Variation in quality among different types of pasta

[ElsieD]

2 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I am guessing it means "will hold on to the sauce". 

 

I'm guessing you're right.

[Smithy]

Oh, I have no doubt it is intended to mean that, but it tickled my funny bone.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

In the supermarket this afternoon I noticed Shoprite's selection of DeCecco had shrunk by perhaps a shelf.  None of the thin spaghetti I was looking for.

 

So I browsed about to see what if any pasta brands looked interesting.  I came home with a package of Giuseppe Cocco, which I recall @Franci once had recommended.  No thin spaghetti though.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight I cooked up the Giuseppe Cocco Casereccia, a shape which all my other sources call "farmer's pasta".  Frankly I was disappointed.  I didn't find much in the Giuseppe Cocco to recommend it over DeCecco, at half the price per pound.

 

What's worse is the Giuseppe Cocco was a big letdown from my homemade farmer's pasta from when my extruder was working.  I really need a new extruder.  Someone must make a good one.

[ProfessionalHobbit]

For pasta secca, I love Giuseppe Cocco and DeCecco.

 

Preferably Cocco -- it's like eating velvet.

 

 

[Lisi]

DeCecco and Barilla are my go-to pastas. Just go watch Gennaro Contaldo and you will see that it's not about what kind of pasta you use as much as it is a matter of knowing how to use it

[paulraphael]

5 hours ago, Lisi said:

DeCecco and Barilla are my go-to pastas. Just go watch Gennaro Contaldo and you will see that it's not about what kind of pasta you use as much as it is a matter of knowing how to use it

 

Well, maybe, with caveats. You can make a delicious meal with any pasta, but if the pasta itself isn't excellent, some of your cooking craft is going into compensating for this. If you're starting with premium pasta, you'll have other options open ... like making dishes that foreground the pasta itself.

 

I can't buy any of my favorite pastas in my neighborhood, so usually what's the shelf is a couple of mid-level brands (like DeLallo, which I find much better than DeCecco or Barilla, but still not special). I just make different kinds of dishes with these pastas. I use more sauce, and make the dish about the sauce.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This Anglo-Philistine has found the secret to Giuseppe Cocco:  cook it for twice the recommended package time.

 

I'm reminded with some shame of an eastward crossing in my youth, prima classe on the Italian Line, when I suggested that the chef add a bit of oregano to the tomato sauce.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Haha!  I feel vindicated!  In reading the pasta chapter of Marcella Hazan's Ingredienti, she says:

 

"Pasta should be cooked at a sustained boil until it is tender, yet firm to the bite.  It used to be that people cooked their pasta too long.  Now they are likely to cook it not long enough.  Ignore low cooking times printed on the package.  Cocco, for example, advises nine minutes' cooking time for a cut of pasta that takes me fifteen minutes..."

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

46 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Haha!  I feel vindicated!  In reading the pasta chapter of Marcella Hazan's Ingredienti, she says:

 

"Pasta should be cooked at a sustained boil until it is tender, yet firm to the bite.  It used to be that people cooked their pasta too long.  Now they are likely to cook it not long enough.  Ignore low cooking times printed on the package.  Cocco, for example, advises nine minutes' cooking time for a cut of pasta that takes me fifteen minutes..."

 

 

Marcella is very respected and admired by me as well, and she does not offer this wisdom in the one book I own, "The Classic Italian Cookbook" (copyright 1973). Your book was published in 2016, post humously. That explains the different advice, I think. I also like my  dried pasta cooked al dente, and to me that means as soon as the white core disappears when bitten. I find Barilla, which I use a lot because it's available everywhere (even at Dollar General) here, needs to be cooked past its recommended time, but usually only by a minute or two. I start testing early, and to me there's no substitute for the bite test.

 

In my Marcella book, she does say to "ignore" the cooking times on the box because they are "invariably excessive". She goes on to say "(it is impossible to make good pasta above 4,500 feet above sea level)". Man, I'd be hatin' that a lot if I lived in the mountains! She also emphasizes the importance of the tasting/bite test, but does not mention the white core. I still think that is critical for it to only just disappear, especially in thicker dried pasta, which I find myself cooking less and less of these days. I might leave a tiny core in angel hair, which will disappear during plating with hot sauce into preheated plates/bowl.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

27 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

Marcella is very respected and admired by me as well, and she does not offer this wisdom in the one book I own, "The Classic Italian Cookbook" (copyright 1973). Your book was published in 2016, post humously. That explains the different advice, I think. I also like my  dried pasta cooked al dente, and to me that means as soon as the white core disappears when bitten. I find Barilla, which I use a lot because it's available everywhere (even at Dollar General) here, needs to be cooked past its recommended time, but usually only by a minute or two. I start testing early, and to me there's no substitute for the bite test.

 

In my Marcella book, she does say to "ignore" the cooking times on the box because they are "invariably excessive". She goes on to say "(it is impossible to make good pasta above 4,500 feet above sea level)". Man, I'd be hatin' that a lot if I lived in the mountains! She also emphasizes the importance of the tasting/bite test, but does not mention the white core. I still think that is critical for it to only just disappear, especially in thicker dried pasta, which I find myself cooking less and less of these days. I might leave a tiny core in angel hair, which will disappear during plating with hot sauce into preheated plates/bowl.

 

Tonight I cooked my Cocco 15 minutes.  No complaints.