Pasta Carbonara - A Little Taste Of Italy, Very Simple For You To Prepare At Your Home

If you are looking for a classic Italian dish then this is the one for you. It is fairly easy for anyone to cook if you just follow the directions. To make it the traditional way you will need to use prosciutto or pancetta which is Italian bacon. I prefer to use good American bacon most of the time just because I like the flavor of our pork products. However if it is going to be the classic Italian dish then the other type of pork fat needs to be used.

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Ingredients list: 1 lb of bacon if you are going to prepare the US version, 1/4- 1/2 lb of pancetta or prosciutto, they both have a very strong flavor so use sparingly depending on your tastes. 1 lb of linguine, 2-3 eggs, 1/4-1/3 cup of Italian parsley fresh if available, a really good parmesan cheese grated, salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

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1. Cut your pork products into lard-on strips, or 1/4" strips and then saute/render your pork product that you desire in you dish. You want to get the pieces crisp but not too done. Remove the cooked pork with a slotted spoon and pat dry and hold for later.

2. You will get your water going for your pasta. Follow the instructions on the box for your pasta. Just remember to salt your water. Stir in the pasta and make sure it is fully covered with the water. Cook until done but not overcooked. You will still want some bite to the pasta or al dente- firm to the bite. You can bite into the pasta, look at the center and you will see whether it is done or not by noticing the center. If it is not the same color all the way through then it is still not done. Practice makes perfect on this step. But you will definitely now if it is overcooked, it will be mushy and will fall apart on you.

3. You will first want to have a separate pot of simmering or close to boiling water. You will want to add the eggs to this water only for about 20-30 seconds to kill any bacteria such as salmonella. Remove from the water and rinse and then immediately break into bowl. Beat the eggs very well or thoroughly in a mixing bowl that you can serve this dish in.

4. When the pasta is fully cooked, drain it and try to remove all excess water. Do not rinse!

5. Put the drained pasta into the serving dish with the eggs and toss the pasta into the egg mixture. The heat from the pasta will cook the egg mixture. Just make sure you stir well, but be careful not to cut your pasta.

6. Add your pork products, parsley and cheese at this point and give it another toss. Plate it up, pour yourself and guest some wine, and break bread together.

This is a very classical Italian dish as I stated before. Just take precautions when preparing the egg mixture. And I hope that you enjoy this dish, if you like you can use bacon or sausage and eat for a breakfast meal served with danish or some type of bread. Ciao!

Pasta Carbonara - A Little Taste Of Italy, Very Simple For You To Prepare At Your Home

Chef Shelley Pogue, a Cum Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and research and development chef for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA.

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How To Make Cooking Easy And Simple

Most of us treat cooking as a torturous chore that has to be endured at the end of a long working day. We all look and marvel at people who enjoy cooking and look forward to cooking at home and wonder what went wrong with us. To tell you the truth, the basic difference between people who enjoy spending time in the kitchen and those who don't is just a little bit of planning. With proper planning, you can easily fix good home cooked meals for the whole family within half an hour and once you find cooking fast and easy, you will look forward to making and eating wholesome home cooked meals. Some tips that will help you in making cooking both easy and simple are:

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Start with easy and simple: The key to making food fast and without fuss is to start with easy and simple recipes. Don't try preparing cordon bleu menus on weekdays. Leave them for the weekends if you like cooking and for the restaurants if you don't. Instead aim at making wholesome and healthy food at home and start with easy to make salads, stir fries and soups. Baking with bottled marinades is not only easy and fast; it also produces great tasting, healthy non-vegetarian dishes.

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Plan meals in advance: Plan your meals before you go to pick up your weekly supply of groceries. This way, you will be able to buy all the ingredients that you will need for your dishes instead of having to abandon making something in the middle because of the absence of a crucial ingredient. Planning meals will also help you in picking up stuff that is better suited to your dishes. For example, if you are planning to make stir fries a lot during the week, then going for chopped vegetable will be better than buying whole vegetables.

Put your appliances to better use: Most of us under use almost all of our appliances, specially our food processors, microwaves and crock pots. Washing the food processor and changing different attachments is a chore, but not if you have to do it only once or twice a week. Chop vegetables and prepare stuff for the whole week on the weekend using your food processor and keep different ingredients in different boxes in the fridge. Most vegetables and pastes will last for at least a week if stored in airtight containers. Similarly, you can use your microwave for making basic dishes. Start using your crock pot for preparing soups and rice dishes while your prepare the main course to save time.

Keep your fridge and kitchen stocked with RTC ingredients: A well stocked fridge and kitchen are the keys to making cooking simple. Keeping different types of pasta, marinade and salad sauces along with ready to mix seasonings can save you a lot of time and energy at the end of a hard day at work. Similarly keeping chopped vegetables and ready to cook meat and poultry pieces in your fridge and freezer ensure that you save on cleaning and cutting time every day.

How To Make Cooking Easy And Simple

Get more information regarding crock pot

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Marinara Sauce, Or "Sailor Sauce" It Is A Simple Italian Sauce Flavored With Tomatoes, Garlic & Herb

Marinara Sauce: This is a really simple sauce, and it is meant to be simple, as most Italian sauces. This sauce is traditionally flavored with tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. The translation of Marinara or "Marinaro" means Sailor, and thus means Sailor Sauce. There are several different variations of this sauce, and they are easy to make, and just as popular. There is a Cacciatore sauce and, a Pizzola sauce which I are at the bottome of this recipe.

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The ingredients you will need: 2 Tbps of a good olive oil 2 cloves of garlic, or as one of my chef instructors would say toes of garlic 4-5 lbs of fresh tomatoes, the best and ripest you can find, cut into 1/2"-3/4" pieces 1/4 - 1/2 c up fresh basil depending on your taste or love of basil, chopped, or chiffonade Salt and Pepper to taste = the level of salt or pepper you want in your sauce

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Lets make Sauce: In a large sauce pan you will heat your olive oil over a medium heat. When the oil is starting to shimmer in the bottom of the pan you will add your garlic and saute for around 15-30 seconds, do not burn your garlic. It will make your sauce taste bitter. You want a very small amount of color, or it to look translucent. Add your tomatoes with all of the juice from them, and stir with the garlic. You will bring to a simmer, which is a very low bubble in the pan if at all. You will stir occasionally to make sure it is cooking evenly, and not sticking to the bottom of your pan. You do not want to burn the sauce. After about 30- 40 minutes you will taste for salt and pepper content, and this is when you will add them to fit your taste. Then you will add your fresh basil and stir. If you want to garnish your sauce on top of your favorite pasta, then save some of the basil, and add after you plate your pasta dish. Some Parmesan cheese as garnish on the top would go well with this sauce if you prefer.

If you would like to put a full meal together. I suggest while your sauce is simmering, add a pot of water to the stove and start over a high heat. Bring the water to a boil, and before you add the pasta you prefer add a generous amount of salt to the water. Add your pasta, and stir to keep it from sticking. While your pasta is in the boiling water you will have about 7-10 minutes of free time to get a salad ready and possibly some garlic toast. I hope that you enjoy this recipe it its very easy, and it is fresh, and much better than a jar sauce. It will show those that matter most, that they are special, and that you cared enough to make a great family meal. Enjoy.

I am going to list 2 other variations of this sauce one is a Pizzola, and the other is a Cacciatore.

This is a Pizzola Italian sauce and will be great for any type of pasta dish. It is very simple to prepare and will be a definate hit for a family meal.

Ingredients you will need:2 T of Olive Oil ,2 Cloves of Garlic , 4-5 Lbs of the freshest Tomatoes you can find , 2 T of fresh Basil for garnish , 2-3 T of dried Italian herb mix= Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Oregano , 1 tsp of crushed Red Pepper flakes , 1/4-1/2 shredded Parmesan Cheese for garnish

Lets make Pizzola sauce: In a large sauce pan you will heat your olive oil over a medium heat. When the oil is starting to shimmer in the bottom of the pan you will add your garlic and saute for around 15-30 seconds, do not burn your garlic. It will make your sauce taste bitter. You want a very small amount of color, or for the garlicit to look translucent. Add your tomatoes with all of the juice from them, and stir with the garlic, and add your dry herbs and spices. . You will bring to a simmer, which is a very low bubble in the pan if at all. You will stir occasionally to make sure it is cooking evenly, and not sticking to the bottom of your pan. You do not want to burn the sauce. After about 30- 40 minutes you will taste for salt and pepper content, and this is when you will add them to fit your taste. If you want to garnish your sauce on top of your favorite pasta, then save some of the basil, and add after you plate your pasta dish. Some Parmesan cheese as garnish on the top would go well with this sauce if you prefer.

The Cacciatore sauce is just another variation of the Marinara sauce. If you have looked at my Marinara recipe the cooking principles are the same, other than a few additional ingredients.

The ingredients you will need: 2 Tbps of a good olive oil 2 cloves of garlic sliced thin, or as one of my chef instructors would say toes of garlic. 1 red and 1 green bell pepper, thin sliced with the stem and pith removed, no seeds. 1 can of slices button mushrooms, or 4-6 ounces of fresh button mushrooms if you prefer fresh ones. 1-1/2 to 2 tsp of dried Italian spice blend which is oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary. 4-5 lbs of the freshest tomatoes you can find cut into 1/2 - 3/4" cubes with all of the juice. 2 T of fresh basil, thin slices or chiffonade. Salt and Pepper to taste = the level of salt or pepper you want in your sauce

Lets make Sauce: In a large sauce pan you will heat your olive oil over a medium heat. When the oil is starting to shimmer in the bottom of the pan you will add your bell peppers, and mushrooms and saute for around 3-4 minutes, do not burn them just lightly saute. Then add your garlic, and saute for around 15-30 seconds. If you burn them it will make your sauce taste bitter, so be careful not to over cook. You want a very small amount of color, or them to look translucent, or tender. Add your tomatoes with all of the juice from them, and your herbs and stir. You will bring to a simmer, which is a very low bubble in the pan, if at all. You will stir occasionally to make sure it is cooking evenly, and not sticking to the bottom of your pan. You do not want to burn the sauce. After about 30- 45 minutes you will taste for salt and pepper content, and this is when you will add them to fit your taste. If you want to garnish your sauce on top of your favorite pasta, then add some of the 2 T. of basil from your ingredients list, on the top of the sauce, on your pasta dish. Some Parmesan cheese as garnish on the top would go well with this sauce if you prefer.

Marinara Sauce, Or "Sailor Sauce" It Is A Simple Italian Sauce Flavored With Tomatoes, Garlic & Herb

Chef Shelley Pogue, Cum Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and Executive Research and Development Chef for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA.

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Simple But Spectacular Panna Cotta

Ask a great chef what he thinks is the most challenging food to cook. Chances are, it won't be a dish with a list of ingredients as long as your arm. It is more likely to be a very simple dish that requires a very simple mixing or cooking technique. Do not confuse simple with easy, however. Each pleat in a chef's hat represents a different way to cook an egg-not a different eight course menu.

To illustrate this principle, I give you panna cotta.
While Italian for "cooked cream," the dairy component is heated, but the dish itself is set with gelatin rather than baked in an oven as with egg based custards.

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At its simplest, panna cotta is sweetened cream set with gelatin. Simple, yes. Easy, no. There is a very specific technique you should follow to ensure that your panna cotta is creamy rather than slick, homogenous rather than layered, and with flecks of vanilla suspended throughout rather than all at the bottom.

2 teaspoons powdered gelatin

3 cups milk, divided

pinch of salt, to taste

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar, more or less to taste

1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Bloom the gelatin in about 1/2 cup of milk. When softened, add another cup of milk, half of the sugar, the vanilla bean (if using) and the salt to a saucepan. To dissolve sugar and gelatin, heat until very hot, but do not bring to a boil. (Boiling gelatin reduces its setting power). If using a vanilla bean, let the bean steep for about half an hour. Then, strain this mixture into the other 1 1/2 cups of cold milk.

In a stainless steel bowl, whip heavy cream, the other half of the sugar, and the vanilla extract (if you didn't use a vanilla bean) until thickened and the whisk leaves tracks in the cream. You don't even have to get it to soft peaks, but do make sure it is thickened. Whisk everything together thoroughly and strain again. At this point your mixture should be pretty thick, which is what we're going for. This method will yield a very creamy, rather than slick, panna cotta. The mixture will also be thick enough that any vanilla bean specks will be suspended and won't sink to the bottom. If a spoon doesn't leave a track when pulled through your panna cotta mixture, whisk it over an ice bath until it thickens enough to suspend the vanilla specks.

You can pour the thickened mixture into individual ramekins, but it is also nice to be able to unmold a panna cotta. The easiest and cheapest way to achieve this to do is to mold them in mini solo cups, freeze them, cut and peel the cups away when frozen, then plate and let come up to temperature. The downside of this method is that your lovely panna cottas will say Solo in bas relief on the tops! Fix this by serving fresh or stewed, sweetened berries on top.

Simple But Spectacular Panna Cotta

Jennifer Field spent years as a special education teacher until she left education to pursue a culinary career. After graduating from Orlando Culinary Academy Le Cordon Bleu Program with a degree in Patisserie and Baking, Chef Jennifer worked in professional fine dining kitchens as pastry sous chef and pastry chef. She currently marries her two passions, teaching and baking, through her website, Pastry Chef Online at http://www.pastrychefonline.com/
View her new blog at http://onlinepastrychef.wordpress.com/

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