Professional Cooking I

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Professional Cooking I

• Pasta Cookery

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Pasta

• Base - flour durum wheat or semolina water
• Enriched eggs, oil
• Shaped
• Enhanced / Flavored

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Pasta

• Origin Chinese? Italian?
• Macaroni in tombs prior to Marco Polo trip to
  China
• Independent development Fusion Confusion???
• First mentioned in historical accounts when
  Sicily was under Arab domination.
• Catherine De Medici - France.
• 20th Century broad based popular as an entree in
  US

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Pasta

• Basic pasta categories
• Ingredients and preparation method
• fresh pasta (Homemade Pasta 'Pasta Vatta in
  Casa')
• factory mass-produced pasta
• Intended end usage.

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Pasta

• Macaroni Products
• Standard of Identity
• United States Food and Drug Administration
• Base ingredients semolina, durum flour, farina,
  flour, or any combination of two or more of these
  and water
• Optional ingredients egg white solids, disodium
  phosphate, onions, celery, garlic, bay leaf,
  salt, and other seasonings

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Pasta - Dry

• Durum wheat
• Characteristics gold color
• Hard / translucent finish
• Resist breakage
• Semolina Durum wheat combination
• Softer dough
• More suitable to extrusion
• More resistant to overcooking

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Pasta - Dry

• Eggs
• Enrich
• Disodium Phosphate
• Increases speed of gelatinization
• Allows pasta to cook faster

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Pasta - Fresh

• Flour not necessarily durum or semolina
• Egg
• Always used in fresh pasta
• Contributes to texture
• Contributes to rise in product as it cooks
• Oil
• Optional
• Shortens gluten strands allowing greater rise
  from egg

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Pasta

• Making Fresh Pasta
• Flour varies in its ability to absorb liquids
• Eggs vary in size and thereby liquid content
• Basic rule is that for every egg use 3 ounces of
  flour (all purpose or bread)
• Addition of water and oil to fresh pasta is at
  the discretion of the maker

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Pasta

• Cooking
• added after the water is boiling to prevent the
  pieces sticking together
• water sufficient to allow the pasta to swell and
  swim freely (normal ratio is 1 gallon water, 2
  tablespoons salt, and 1 pound of pasta)
• It is by sealing pasta in fast boiling water in
  this way that it is possible to obtain the degree
  of cooking known as 'al dente'.

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Pasta

• Cooking
• small pasta should be sprinkled into briskly
  boiling salted water
• long pasta, such as dried spaghetti, gradually
  push it into the boiling water

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Pasta

• Cooking
• TIMES
• Vermicelli 4-5 min
• Flat pasta/spaghetti 11-12 min
• Large macaroni 1 min

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Pasta

• Cooking
• Salad or other uses cold
• drain, rinse under cold water, and immediately
  mix with small amount of oil to prevent sticking.
• Hot
• For immediate service drain, pour boiling hot
  sauce on it and serve immediately
• Held for service rinse, lightly oil, hold under
  refrigeration at service reheat by a short
  immersion in boiling hot water then pour boiling
  hot sauce on and serve immediately

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Pasta

• All pasta, served hot or cold must be well
  drained. The water that clings to pasta can
  destroy the texture, appearance, and flavor of
  the sauce it is served with.

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Pasta

• Range of sauces for pasta is growing
• Traditional thick sauces (bolognaise and
  milanaise) based on tomato and often containing
  ham, minced/ground meat, seafood, cheese,
  anchovies, and other items are still popular in
  the traditional Italian restaurant
• Innovation are extensive Jambalaya Pasta
• Regional applications Baked Spaghetti
• Resurgence of classics Baked Mac and Cheese