you undercook pasta it will be too hard, and if you overcook pasta it will be too soft and have a sloppy texture, so I would recommend timing it and trying a piece before draining the saucepan.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and use straight away.

A good portion of spaghetti, when clutched in the hand, is about the size of a pound coin. A portion of dried tagliatelle is about 3 clusters and a portion of fusilli is about 2 - 3 handfuls.

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Vegetables and Things