/ck/ - Food & Cooking

What should I use anchovy paste in?

Why must risotto be smooth and soupy? Is there anything actually wrong with having thick and sticky risotto, besides it being "unorthodox"?

What is the best method of coffee making?

>>4745314
take a slice of tuscan bread (pic related), warm it in a pan, spread butter on the bread and anchovy paste on the butter

What is the secret of a perfect tomato sauce?

>>4745308

How is Italian food?

>>4745331

Use a moka pot with strong Italian coffee like Lavazza. You need to use the pot a few times before you get the authentic taste. Great coffee is in a well worn-in pot. Don't wash that much, just warm water. No soap.

>>4745336
>Tuscan bread
Enjoy your no-salt crap.
No one likes Tuscan bread, not even the Florentines.

post your favourite ragu recipe pls

>>4745398
>Lavazza
Lavazza sa lavata. C'ha veramente sapore di acqua sciacquata. Anche la schifezza che è Mokarabia è più gustoso. Dici solo sciocchezze.

>>4745336
anchovy paste not so common. We spread butter on white bread and put salty anchovies on it

>>4745406
Don't bother. This person recommends Lavazza and Tuscan bread, two products that Italians rarely use in homes other than the Torinesi and Fiorentini, both groups that are widely mocked in Italy for their awful food. Turin's tomato sauce is overly sweet rubbish with fucking honey in it. Honey. Ew.

>>4745409
La moka è la caffettiera più comune, la usano tutti. Acqua sciacquata? Forse sei tu che non sai montare correttamente una moka

What can all Italians regardless of city or region agree on in terms of food?

>>4745336
>tuscan bread

10/10

breety gud almost had me going

>>4745343
just good tomatoes

>>4745409
#Rekt

>>4745406

Pack of beef mince, small packet of pancetta, cup of red wine, cup and a half of water, 2/3 tube of tomato puree, one onion, one carrot, one clove of garlic, salt to taste.

Blitz the vegetables in a food processor until smooth. Add good glog of olive oil to a big pan and add the vegetables. After a few minutes, add the packet of beef mince and pancetta. Once the meat is browned, pour in the cup of red wine and water. Season appropriately. Then add the 2/3 (or whole tube) of tomato puree. This recipe doesn't use tomatoes, so you need a lot of the puree. Allow to cook on low heat for an hour, stirring every ten minutes.

>>4745409
So is Lavazza the Italian Folgers?

>>4745308
Isn't it a giant pain in the ass to make two dishes every time you eat?

>>4745414

I didn't recommend Tuscan bread, I just recommended Lavazza. He can use whatever coffee he wants, that's just the one I use and it is one of the best quality I can buy at supermarkets in the UK. Also, I am from Tuscany, and over there they drink a coffee called Bei Nanna and Lavazza is pretty similar.

>>4745420
Per carita! Non stavo parlando neanche un fico della moka! Lo uso ogni mattina e sera. Stavo dicendo che Lavazza fa schifo. Preferisco caffe che viene dal sud, per esempio, Kimbo oppure Miscela d'Oro.
Parlando quelli che non sono dal sud italia, Hausbrandt non c'è male.

>>4745437
Ops, è vero. Scusa ho letto male. In effetti la Lavazza non è granché, io a casa c'ho Illy e fa un caffè niente male

>>4745331
when the first bit of coffee begins to "come out" of the moka, pour it in a cup together with some sugar and mix it vigorously with a spoon: after some time it will look roughly like pic related. now pour the rest of the moka and mix. if done correctly this will ensure a perfect foam on the top of your coffee

parla inglese motherfuckers

>>4745402
retard, it's meant to balance the saltyness of the anchovy paste

>>4745433
Pretty much. And Illy is the Italian Maxwell House (sort of: Illy is Hungarian). American company Sara Lee offers a good brand of coffee in France and parts of North Italy, but not in America, oddly enough.
Lavazza is popular because it was the first nationally available coffee in Italy, same with Hellman's/Best Foods mayonnaise in the US. Most purchased != best. As I said elsewhere, I prefer Kimbo, Miscela d'Oro and Hausbrandt.

>>4745421
nothing, as you can see

>>4745465

Which part of Italy are you from, OP?

>>4745421
Pasta

>>4745434
no, it's not that difficult

>>4745471
Sicilians prefer rice (though have myriad pasta dishes, too) and Friulians prefer polenta or dumplings.

>>4745478
Give us some italian dumpling recipes.

>>4745478
>implying not everyone likes pasta
>implying friulans eat polenta everyday
Seriously? Sicilians love pasta way more than rice

>>4745390
boring

>>4745480
They're identical to Slovene and central European dumplings, really.
Make a thick batter of flour, water, egg and oil and drop it by the quenelle into simmering water. Simmer until done, then remove and drain. There are other varieties made from other things in addition to regular flour, such as lentil flour or potatoes, but the most basic is:

flour, 120g (about 1 cup US)
egg, 1
salt, a pinch
oil or melted butter, 2tbsp

You can also put it onto a cutting board and scrape it into simmering water in long threads, but I like the quenelles.

>>4745484

>>4745467
Modena

>>4745414
op here, it wasn't me

>>4745482
They love them some rice, lemme tell ya.

>>4745478
this

Expresso is a form of italian coffee brewed extra strong. To make cappuchino, just add whippped cream!

Italians prefer green olives, whereas greeks prefer black.

>>4745480
are you interested in canederli (knodel in german) too?

do you put red wine in your bolognese? I do

>>4745532
Those are made like >>4745491 but swapping bread crumbs for flour. You can put the thick batter into a potato masher and press them to make long threads instead of rounds or quenelles. Those are called 'passatelli' and are commonly simmered in chicken broth and served as they are.
They're like Italian matzah balls.

>>4745522
I do love kalamata olives.
My neighbours two doors down are greek and I go down there everynow and then to shake down the tree and collect the olives.
I also learnt how to make some form of greek easter pastry which is very nice.
I feel like even though I'm an Anglo Australian I'm more of a wog than their children

And I was surprised to learn that eating pasta with just parmesan cheese and olive oil is a real thing, and not some heinous crime I was committing whilst in a rush to leave the house.

How common is eating something as simple as that in Italy?

>>4745546
Done all the time in the south.
In the north, it's butter rather than oil, but done all the time there, too.
In Basilicata, they add bread crumbs to it to soak up the oil and cheese and make it better-stick to the pasta.

What's the perfect noodle for sauce bolognese?
And how disgusted are you with the fact that everyone outside Italy usually eats Spaghetti with it?

anyone who says fish and cheese dont go together does not deserve to be cooking

that is all

>>4745537
>bolognese
pleas don't call ragù like that
anyway... yes, i use lambrusco, a sparkly red wine (pic related)

>>4745557
Not disgusted at all, it's normal. We usually use Barilla or De cecco, the spaghetti is n. 5

>>4745557
the best pasta to eat with ragù is tagliatelle, but spaghetti are good too, nothing wrong with them

>>4745564
frenchman detected

>>4745579
But with Spaghetti you can't really eat the sauce. The meat will always remain back on the plate and must be eaten separately; i.e. it doesn't bind with spaghetti.

>>4745579
What's up with the difference between bolognese and ragù?

How common is using a spoon with spaghetti among non-tourists?

Why do Italians become assholes when they move to New York?

Do American pizza chains (Pizza Hut, Domino's, etc.) exist in Italy?

>>4745582
nope, a new york "italian" and I fucking hate these retards here
NO FISH AND CHEESE!!!
shut the fuck up, maybe if you ate some kind of cheese other than part skim mozzarella from a cow you would actually know how to cook

>>4745597
Pretty much only Mcdonalds and not even many of them

Why is Italian food so overrated?

>>4745593
the complete definition is "ragù alla bolognese", and "bolognese" is a wrong contraction because it keeps the adjective and removes the noun while "ragù" is a correct name

>>4745613
It's the right amount of "foreign" for North American white people. Different enough for it to be popular, but not so different that it's out of their comfort zone.

It's kinda like how my Asian dad will eat Japanese food, but won't eat Mexican or French food.

>>4745610
Maybe in your area.
I saw plenty of them in Rome when I was there in May.
Also Subway.
No so much: Burger King, Pizza Hut (none at all actually).

>>4745595
ItaloAmericans that have been in the US for a few generations are descended of the rubbish of Italy, which is saying something because we don't have terribly high standards to begin with. Basically, your eye-ties are the scum of the scum of our people.
You're welcome.

>>4745594
My entire family eats long pasta, spaghetti included, with a spoon and fork.
Eating spaghetti with just a spoon is reserved for spaghetti spezzati and very, very young children.

>>4745593
In Italian cooking, ragù is a slow-cooked sauce that gets its flavour from a large amount of meat. Ragù alla bolognese fits this description by using beef mince. Ragù alla napoletana uses a hunk of beef brisket and/or pork shoulder and/or whole Neapolitan sausages. Ragù alla genovese uses the same meats as ragù alla napoletana (though it can also be made with chicken) but swaps out tomato for caramelised onions. There are other types of ragù, too. La finta ragù is otherwise identical to other ragù varieties but omits all meat.

>>4745591
You either are using too much sauce or you didn't finish the pasta in the sauce. Doing so helps the sauce to stick to the pasta.

>>4745579
Tagliatelle are just the northern name for fettuccelle. Tagliatelle/fettuccelle would be a poor choice for ragù alla genovese, but either is fine for several other sauces.

>>4745557
Spaghetti are the preferred pasta for bolognese /alla napoletana/. Tagliatelle/fettucelle are for bolognese /di bologna/. There are two different sauces that are very similar that are called bolognese. One uses tomato paste, the other does not. One adds dairy, the other does not.

>>4745618
>mfw it's not true
We don't have them

>>4745613
italian food is the only decent european cuisine aside from specific dishes/items here and there

>>4745622
Actually I thought (adult) Italians eat spaghetti with a fork only -- no spoon.
Is that wrong?

>>4745613
it isn't
now pls go

>>4745628
Is there even a way of eating them without a fork without looking dumb?

>>4745618
There are McDo all over Italy, but I've never seen other American fast food chains. There used to be a Wendy's in Agnano when I was a kid, but it closed in the early 90s. It was there because Agnano was basically an American neighbourhood. When the American military base closed, the Americans left and the Wendy's closed, too.
I ate there once and once only and don't remember if I liked it or not.

>>4745632
read again.

>>4745631
Let's be honest here: it is.
We're both Italians, you and I, and we both know how simple our cuisine actually is. Charging €20 per plate of Italian food abroad is the very definition of overrated. Our complex dishes are rarely, if ever, offered outside of bistro or people's homes for some reason.

>>4745628
Some do, some don't. The way we eat them where I'm from is wrapping the spaghetti around the fork tines by twirling the fork on the concave of the spoon.

>>4745626
I quite like proper Brit cuisine and don't understand the international scoffs it receives. Polish food is also amongst my favourites as is Hungarian. I've yet to have a Polish dish I've disliked. I detest Greek cookery, though.

>>4745613
I'm German and I'm saying it is not overrated.
Also, German cuisine is underrated.

>>4745648
Maybe you can't afford a nice restaurant but I assure you that many here offer complex dishes. Just open a Slowfood guide and most of them are superb

>>4745648
Haha, pricing is another thing.
But generally Italian food is top tier, despite (or maybe because) being rather simple. Everyone can make it, it tastes well and at least "feels" natural.
Compared to burgers or other American cuisine, it's perfectly healthy.

I wonder how many of the "Italian" restaurants here in Germany would actually be rated good by most Italians.
Most Italian restaurants are actuelly being run by Italians BTW -- but mostly they have spent decades here, not in Italy.

>>4745648
the problem is the huge difference between italian food in italy and "italian" food abroad

>>4745591

it binds to good bronze-extruded spaghetti, especially if the sauce is the right consistency

>>4745660
Nope.png.
Our cuisine is simple. You want complex? Try Polish cooking. Their stuff takes forever uses several techniques in the same dish and is nonetheless internationally ignored.
Us Italians for some reason inexplicably get all this attention when our cooking is super easy. The flavours are good, yes, but to say our cooking is complex is just being prideful to the point of hubris.
We're not that great.

>>4745669
Are you Italian?
Any report on tha?
Funnily, the best restaurant at which you'd get full for 30€ in Rome thi year was led by Indian guys, not Italians.

>>4745648

>simple

italian cuisine might be simple but that doesn't mean it's overrated. you guys have great produce and you do great things with it.

i think it's more true to say that other cuisines are often underrated or underappreciated - such as the brit cuisine you mentioned and even french cuisine isn't as well regarded as it used to be

>>4745677
Are you trolling? I'll b8. There are tons of complex recipes that requires a ton of experience to be made. Just because you managed to throw some pasta into boiling water doesn't make everything else "too simple".

>>4745680
Now, seriously? Are you going to the restaurant to be full? in that case a kebab might be better and cheaper

>>4745664
I've been to Italian-run restaurants in several countries now and it's always the same: the traditional cooking has to be modified to meet the expectations and tastes of the host nation. This is why tomato sauce in the US universally has added sugar, why carbonara in Ukraine is scrambled eggs with peas and why British pizza is no different from frozen: the local tastes dictate what the restaurants will serve. They are in business to make money and no one makes money if they don't cater to the tastes of their customers.

>>4745693
No, but I'm not going to a restaurant and leave hungry.
My native language is not English, so maybe I'm just missing a word, but even a dictionary is not providing me with a better option. sorry.

>>4745688
Yes, there are tonnes of complex recipes in our cuisine, absolutely, but how many of us Italians have eaten more than a handful of times in our lives?
Ragù alla genovese is wonderful. It's also complex. No restaurants properly serve it, neither in Italy nor abroad, because it takes literally twelve hours to prepare. It's just the fact of the matter.

Also, that's a very nice reductio ad absurdum you've got there. Please, tell me another.

>>4745700
Satisfied? As you say, going back hungry it's not cool but, it's not easy to find that restaurant that gives you much quality food and doesn't have you pay for it

>>4745680
>>4745693
>muh munny's worth

If the goal is to stuff your obese self for as little as possible, you can and should cook at home.

This goes for Europoors as much as it does Amerifats.

>>4745709
That's what defines "complex". If it was easy, it would be a pizza. I fail to see your point tho'. What's so bad about everyone not tasting the most complex stuff from each region? It's not like that detracts from our cuisine

>>4745709

12 hours to prepare =/= complex.

>>4745687
Perhaps not. I'll concede.
I love our food, but just can't justify a literal 2000% markup for a plate that costs €1 to prepare. By this reason alone, it is most certainly overvalued, at least.

>>4745710
Of course I'm willing to pay for good quality.
I'm just questioning the quality of Italian restaurants around my location and comparing it to those I found in Italy (and I did some research).
I have to admit, I was looking for restaurants i which you wouldn't pay 100+ Euros per visit.

I think we spent roughly 50€ per person and visit this summer. Now I wonder how Italians like Italian restaurants in other countries.

>>4745691
>the traditional cooking has to be modified to meet the expectations and tastes of the host nation
The only upside to this I can see is that typically, Asian dishes end up with a more meat in it.

My friend's dad is Chinese, and he owns a Chinese restaurant. Apparently it performed very poorly in the past because there wasn't "enough" meat.

>>4745723

> By this reason alone, it is most certainly overvalued, at least.

no argument from me there. the reason this happens is because modern western cities don't really have strong, coherent food culture.

>>4745724
I went to Britain and France quite a lot. Not much further, every time I went to non-italian restaurants. It would be silly to dinner with pizza when you are in another country

>>4745691

> why British pizza is no different from frozen

what

that shit aint true yall

>>4745737
Hi. You must be new here.

>>4745457
i'm trying this first thing tomorrow

>>4745308
Just because you were born there doesn't make a culinary expert.

>>4745931
I don't know why Cubans think they originated this method when we've been doing it in Italy for like... ever.

to which dishes, and at what point of the process, should nutmeg be added?

>>4745935
Right.
Not all Italians are thin, fashionable culinary experts with a great understanding of their local cuisine and not all Americans are, fat, loud, obnoxious culinary know-nothings with zero understanding of cooking outside of boxed ready meals. The stereotypes exist for a reason, though.

>>4745954
Besciamella. At the end. That's the only one I can think of that uses it.

>>4745956
> The stereotypes exist for a reason, though.

You mean WW2 and all those glorious cultural discoveries made by the uneducated masses who did most of the fighting?

Yeah, that was 70 years ago. British people don't eat boiled slop rations anymore and Czechoslovakia is no longer a country. Welcome to the present.

>>4745962
So why have you recovered after 70 years?

>go to any american supermarket
>frozen and fridged ready-meal sections are /at least/ double the size of the fresh fruit and produce sections
Why is that? Certainly it's not an example of supply and demand at work, is it? I mean... there's no way that Americans demand ready-meals and eschew fresh produce, is there? No. That couldn't be it.

It must be a conspiracy! Every time someone who lives in the US who is not native to the US walks into any supermarket in America, the staff quickly and efficiently hide the fresh produce and move out the ready-meals for proud display. This is a well-calculated maneuver in order to confound him, wanting to keep the secrets of the cooking American hidden from the dirty foreigner's eyes.
Yes.
That must be it.

>go to any Italian supermarket
>fresh produce section is far, far larger than ready-meal section
Hrm.

You're at a disadvantage here: I've been to and live in your country. You're not likely to have ever visited mine and if you did, it was as a tourist and you never got the chance to see inside the grocery.

>>4745976
>So why have you recovered
Derp, meant
>haven't
not
>have
Fix'd.

>>4745976
>american grocery stores have no fresh produce

please respond ;_;

>>4745976
Could it be the fact that we have produce deserts so when you go shopping it has to be for a month at a time, and fresh produce will not last more than a week.

I've lived in both countries and the entire culture is different. In Italy you shopped for what you needed that day, or at most the week, in many parts of America if you have to shop for the month because the 3 day camel hike to the store is too long and laborious.

>>4745976
>tourists never go to grocery stores

Fucking greasy wop.

>>4746202
Also, it's a lot cheaper to buy in bulk in America.

>>4745976
>You're not likely to have ever visited mine and if you did, it was as a tourist and you never got the chance to see inside the grocery.
Not that guy, but I have traveled extensively and visiting grocery stores in different countries is one of the things that interests me most.

>>4746217
yeah, I'm in Canada now and what a price difference.

5 bucks for 2L of milk, 4 dollars for 12 eggs and 3 dollars for a loaf of bread, wish I could tell you produce was cheap...

Meat is outrageous here, I eat an almost vegetarian diet because other than pork and the odd thing on sale I can't justify buying a pack of 4 chicken breasts for 25 dollars, even if I have plenty of money.

>>4745398
>Lavazza
>good
va a dare consigli da qualche altra parte idiota, scommetto che sei terrone

>>4745959
Are you fucking stupid?
Yes you are!