Opinicus wrote:

> Coming from a family one side of which is (southern) Italian, I
> know a great deal about pasta, having consumed, cooked, and made
> huge quantities of it in my younger days. In our family pasta was
> always cooked "al dente" and pasta that was even a bit beyond "al
> dente" was rejected. Watching a lot of cooking shows on TV nowadays
> I see them cooking the pasta "al dente" and then they dump this
> carefully cooked pasta into a pan containing the sauce and proceed
> to expose it to heat for another 5-10 minutes! Doesn't this turn it
> into mush? Where and when did this vile technique develop?

It's a commie plot.

Actually, it has some currency in Italy, but done a bit differently.
The appropriate pasta for the dish is undercooked and finished,
briefly, in the sauce. Not for anything approaching 10 minutes, though.

The premise is that the sauce will penetrate the pasta and thereby
make the whole thing more tasty. In the US, it's based on the notion
that actually tasting the pasta is not a good thing. In Italy, it's
based on the notion of cramming more flavor into each mouthful.

Pastorio

"Bob (this one)" > wrote in message
...
> Opinicus wrote:
>
>> Coming from a family one side of which is (southern) Italian, I
>> know a great deal about pasta, having consumed, cooked, and made
>> huge quantities of it in my younger days. In our family pasta was
>> always cooked "al dente" and pasta that was even a bit beyond "al
>> dente" was rejected. Watching a lot of cooking shows on TV nowadays
>> I see them cooking the pasta "al dente" and then they dump this
>> carefully cooked pasta into a pan containing the sauce and proceed
>> to expose it to heat for another 5-10 minutes! Doesn't this turn it
>> into mush? Where and when did this vile technique develop?
>
> It's a commie plot.

No, no....it was those effete H'English poofters vacationing in Taormina
>
> Actually, it has some currency in Italy, but done a bit differently.
> The appropriate pasta for the dish is undercooked and finished, briefly,
> in the sauce. Not for anything approaching 10 minutes, though.

I suspect that the custom arose in restaurant cooking and the prep of single
servings. At home I always think of mixing the sauce with the pasta in the
family serving bowl, pottery/stoneware, etc., which even if prewarmed, cools
pretty quickly and halts the pasta breakdown. Watching restaurant chefs,
they seem oftem to reverse the process, fixing the sauce then adding the
pasta from the pot to the saute pan and mixing before plating the individual
servings

>
> The premise is that the sauce will penetrate the pasta and thereby make
> the whole thing more tasty. In the US, it's based on the notion that
> actually tasting the pasta is not a good thing. In Italy, it's based on
> the notion of cramming more flavor into each mouthful.
>
Perhaps, additionally, that sauce in Italy is a more precious commodity than
pasta, and is expected to go farther. Brought up on US "servings", I can
remember my first evening in Italy, waiting for the ship in Livorno, 1962.
The flight from Naples had gotten me there in time to dump my gear and lunch
on red mullet grilled over grapevine and herbs (and I suppose the first
Italian white wine I had ever drunk - I wish I could remember which, but all
I recall was that it came in a carafe from a barrel and how good it tasted
and how well I napped afterwards). I had a late supper on the waterfront
and their was a lot of pasta to a little clam sauce (but I was smart enough
to pass on the cheese, so the waiter wouldn't think I was a complete gringo
dumbass).

TMO