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Fat – butter and olive oil
Have you ever questioned the dierence
between a pasta you’ve enjoyed at a
restaurant and the pasta you make at home?
The dierence mostly lies in the last few steps
of cooking. The secret to a silky, glossy sauce
is the emulsication of fat, pasta cooking
water and cheese. I didn’t realise butter was
a key ingredient in pasta until I watched the
chefs at OTTO in Sydney add a generous
knob at the end of cooking, which resulted in
something rich and shiny. Butter is normally
used to nish pasta dishes in northern Italy,
whereas a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
rounds o dishes in the south.
I always use extra-virgin olive oil in my
cooking. It comes in a range of avour
proles – mild, peppery, grassy – and what
you choose really comes down to personal
preference. I prefer a mild and mellow
extra-virgin olive oil that has fewer bitter
notes, as this complements my pasta rather
than overpowering it. I use a quality but
aordable oil to cook with and then save my
really good-quality stu to nish o delicate
pasta dishes. When buying extra-virgin olive
oil, always look for dark bottles as the oil
doesn’t like light. Know where your oil comes
from and look at the harvest date (extra-virgin
olive oil is not like wine – it doesn’t age well).
Finally, make sure it is truly extra-virgin olive
oil, as a lot of supermarket brands will market
their oils as ‘light’, ‘pure’ or as just regular
‘olive oil’. Avoid these impostors.
Flour
I mainly use two types of our when making
pasta. For egg pasta dough I use Tipo 00,
which is a nely milled, extra-soft wheat
our that you can nd at Italian delicatessens.
For semolina pasta I use semolina or semola
di grano duro, which is a harder, coarser
durum wheat our. It is more yellow in colour
and structured dierently to Tipo 00, and
therefore does not develop gluten as easily.
You’ll notice the dierence straight away.
Find it in Italian delicatessens or buy online.
Pangrattato or breadcrumbs
Italian peasants historically used pangrattato
(a topping of breadcrumbs) as an economical
alternative to Parmigiano Reggiano because
the cheese was simply too expensive. I use
both for added texture and avour. When
I say breadcrumbs, I’m not talking about the
sawdust-type dried breadcrumbs that you buy
in a packet. I’m talking about breadcrumbs
made from real loaves of bread. I always
keep a bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer
and I encourage you to do the same. It has
become a weekly habit to pulse up my leftover
bread into crumbs and throw them in
a zip-lock bag. The whole exercise takes
5minutes and it means they are always on
hand to transform any dish – and I’m not
just talking about pasta. There is no need to
defrost your breadcrumbs, simply tip them
directly into your hot oil. When toasting
breadcrumbs, I’ll often avour them with
ingredients I have to hand: anchovy llets,
chilli and garlic, for example, all make the
most excellent additions.
Salt
I use Kosher salt to salt my cooking water
and when I’m adding salt to a sauce. Sea salt
akes are used to nish o dishes, as they
give a lovely crunch. I was told that Kosher
salt is the purest salt available as it has no
additives, unlike table salt which commonly
contains anticaking agents to prevent clumps.