Everyday Pasta by Giada Laurentiis (summer beach reads TXT) 📕

cooking water. It is an old wives’ tale that this will keep it from sticking as it cooks; pasta clumps together when it is not cooked in sufficient water. Save your olive oil for salad dressing.

7. Don’t coat drained pasta with olive oil to keep it from sticking; this will prevent the sauce from clinging to the pasta, causing it to end up in a pool at the bottom of your serving dish.

8. Cook the pasta just to al dente and no longer; start testing it a minute or two before the time indicated on the package to make sure it doesn’t overcook. The pasta should still offer definite resistance when you bite it but not be pasty white or hard inside.

9. Remember that your pasta will continue to cook when you add it to the hot sauce and toss them together, so don’t leave it in the pan any longer than necessary to marry the sauce and pasta together and warm them both through.

10. Lastly, keep portion sizes reasonable! A cup of cooked pasta is plenty for a first course or appetizer serving.

Matching Pasta Shapes to Sauce:

A Basic Primer

Although the flavor of pasta doesn’t vary much, whether it’s a short cut like farfalle or a long strand like linguine, the way these shapes interact with sauce makes a big difference in the finished dish. Here’s an overview of several popular shapes and which sauces they are best suited to.

Capellini and angel-hair pasta: Because the noodles are long and thin, these pastas go best with a light sauce that won’t weigh down the pasta. Try it with olive oil, garlic, and lemon, or a simple tomato-basil sauce.

Spaghetti: The most famous cut of pasta, it pairs nicely with simple sauces like tomato, arrabbiata, or puttanesca or with seafood and herbs.

Linguine: These long, flat pasta strands stand up to sturdier sauces. Typical matches would be a pesto, tomato, or mushroom sauce, or one with flavorful ingredients like shellfish.

Fettuccine: Literally these are “little ribbons,” similar to linguine but thicker and wider. It is a suitable match for many sauces, including those that are cream-based or made with meat.

Farfalle: These pretty butterfly shapes taste best with simple olive oil- or tomato-based sauces that may incorporate ingredients such as peppers, chicken, or arugula. They are also great for a pasta salad because the shape is fun and bite-sized.

Rotelle: Shaped like wagon wheels, rotelle are popular with kids. I serve them with an artichoke pesto, but they can also be dressed with bolognese or a hearty tomato sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and capers.

Fusilli bucati: Similar to fusilli, which look like corkscrews, these noodles look more like bedsprings. They are a good choice for thick and hearty sauces because all the “goodness” gets trapped inside the spiral rather than just coating the exterior.

Elbows: A classic for mac and cheese, this basic shape is also perfect with sour cream–or mayonnaise-based sauces for pasta salads.

Conchiglie (shells): These come in various sizes, from very large ones meant for stuffing, to very small ones, which are called conchigliette. Shells are good with meat sauces, and the small ones work in any dish where you’d use elbow macaroni.

Rigatoni: This wide, ridged, tube-shaped pasta has holes on either end that are large enough to capture pieces of meat or vegetables in a sauce. In addition, this kind of pasta is perfect for baked dishes made with sauce and cheese.

Penne: These small tubes may be smooth or ridged (rigate). Penne is best used in soups, pasta salads, and with thicker sauces and casseroles, as the ingredients and sauces can penetrate the inside of the pasta. Penne rigate is ideal for meat, vegetable, or butter-and-oil-based sauces because the ridges hold the sauce.

1:

antipasti and appetizers

Most pasta meals, because they are generally relaxed even last-minute affairs, don’t seem to need a formal, plated first course. When I serve pasta to a group, or even just my family, I am much more likely to set out a few antipasti for people to nibble on than to prepare a separate appetizer course to serve at the table. Generally I make just one or two items, like a bruschetta or crostini, or perhaps some pickled vegetables, and arrange them on a board with sliced meats and cheese from the deli and pantry items like olives, marinated artichokes, pepperoncini, and roasted peppers. That way people can stave off hunger pangs and keep me company while I work in the kitchen, but no one gets too full and I don’t have to clear the table for the main event. Any of the recipes in this chapter would be welcome additions to an antipasto platter and equally nice to serve with a bowl of soup to make it a bit more of a meal.

Baked Caprese Salad

Goat Cheese Toasts

Bruschetta with Frisée, Prosciutto, and Mozzarella

Toasted Ciabatta with Balsamic Syrup

Crostini with Anchovy Butter and Cheese

Parmesan Popovers

Fried Ravioli

Zucchini and Carrot a Scapece

Fried Zucchini

Prosciutto-Wrapped Vegetables with Parmesan

Clockwise, from top: Bruschetta with Frisée, Prosciutto and Mozzarella; Baked Caprese Salad; Goat Cheese Toasts

4 to 6 servings

Be careful not to overheat the crostini; the cheese and tomatoes should be just warmed through and softened but not melted or falling apart. It’s perfect if you have slightly underripe tomatoes.

1 baguette, sliced ½ inch thick (30 to 36 slices)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt

5 Roma tomatoes, sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

1¼ pounds fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

Leaves from 1 bunch of fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet, brush with some of the olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Bake until the bread is pale golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. Top each slice of bread with a slice of tomato and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with a slice of mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with salt. Return the baking sheet to the oven until the cheese and tomato are just warm, about 5 minutes.

Arrange the toasts on a