Pasta and Rice

Pasta is one of the great staples of life, and although Dr Atkins may frown on it, it is important to note that a balanced diet with regular exercise is the best diet in the world, as it is a diet that you can live on for your entire life. It also allows the enjoyment of all the pleasures that one encounters in life, only not to excess. Moderation is the key word.

So that’s enough about diets and here is a little bit more about pasta. The two ways you can have it are fresh or dried. After that, however, there are myriad different grains pasta can be made from and many different shapes and sizes it can come in. The ones I will concentrate on are either high-quality hard wheat (durum) dried pastas or fresh pastas that you can make yourself. I’m not a big fan of either mass-produced dried pastas that display little flavour, or fresh pastas that are carried in many delis and supermarkets that have the same issue. The reason is simple: pasta is not the vehicle for the sauce. Pasta is the hero, the sauce a friend, an added flavouring that supports the taste of the pasta. If you would not eat the pasta cooked and dressed only with extra virgin olive oil or a little melted butter, then don’t eat it at all. The sauce shouldn’t drown the pasta, but should be integrated into it. This is a relationship that needs to be a beautiful one and there must be harmony. So use good-quality pasta; if using cheese, freshly grate it; and if the sauce has a lovely balance, then you won’t have a bowl of food, you will have a gorgeous dish that will rise above most of the pasta dishes cooked in cafés and restaurants.