Probably one of the most popular side dishes, andexactly the simplest in the preparation of products are pasta. It would seem, which is easier - threw them into the water, and let them cook, but even here it is necessary to know how to cook the pasta correctly, otherwise even such a simple dish may not work.
Usually we do this:we put water in a pan, wait for it to boil, put salt, pasta and cook until ready. The water, as a rule, is not very much - usually just as much as it is placed in a pan, but this is not entirely correct. In addition to the amount of water, there are many other factors that influence the way pasta is prepared.
The most frequent trouble is macaroni are obtainedstuck together. This problem can occur for several reasons. The most common is the quality of pasta. The cheapest pasta is made with the use of soft wheat flour of the lowest quality, and it is good, if at all, from wheat. No matter how good a specialist you are in how to cook pasta, you were, and you can not cook them properly. Typically, these pastas have a dirty gray shade, but recently manufacturers resort to various tricks in order to hide it, in particular, use dyes, often elegant and mouth-watering yellow. Such a color of pasta suggests that perhaps they have something to hide, but this is not an indicator of quality, because it is possible to paint macaroni and quite conscientious producers, just to ensure that the product does not look pale against the general background among competitors of cheerful colors. It should be noted that in the food industry, usually carotenoids are used as yellow dyes, and they are not harmful, even on the contrary.
The indicator of the quality of macaroni will be the quantitycrumbs and broken pieces on the bottom of the package. It is clear that during transportation with them anything could happen, and they could break, but good quality pasta will not crumble and crack on small parts. The chips on them will be shiny and even, as if they were made of durable but fragile plastic. Anyway, but why do you in principle have broken pasta? Buy those in which at the bottom of the package there are absolutely no crumbs, and do not go wrong. Another thing to pay attention to is the appearance of pasta: their color should be uniform, the surface - a little shiny, as well as quality products can be as if with the effect of translucence, like good porcelain - it is especially noticeable if you decide to cook macaroni horns or, for example, seashells, that is, figured and three-dimensional pasta, as well as a thin vermicelli.
Choosing the right amount of water - this skillAlso included in the mandatory training program is how to properly cook pasta. According to the classical Italian formula, 100 liters of pasta is taken from a liter of water. Of course, if we do not plan a dinner party or an exhibition of our own achievements, then water can be taken a little less, most importantly, to have it at least seven times more by weight than macaroni - in a large quantity of water, pasta is almost certainly not stuck together, and water is not will turn into an eerie mucus, which then will have to be washed. It is best not to act on the eye, but, before cooking macaroni, measure the necessary amount of water.
Macaroni are placed only in the intensively boilingsalted water, in which you can also add a little vegetable oil - this will be an additional guarantee of an acceptable result. After the water boils again, the pasta must be prevented so that they all separate from each other and from the walls and bottom of the dishes. In the future, you can mix them again, somewhere in a couple of minutes, no more - then you should not do this, because the pasta will be soft, or at least, if necessary, you need to do it carefully. It is not necessary to be guided by the cooking time indicated on the packaging - you may need quite a different amount of time, since it depends on the amount of water and macaroni, and on the intensity of the flame, and on the quality of the gas, and on the hardness of the water. In addition, only you know how to cook pasta for yourself - to the beloved by the Italians the state of "al dente" or to the full readiness, as is customary here, so they need to be periodically tested so as not to miss the right moment, otherwise they will be digested and, still stick together.
