I love to cook, and one of my favorite dishes are pasta dishes like spaghetti, fettucine, carbonara, puttanesca, among others. One of my favorite chefs, the legendary Margarita Fores of Cibo, shared insights on how to cook and make good pasta dishes. Here's an article lifted from the Philippine Daily Inquirer website:====================================================================
Margarita Fores on good pasta
IT was an afternoon of lively demonstration, discovery and great-tasting pasta with chef and restaurateur Margarita Fores in the recent Café Scientifique at Bonifacio High Street, Taguig.
She demonstrated how science is involved in every aspect of pasta cooking, from the right boiling temperature of water when cooking the pasta to correct preparation of basil leaves for basic pesto sauce.
She also dispelled myths and misconceptions, such as throwing pasta against the wall to know if it is al dente or not, and the adding of oil to boiling pasta.
Providing scientific explanations was Maribel Garcia, curator of the soon-to-rise Mind Museum at Bonifacio Global City. Hosting the forum was Mitzi Borromeo, coordinator of Café Scientifique for the Philippines.
Fores recalled how, as a child, she was interested in biology and science experiments in school, but how it was only recently that she began to understand the science behind cooking, mainly through personal research and a visit to one of Italy’s largest pasta factories.
“After working with food for more than 20 years, it is only now that I am learning the science behind it. In a way, it is like learning in reverse,” she said.
Details
Unknown to many, cooking great pasta depends on seemingly inconsequential details, such as the boiling of pasta.
“Water must be boiling vigorously,” said Fores. If temperature drops when you put the pasta, cover the lid. When it briskly boils again, uncover it. “Don’t disturb the cooking of pasta,” she quoted the Italians. Meaning, do not stir. Let it boil and keep on tasting until you approach the time indicated on packaging.
Al dente is “to the tooth.” There is a white dot in the middle of the pasta when you bite into it.
Why add salt to water?
“The salt adds flavor to the water, and that makes the pasta tasty. No matter how much sauce you add to the pasta, if it is cooked without salt, it will be bland,” Fores explained.
Water with salt added should taste like seawater. When pasta is boiled, some flavor of the pasta is left in the water. This pasta water can then be used for thinning cold pasta sauce, or to boil another serving of pasta.
Another popular myth Fores dispelled was that of adding oil while cooking pasta. “Some people do this to prevent the pasta from sticking together. But I found out in Italy that you are not supposed to do that because this will make the pasta oily and prevent the sauce from coating it properly. The result will be flavorless pasta.”
Instead, for the pasta not to stick together, it should not be left to cool. Your sauce or ingredients should be ready while the pasta is boiling. Even draining the pasta right after boiling should not take long.
Leaving some of the pasta water dripping from the strainer, toss the pasta immediately to the sauce and mix using wooden fork or thongs.
Fores gave generous servings of Cibo’s bestsellers: Pesto Genovese (classic basil pesto from Genova), a special concoction which was a hit among the audience; the Farfalle alla Genovese (ribbon-shaped pasta with sauteed mushroom, Pesto Genovese and cream); Spaghettini al Pomodoro Crudo (spaghettini in raw marinated tomatoes with garlic and sweet basil); and the Fettucine al Bolognese.
With each dish, Fores talked about ingredients, from pasta to cheese, good local and foreign brands of pasta and cream, the difference between fresh and dry pasta and how to cook them, the authentic Italian way of preparing sauces and mixing them with pasta, and how to garnish pasta dishes.
Informal gathering
Café Scientifique is an informal gathering in bars, pubs and cafés between the science community and the public. Scientists and science writers are invited to share knowledge and insights on a topic to get the discussions going.
Since it started in the UK 10 years ago, it has spread to as far as Japan, Pakistan, New Zealand and Singapore. The movement is now in Manila and has been going around establishments.
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