Spaghetti Alla Carbonara: A Lighter Version

Spaghetti alla Carbonara, a simple recipe of spaghetti, cheese, and eggs, has survived for centuries. The hot spaghetti “cooks” the eggs. Simple as this dish sounds, it can be trucky and if you aren’t careful, wind up with spaghetti and scrambled eggs.

What is the origin of the recipe? Nobody knows for sure. Clifford A. Wright examines some of the possibilities on his website. Despite all of the theories, the history of this historic dish is “vague,” according to Wright. Still, it continues to be on restaurant menus in Italy and America.

Unfortunately, Spaghetti alla Carbonara (which means coal workers’ style), can be dry. To correct this problem the Williams-Sonoma recipe tells cooks to reserve some pasta water and add it to the spaghetti, if necessary. Other recipes call for dry white wine. You may also add extra cream. Continue reading “Spaghetti Alla Carbonara: A Lighter Version”

Cavatelli – “Ghavadeels”

Cavatelli: to write or to say the word as it is written is something of an embarrassment. To any Italian American this dish is called “Gah-vah-deels.’ Any Italian American knows that word in the way that they pronounced it. Of course, the correct Italian is “cavatelli ” (Kha-vah-tell-ee). Back in the day, in the 1950’s and 60’s, cavatelli were a special dinner that appeared on the table on special occasions. Cavatelli were not made at home in my house. They came from two very different sources. Most often my father bought the cavatelli from an old time shop in West Philadelphia where he also bought the home made ricotta. In those days the ricotta came in a perforated metal container that was covered in a sheet of plastic held tight by a rubber band. We used to make string line telephones from the cans. The other source of cavatelli was our neighbor, Alfred the tailor, whose wife made them herself and sent them over. Alfred and his wife also made their own wine and grew a garden of rows of lush red tomatoes and green Swiss chard. The old shop is long gone and so is Alfred, but cavatelli are a very easy and quick pasta to make at home. It’s also one of those foods that offers a certain tactile enjoyment in its preparation. The simple dough has a soft and silky skin-like touch that is pleasing to fold and roll.

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Enjoy a Yeast Free Pasta Diet – Prepare a Yeast Free Pasta Recipe

Yeast free pasta diet is no less than any other meal plan. It also contains the same amount of essential nutrients than that of an ordinary pasta feast. The key to have a successful preparation for these foods is to select fresh organic ingredients plus well chosen pasta without containing any yeast.

It is very important that you choose the right pasta that have no yeast by carefully reading the labels of foods at the ingredients list.

If you’ve decided to have a yeast free diet, you must in any way avoid foods that contain yeast. It may be because you have yeast infection or just simply a weight loss method, either way you must convince yourself that once you started to have this type of meal plan, you have to stick to it.

Yeast free diet is not only eliminating yeast intake, but you must also avoid all forms of sugar and processed or fermented foods. What is the reason behind this? These groups of foods promote yeast overgrowth, which causes the infection in your body.

Continue reading “Enjoy a Yeast Free Pasta Diet – Prepare a Yeast Free Pasta Recipe”

Delicious Pasta Sauce Recipes

CHOOSING PASTA SAUCES

The variety and range of sauces that can be served with pasta are seemingly endless. They vary from minimalist sauces, such as garlic and olive oil, to light vegetable sauces, shellfish sauces, robust meat sauces, and rich and creamy sauces containing eggs, cheese and nuts.

When choosing the appropriate pasta shape for a sauce, there are no hard and fast rules. Some regional dishes are always made with the same pasta shape, such as fettucine all’alfredo, tagliatelle bolognese and penne all’arrabbiata, and it is rare to see them served with anything other than the named pasta. These classic dishes are few and far between however and, with the increasing number of different pasta shapes on the market it can sometimes be difficult to know which shapes and which sauces will go well together. Continue reading “Delicious Pasta Sauce Recipes”

Starting a Homemade Pasta Making Business

Starting a Homemade Pasta Making Business

The first thing that you should know if you are starting a homemade pasta making business is the basic process of making fresh pasta. This kind of pasta is made from fresh ingredients and has a shorter shelf life compared to the commercially made or dry pasta.

Manufacturing fresh pasta is better because the business owner can tailor fit it to the consumer’s needs and demands in terms of the shape, size, color and flavor of the finished product.

Below are some suggested steps in starting a homemade pasta making business, categorized into: Initial Stage, Regulatory Compliance and Marketing.

Initial Stage

• Create and perfect your own recipe that you think will sell and will come out the same way every time you prepare it. Have your family and friends taste them and ask for feedback. Continue reading “Starting a Homemade Pasta Making Business”

Using a Spiralizer to Make Vegan Alfredo Pasta

Did you know you could use a spiralizer to make a healthy version of traditional pasta Alfredo? Are you a Vegan or a health conscious individual who used to love a good creamy Alfredo pasta sauce, but had to give it up? Many Vegans love creamy cheese pasta sauces such as a traditional Alfredo sauce and in this article I’m going to show you how to use a spiralizer and make a Vegan Alfredo sauce.

To make a healthier version of pasta Alfredo you’ll need a blender and a tool called a spiralizer and a dose of creativity. The spiralizer you can find online or in some kitchen specialty stores, it is sometimes called a spiral slicer. Use the spiralizer according to it’s instructions with some peeled medium sized zucchini on either the thin or thick setting. If you don’t have a specialized tool you can use a simple vegetable peeler and peel the zucchini to make noodles.

You can eat the zucchini noodles raw or gently steam or saute them with some olive oil. If zucchini pasta isn’t your thing, you can use kelp noodles, buckwheat, or quinoa noodles as a healthy substitute to gluten filled white pasta. Now for the sauce. To make the Vegan Alfredo you will need some white nuts such as raw macadamia nuts or pine nuts. In a pinch, cashews or blanched and peeled almonds will do.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce Continue reading “Using a Spiralizer to Make Vegan Alfredo Pasta”

Fennel Broccoli and Sausage Pasta Recipe

Fun loving pasta eaters, rejoice! The fennel, garlic and broccoli go very well with sliced sauteed sausage and freshly grated parmesan cheese along with the crumbled goat cheese – ciao bella! Quick and easy meal to help sneak in some veggies to unsuspecting teenagers and hubbys everywhere!

Ingredients:

  • 2 or 3 each hot and sweet sausage links, semi-frozen
  • 2 small crowns of fresh broccoli
  • 3-6 cloves of fresh garlic
  • 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
  • 1 or 2 bulbs fennel with their fawns
  • Olive Oil
  • Large pot of boiling water for pasta – try rotitini or penne
  • One large deep skillet, enough that when after cooking sausages and veggies, you can also throw pasta in.
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
  • A couple shakes of dried red pepper flakes
  • Freshly cracked pepper
  • Salt

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Hearty Hot Dog and Vegetable Soup With Pasta: A Speedy Meal

When I was growing up we ate lots of soup, probably because it is an economical meal and filling. My mother made clam chowder, vegetable soup, chicken-noodle soup, to name a few. All of her soups were made from scratch and labor intensive. Thanks to new products, however, soup can be a quick meal.

For example, I always have a carton of unsalted chicken broth on the shelf. I use it for sauces, soups, and casseroles. Unsalted beef broth comes in handy too, although I don’t use it as much as chicken broth. Grocery stores also carry unsalted bouillon cubes and I always keep them on hand. We don’t eat many canned soups, but I always have mushroom and celery in the pantry.

Recently I purchased a package of reduced fat, reduced salt hot dogs, and we had them for lunch. My husband didn’t like the taste. “These have hardly any flavor,” he commented. “What brand are they?” He was right. The hot dogs had little flavor and were a different brand, one I don’t usually buy.

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Spinach Pasta Recipe (from Scratch)

Have you ever thought about making your own homemade pasta from scratch. No, I don’t mean the whole dish. I mean the actual pasta noodles. Oh, I know. Why bother with all of that when you can just buy a package of dried noodles in the store and spend time on the important part–the sauce.

How many of us have spent hours next to a beautiful, finely manicured pot of bubbling goodness only to dump it on some old dried out noodles that have been sitting on the store shelf for a year. I know, the store bought stuff has always tasted pretty good in the past. I think most of us wouldn’t even think of making our own because we’ve grown accustomed to just grabbing a package of noodles and the stuff to make a sauce, and we’re on our way.

People don’t make their own pasta anymore for a number of other reasons as well. People’s perception of making pasta by hand is that it must be either difficult to make, tedious, or requires a special machine (pasta maker). The convenience of the store bought pasta is so easy to take advantage of because it’s ready to go and can be stored on your shelf for another year! Others figure there’s probably not much difference in the flavor anyways once you put a good sauce on it. If you get stuck on what sauce to use and are willing to try some sauces that will enable you to exclaim, “I HAVE LIVED!” check out [http://www.bestpastarecipes.com] ! We have a number of incredible pasta sauce recipes which are easy to prepare and can be downloaded or printed out free of charge, without having to sign up for anything. The truth is however, that once you taste fresh made pasta from scratch, with your incredible sauce, you’ll never go back to its dried out store bought cousin again. Continue reading “Spinach Pasta Recipe (from Scratch)”

How to Make Quinoa Pasta

If you think that spinach pasta is the healthiest pasta you can ever have then wait until you hear about quinoa pasta. It’s a family of pasta made from quinoa flour instead of wheat. People who are gluten intolerant or those with celiac disease will benefit from it because it’s gluten-free. This type of pasta comes in various shapes and corn if often added to add flavor and texture.

Quinoa pasta is healthier than traditional wheat pasta and it offers a lot of benefits. Its high protein content is great news not only for vegetarians but for weight watchers as well. It has a great amount of amino acids and it is one of the few grains that can offer complete protein.

To make quinoa pasta you will need:

1/2 cup of stone ground quinoa flour

1/3 cup of tapioca flour

4 tablespoons of potato flour Continue reading “How to Make Quinoa Pasta”