Ask an Italian about cooking pasta and hours, days later - long after your question has been forgotten - they will still be telling you about it, such is the hold that this simple mix of flour and water has over the whole country.
Debate will first centre on the differing merits of factory pasta versus fresh: factory pasta uses the hard durum wheat flour. It is firm and chewy with a compact body and grainier and is ideal for olive oil based sauces, most seafood and vegetable sauces.
Fresh pasta uses soft flour and has the addition of egg. It is lighter, more buoyant in the mouth and very absorbent. Most olive oil based sauces will hide the fine texture and strong flavours will destroy its delicate savoury taste. For this reason it is best with butter or cream based sauces.
After choosing the right type of pasta you must decide the right shape to match the sauce. This can also take ages and is determined by optimizing the effect on the palate and the digestion. Be aware that hollow and intricate shapes have a larger surface area and will thus hold more sauce. They are better with more delicate flavours while long pasta shapes are usually served with tomato based ragus.
Then there is the cooking time and while, southern Italians like their pasta to be more al dente than elsewhere, exactly how al dente will be the subject of another debate. We always advise that you try the pasta a few minutes before the specified cooking time is up. When the pasta is cooked, most Italians will drain it immediately but others advocate adding a cup of cold water to the pan to stop the cooking process and waiting for 30 seconds before draining.
And finally, remember that for the purist the rules regarding grated parmesan are very strict: it should only be used on butter and cream based sauces because it is a dairy product. The exception to this rule is pesto sauce.
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