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How to up your spaghetti/pasta game

Liberty4all

Banned
1. no matter what pasta you buy make sure it comes in a air tight SEALED bag.

2. Spend a little extra on the sauce — no glucose fructose, as natural as possible, preferably organic. Or homemade

3. Add chopped garlic and chopped onion pre sizzled at low heat in sauce pan to your Store bought sauce.

4. Salt and pepper (season) your cooked ground beef before adding sauce.

5. Don’t forget to add table spoon of salt to water when boiling pasta.

6. minimum 1 extra ingredient — mushrooms or red/green/yellow/orange pepper (or both)

7. 1 glass of red wine prior to eating

thats it, perfect pasta That likely will last 3 days assuming 1 pound ground beef, 500g pasta.

of everything i mentioned the SEALED pasta is most important. Sealed keeps in so much freshness, it’s night and day compared to boxed but not sealed pasta. You can go shit on everything else but SEALED pasta is make or break
 
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My mouth is already watering.

But two additions: If you're gonna go sealed (some places don't sell it, or it's too expensive) try to make it yourself. It's not too tough after some practice. Also, add a bit of the boiled pasta water to the sauce (a tbsp or less) and cook it off to help the sauce cling to the noodles better. Homemade sauce is the way to go and is also not too tough to make after some practice.
 

Meowzers

Member
You vampire prick I know that glass of red wine means blood.

If it's virgin's blood then this shall be my last supper.
 
i've had sealed fresh pasta, i've used dry boxed, i even make my own using fine durum wheat

dry boxed pasta is my favorite, the texture is just as good as fresh pasta if you ask me (if not even better)

because of this i only make fresh pasta for things like manicotti and lasagna because in those cases, fresh tastes much nicer

i don't adhere to recipes "set in stone"

for ragus and sauces, you adjust and adjust seasonings until it tastes amazing

i'll use both fresh garlic and granulated garlic in a sauce

tomato paste and anchovy paste will skyrocket the umami qualities of your sauce

i'll put sugar in my sauce to brighten up tomatoes

only tomatoes that don't need brightening are those once in a blue grape tomatoes that you can snack on like candy
 

Gamerguy84

Member
The secret to excellent spaghetti is canning your own tomatoes and using that as your base IMO.

We dont do bolognese but do cook sausage and .meatballs in the sauce which helps with flavor.

Source: Im Italian and we eat spaghetti, chicken, peppers, onions, and fresh Italian bread (also homemade), and wine every Sunday. The whole family comes over.
 
The secret to excellent spaghetti is canning your own tomatoes and using that as your base IMO.

We dont do bolognese but do cook sausage and .meatballs in the sauce which helps with flavor.

Source: Im Italian and we eat spaghetti, chicken, peppers, onions, and fresh Italian bread (also homemade), and wine every Sunday. The whole family comes over.
are you an italian from italy or new jersey
 

Meowzers

Member
The secret to excellent spaghetti is canning your own tomatoes and using that as your base IMO.

We dont do bolognese but do cook sausage and .meatballs in the sauce which helps with flavor.

Source: Im Italian and we eat spaghetti, chicken, peppers, onions, and fresh Italian bread (also homemade), and wine every Sunday. The whole family comes over.
Italians always have to show their sources haha. I'm Welsh and we have some Italians here. We have one of the highest population of Italians in the UK (Cardiff). Calzaghe is a beast of a boxer.

I love any food that's Italian too.
 
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Jesus Carbomb

From Water into Guinness
I like to season my (drained) spaghetti with salt/pepper/olive oil before saucing.

Prefer the sauce on top, not everything mixed in a pot.
 

Woffls

Member


I just use tins of chopped tomatoes and I’m figuring out which herbs to use with different meals. Kinda cba tho
 
Don't buy that jar shit. Instead buy one can of diced and one can of plum tomatoes. Add in your own seasonings like oregano, parsley, fresh or dry basil (add fresh herbs at the end, dry while stewing sauce.) They sell Italian seasoning with a bunch of spices mixed together as well. Season with whatever other spices. I like it decently spicy so I add a scotch bonnet pepper. Make sure to season the protein. And make sure to brown the onions and not to burn the garlic.

Making a decent ragu is fairly simple, and totally doable for beginner cooks.

Meatballs are also very easy to make.

Edit: Forgot to mention. Brown some tomatoe paste near the end of the onions browning. It adds a lot of flavor.
 
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Liberty4all

Banned
i've had sealed fresh pasta, i've used dry boxed, i even make my own using fine durum wheat

dry boxed pasta is my favorite, the texture is just as good as fresh pasta if you ask me (if not even better)

because of this i only make fresh pasta for things like manicotti and lasagna because in those cases, fresh tastes much nicer

i don't adhere to recipes "set in stone"

for ragus and sauces, you adjust and adjust seasonings until it tastes amazing

i'll use both fresh garlic and granulated garlic in a sauce

tomato paste and anchovy paste will skyrocket the umami qualities of your sauce

i'll put sugar in my sauce to brighten up tomatoes

only tomatoes that don't need brightening are those once in a blue grape tomatoes that you can snack on like candy

to clarify when I say sealed I still mean dry pasta. But bagged in an air tight bag. It’s so much more fresh than dry pasta that’s boxed but not bagged.
 
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Gifmaker

Member
I read somewhere that when cooking any kind of pasta or rice, one should use a bouillon cube. Haven't tried it myself, but I want to eventually. But I guess this doesn't go well with italian cuisine.
 
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Secret ingredient(s) for an excellent sauce base is:

- anchovies, 2-3 fillets
- soy sauce, 1 tbsp
- Marmite, 1 tsp
- conserva cruda if you have it


Mash it all together then sizzle this for a minute or so at the bottom of the pan with your meat, onions, etc before adding the tomatoes.

The cookbook I learned it from calls it an "umami bomb". I use it as a base in roasts, braises, stews, soups, some sauces, etc.

Also, use wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan. It incorporates all that delicious Mailliard Effect substance. :pie_drooling:
 
If you're cooking dry pasta that you're going to cook again, like macaroni in a casserole, only par-cook it. Your aim will be just before al dente, with a tiny core of uncooked pasta in the center. At this point drain the pasta, and dump it into an ice water bath to halt the cooking process. Toss with a little olive oil to avoid clumping.

Now you can add your pasta to any dish you're putting together that will get cooked without overcooking the pasta.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I love soyrizo (vegan chorizo) in my pasta sauce. You can get it at Trader Joe's. I'm also a big fan of diced onions and sun dried tomatoes.
 
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