Spaghetti sauces - general principles and methods of cooking
Spaghetti - long and hard, like knitting needles, pasta tubules. Although long macaroni can be found in other cuisines of the world, but still, this is an Italian invention. Prepare them from durum wheat. In Italy, pasta is called pasta, which translated from Italian means “dough”, and spaghetti, translated as “rope”.
Spaghetti is tasty in itself, it is enough to sprinkle it with olive oil. But a real celebration of taste, decorated with colorful paints, can be organized only with the help of sauces. No wonder the Italians believe that the sauce is more important than the spaghetti, it is he who determines the taste of the dish, it is like a cream for the cake. White, red, green, yellow, orange - only in Italy itself there are several thousand varieties of pasta sauces. It is prepared from tomatoes, cheese, cream, with the addition of meat, seafood, vegetables, from almost any edible ingredients. These spaghetti sauces are prepared with the addition of olive oil. This would be an ideal option, but it is not forbidden to replace it with the most common refined sunflower.
Spaghetti Sauces - Food Preparation
Pasta in Italy is cooked to the state of “al dente”, i.e. macaroni is not over warping. Outside, they seem to be already soft, but inside they are still quite elastic. But the main and important component of pasta is sauce. No matter what it is cooked, one rule is always observed - the thinner and longer the paste, the thinner the sauce should be. And vice versa. For short and thick pasta serves a thick sauce with coarsely chopped pieces of meat, vegetables or seafood. Spaghetti is served with liquid viscous sauces, which envelop each “string” along the entire length. If vegetables or other solid ingredients are present in the spaghetti dressing, chop them finely.
Spaghetti Sauces - Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Tomato Sauce
Elegant gravy with the addition of tomatoes and tomato paste. This sauce is pleasing to the eye, has a rich tomato flavor and amazing aroma. Instead of fresh tomatoes in the winter, you can use canned (in own juice).
Ingredients: Tomatoes - 4 pcs., 1 onion, 1 Bulgarian pepper, for frying olive oil, tomato paste - 4 st.lozh, 2 cloves of garlic, salt, 1 tsp. mixtures of herbs or spices, chicken broth - 200ml. Method of preparation
In a skillet or pan stew until soft (about seven minutes) finely chopped onion and pepper. Then put chopped garlic, chopped tomatoes or a blender, pour broth and simmer for another five minutes. Add spices or herbs, salt, tomato paste and cook for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.
Recipe 2: Tomato Sauce with Minced Meat
The composition of the sauce is somewhat similar to the above recipe, but not to taste. Just a few other spices and ingredients radically change the taste of the dish. It is better to take mince for sauce not fat, beef. But chicken and lean pork are also suitable. By the way, the sauce will be good not only for spaghetti, but also for lasagna. And how delicious it is! Real jam.
Ingredients: ground beef - 0.5 kg, 2 pcs. Bulgarian pepper, 2 large onions, tomatoes (in own juice or fresh) - 1.0-1.5 kg, 5 cloves of garlic, olive oil, sugar - 2 tables. los., basil (fresh or dried) - 1 tbsp. l., black pepper, salt (to taste), oregano - 1 cha. spoon
Method of preparation
Fry minced until golden brown. During frying, it is necessary to stir and break sticky lumps with a spatula.
Finely chop the garlic, onion, pepper and mix with the minced meat. After five minutes, add chopped tomatoes (in a blender, meat grinder), sugar, basil and other spices. Stir the aromatic mass thoroughly and simmer for half an hour over low heat. Do not close the lid so that excess liquid can evaporate faster.
Recipe 3: Cheese Sauce
Perhaps, tomato sauce for spaghetti is enough, even though it is a classic of the genre. Now you can cook cheesy. Moreover, macaroni and cheese are just made for each other. Even if the pasta is just sprinkled with cheese and sprinkled with butter, it will turn out amazingly tasty. And if you add a little spice and herbs, then it's a fairy tale. You can mix several soft cheeses, one of which will be with mold (not to be confused with moldy). Do not take Fet or Adyghe. The first one will curl up with cheesy lumps, and the second one just won't melt.
Ingredients: cheese - 200g, a couple of tablespoons of flour, 50g of butter, milk - 200ml, pepper and salt.
Method of preparation
Melt the butter, mix with flour and cheese, which must be pre-grated. Always keep the mass on low heat and stir until all the ingredients dissolve and remind sour cream in density. Then it is salted, sprinkled with pepper and milk is poured in portions. A new portion needs to be injected when the previous one is completely mixed with the rest of the mass. Boil the sauce for a moment and turn it off. Lovers of savory taste can add a little mustard or crushed garlic cloves. Milk can be replaced with cream. In this case, instead of garlic and mustard, it is better to put a handful of chopped nuts or greens.
Recipe 4: Mushroom Sauce
Having tasted spaghetti with mushroom sauce, you will discover a new dish with a truly divine taste. And you will be surprised how it was not acquainted with this sauce before, although it is easy to cook it. You can use it not only with spaghetti, but also with buckwheat cereal, mashed potatoes or zrazy, boiled meat.
Ingredients: fresh (frozen) mushrooms - 300g, olive oil, parsley sprigs, pepper and salt, 2 onions, cream (15-20%) - 200ml.
Method of preparation
All ingenious is simple. Therefore, it is necessary to chop the onion finely and fry them. As the onion reddens, add the diced mushrooms and fry until all the mushroom liquid is boiled away. Do not forget to salt and pepper. When the mushrooms are fried, pour in the cream. As soon as the sauce boils, immediately remove from heat. Spaghetti in a plate sprinkle with parsley and generously sprinkle with delicious mushroom sauce.
Spaghetti Sauces - useful tips from experienced chefs
- To thicken tomato sauce, it is necessary to introduce corn starch.
- To prevent spaghetti from being overdried, but to remain moist and silky, Italian cooks advise not to drain all the water after cooking, but to leave just a couple of spoonfuls of liquid in the pan.
- You can start exploring spaghetti sauces from the quickest and easiest - creamy. It is not even necessary to cook it separately. Add 30 grams of butter to a dish with pasta, sprinkle with a teaspoon of dry basil and shake the contents. Spaghetti with cream sauce ready.
