Pasta spaghetti cannelloni lasagna macaroni and maccheroni – and so on with the hundreds of names and shapes of Italian pasta – most of us cook it at least once a week, from Africa to Antarctica to the space missions you can find people cooking versions of Italian pasta.  It is even popular in Asian countries that have a fine tradition of their own styles of noodles, like Japan.  But is it good pasta and do we cook it well, do we understand all the secrets of this simple mix of flour and water?  Well, no.  Today’s belly guest is the very charming and passionate Luca Ciano, Australia and New Zealand Executive Chef with Barilla, Italy’s biggest pasta company.  Barilla are trying to conquer the Australian market by teaching us all about good pasta, in dedicated pasta cooking schools.  Right now you can buy some of their products and book in for a free class if you have access to a capital city.  Go to the Barilla site for details, and for lots of recipes and pasta cooking tips.  It’s well worth a look, as is the Italian version of the site if you happen to speak the language.

Luca Ciano

Luca says in all the classes there are people who thought they knew all about pasta, and come away with lots of new insights.  This was certainly my case after our phone interview.  We talked pasta for 40 minutes and I could have kept going for hours.  A few things I didn’t know:

* all good pasta is made from durum (hard) wheat, but not all durum wheat is good.  Although we grow some great durum in Australia, some pastas are made from lower quality wheat which is only used for animal feed in Italy.  One way to tell is the colour which should never be brownish unless the pasta is wholemeal.

* the bronze extruded pastas on the market, which also tend to be the most expensive, are harder to cook properly al dente, so experiment first and maybe leave them for special occasions.  They are also not necessarily more of an artisan product than the smoother more common pastas.

* the common habit of adding oil to the cooking water is not only useless, but can stop the pasta from properly binding with the sauce in a “beautiful marriage”.

For a new type of pasta to try, Luca recommends we look out for “casarecce” a short twisted Sicilian style of pasta as it works well with lots of sauces, including a simple tomato sauce.

He talked about saving the pasta cooking water to add to the sauce, which caused concern with at least one listener.  This is a common little trick.  In Italy cooks try to use a minimum amount of sauce to coat and flavour the pasta, and often the mix can be a little dry when you put pasta and sauce together, so a spoonful or 2 of the cooking water is added to get the preferred consistency.  The cooking water is the right temperature, and contains a little starch and salt which help to make the “beautiful marriage” work.  If you are making a sauce which includes blanched veg, you can also use the same pot of water, before cooking the pasta, to make the most of the boiled water and lose as few nutrients and flavour as possible.

Below is an extract from the Barilla site with some basic rules of  recognising good pasta and how to cook it well.  Obviously they aren’t the only good pasta in the world, but there is a lot of pasta out there that is hard or impossible to cook well.  And luckily the good stuff is often the same price or not much more than the bad.

	Wrong. All pasta isn’t the same. The quality of the pasta depends on the quality of the ingredients. A simple cooking test will tell you. If the water doesn’t froth intensely when boiled, remains clear after cooking and the pasta’s golden, you’re on a winner. [bellysis note – this is because low quality pasta releases lots of starch and nutrients in the water]
	Most people don’t use a big enough pot and enough water. The rule is one litre per 100 grams of pasta.
	Salted water helps flavour the pasta as it absorbs liquid and swells. Add 10 grams of salt per litre of water.
	With a premium quality pasta, there’s no need to add oil. It will just coat the pasta causing the sauce to slide off rather than bind. Poor quality pasta can require oil to combat the amount of sticky starch released when cooked.
	Again if it’s Barilla there’s absolutely no need to rinse. Only a small amount of starch is released during cooking, so the pasta doesn’t stick together. Rinsing in fact removes the pasta’s light starch coating which is important for holding the sauce.
	Dry pasta contains carbohydrates but no fats are added to the dough so the total fat in dry pasta is minimal. The sauce you add is another matter. If it’s rich and creamy then this will contribute significantly to the fat and calorific content of the dish.
	Pasta is digested differently to other carbohydrates. That’s because pasta is high in complex carbohydrates which provide a slow release of energy. The carbohydrates become glucose stored in the muscles, which is then released when required.
	Pasta should be cooked ‘al dente’. Quite literally this means ‘to the tooth’ or slightly firm to the bite. Ideally it should be tasted from the pot and finished in a frypan combining with the sauce over heat. One of the benefits of ‘al dente’ pasta is to encourage chewing as this aids in the digestive process.
	Italians use less sauce than we do. That’s because they want to taste the pasta as well as the sauce. So if it’s good pasta don’t drown it. The general rule is to use as much sauce as pasta. However, pesto sauce should be used as a simple garnish. In Italy there are over 300 types of pasta, often the signature dish of a particular region. Different shapes suit different sauces. For instance short pasta like Penne go with chunky meat and vegetable sauces. Fettuccine or Pappardelle suit rich creamy sauces and Bucatini and Cannelloni are ideal for baking.
	Better pasta is in fact made from semolina which is produced by grinding kernels of durum wheat. And here are … The Casa Barilla 10 Italian Kitchen Commandments: Thou shalt not add oil to the pasta water. Thou shalt not cook with subordinate produce. Thou shalt not use old wine for cooking: if you drink it, cook with it. Thou shalt not ban the man from the kitchen:  encourage him to use his hands! Thou shalt not add masses of sauce to a pasta dish: the beauty of Italian food is its simplicity and honesty of simple flavours and combining. Thou shalt drink an Italian wine whilst cooking – this will make you feel Italian even if you aren’t Thou shalt respect the seasons – they are what make us alive and what keeps the Earth in harmony. Watch, learn, listen to the produce and people who grow it. Thou shalt respect tradition and what Italian mamma says. She knows from her mamma, who knew from her mamma who knew from her mamma and so on. It’s been tried and tested. Thou shalt come to Casa Barilla to learn how to cook, enjoy and share Italian food. Thou shalt share Italian food with your loved ones. It is what life, love and family are all about. So them’s the rules bellysister – straight from the horse’s mouth – now follow them or break them, it’s only pasta……brrrr, I can feel the bolt of lightning building up to strike me down already! And btw the word is linguine not linguini, even my spell check knows that – not really relevant to the topic, but it bugs me severely. Also I should thank Barilla for sending the biggest box I have ever received of pasta goodies, biscuits and aprons etc – enough for 2 prizes for subscribers, we are still not sure if it came all the way from Italy.  Also a pasta timer which we are keeping to play with on air – maybe we should time ourselves when we are raving on too much, what do you think? Today’s EDIBLE QUOTE was Italian of course, a saying from Victoria Cosford’s “Amore and Amaretti” “A tavola non s’invecchia” – at the table you do not age And yes it’s been a lot of talk about Italian food on belly lately, so if you are or know a good cook from another background, come along and talk to the bellysisters please please please In NOVEMBER IN SEASON NEWS, the banana growers council says it is a great year and time for good looking cheap nanas, so don’t pay too much, local blueberries have started, and I’m experimenting with chocolate eggplant – eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and lots of juicy melons and berries are in season now. Sister T Herbie Hancock, ‘Watermelon Man’ and ‘Cantaloupe island’, from “Watermelon man the ultimate Hancock!” Havana Mambo, “Malanina”, from Putumayo, “Salsa around the world” Bandabardo, “Il Principiante” – the beginner