Cocolón: Pasta, a world food

It is one of the oldest foods of the modern era, its origins are still debated, but without a doubt in our hemisphere, Italy is the first country that popularized it and made it one of the most used products in gastronomy.

Surely you and I eat pasta once or twice a week, maybe more, not necessarily in an Italian recipe, and that’s what’s interesting since pasta crossed the border of traditional Italian cuisine to become a product as we could call it here the basic or popular basket.

Consuming pasta is a source of carbohydrates that gives us energy, of course this can be made from wheat flour and water only, or a little more enriched with wheat semolina and eggs.

The versatility of this product is that we can consume it hot or cold, salads, soups, main course, garnish, stew, baked, and I have tried some desserts as well.

Making fresh pasta is relatively easy and its taste differs from industrial dry pasta, which is also of very good quality.

In our city there are very good trattoria that make fresh pasta, soon we will visit a couple of friends who have just set up their pasta workshop and we will be able to share some of their recipes and experiences.

But speaking of Italy, pasta is almost a religion in the daily kitchen, it is a party, a family ritual, a tradition of years that is shared at home and in restaurants. Classic international dishes such as pomodoro, pesto, four cheeses, lasagna, cannelloni, among others, surely come to mind. However, in Italy it goes much further than these dishes, which are the ones we know the most.

It is precisely to highlight this tradition that in 1995 Italy established October 25 as World Pasta Day, in which various events are held around the world that promote its consumption and artisanal elaboration.

We share some recipes with pasta for this week’s Cocolón

Fresh pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogram of flour
• 10 eggs
• 2 grams of salt

How to do it:

1. Form a volcano with the flour in a bowl
2. Mix the eggs with the salt and add to the flour.
3. Begin to stir from the inside out until everything is integrated.
4. Knead by pressing the dough in until all the ingredients are homogeneous, if it feels a little firm, you can moisten your hands to add a little moisture and make it easier to knead.
5. Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Roll out and shape long or short pasta.
7. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water for a maximum of one to two minutes. If it is dry pasta, check the product’s indications on the packaging, which usually ranges from seven to ten minutes.

Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1 bundle of basil
• 1 cup walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of olive oil
• Parmesan
• Salt and black pepper

How to do it:

1. Place the ingredients in the blender starting with the garlic, walnuts, previously washed basil and placing only the leaves without stems and the oil.
2. Process slowly until obtaining a creamy paste.
3. Remove to a bowl and add the cheese, salt, and pepper.
4. If you do it in a mortar, first crush the garlic with the salt, then add the walnuts and finally the basil, adding the oil little by little during the process.
5. Add the hot pasta just out of the water to the sauce, stir and serve.

Tomato

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo of tomato
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Sunflower oil
• Olive oil
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 carrot
• Salt and pepper

How will we do it:

1. There are several tomato recipes, this one we will make with fresh tomato, but we must reinforce it since our tomato is somewhat pale and does not have much flavor.
2. Peel the tomato by immersing it in boiling water for a minute, so the skin comes off easily.
3. Chop it into cubes and reserve it with all its juice and seeds.
4. Chop the garlic into slices and brown it in sunflower oil, add the peeled carrot and the celery stalk.
5. When it takes some color add the tomato and tomato paste.
6. Let cook over low heat for 45 minutes, stirring slowly.
7. If it is necessary to add a little water if we see that it is drying.
8. At the end we remove the carrot and celery.
9. Season with salt, pepper and olive oil.
10. Add the hot pasta, stir and let it absorb the sauce.

Carbonara

Ingredients:

• 300 grams of bacon or smoked bacon
• 4 egg yolks
• 150 grams of Parmesan cheese
• Black pepper

How will we do it:

1. Chop the bacon and brown it over low heat, remove the fat and reserve.
2. Beat the yolks with a little of the pasta cooking water to dissolve them, add the bacon, cheese, fat and pepper, stir everything and reserve.
3. Cook the pasta and remove it from the hot water al dente, mix with the previous preparation and serve.

Pasta salad with tzaitziki shrimp

Ingredients:

• ½ kilo of pasta
• ½ kilo of shrimp
• 500 grams of Greek yogurt
• 1 cucumber
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 lemons
• Mint leaves
• Olive oil

How will we do it:

1. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water, drain it and let it cool.
2. Chop the garlic very finely and the cucumber into small cubes.
3. Mix them with the lemon, yogurt and add mint leaves at the end along with a dash of olive oil.
4. Cook the shrimp in the same water as the pasta, remove them and mix them with the pasta.
5. Season with the sauce and incorporate all the ingredients.