Food - Spices - Cookiing

Because of my long time connection with The BBQ Forum I have been fortunate enough to have accumulated a lot of information about cooking, spices and food in general.  I plan to share with you some of the great nuggets of good information.

Pasta and BBQ

Written by Ray Sunday, 05 February 2012 03:31

Some of my relatives came directly from Italy so I should have known a lot about pasta. However, the fact is I just didn't know good pasta from bad pasta. So a little bit ago I started doing some research on pasta. In learned that the best pasta is made from the best grade of stone-ground duram flour from hard winter wheat and pure spring water. In Italy, spaghetti is generally cooked al dente, just fully cooked and still firm. I also learned that pasta needs to be air dried for a long time. Also in Italy the best pasta is extruded from brass dies that gives it unique properties.

So armed with that knowledge I started looking for a really good grade of pasta. I found it on amazon.com and bought some. It seems that they only sell the best in quantities of about four one pound package at time. So ,after two purchases I had eight pounds of pasta. My wife thought that was a bit too much but I assured her that dried pasta is good survival food and she knows that I am stock piling survival food and other items. We immediately found that buying this pasta was a good move. We both agreed that it was really good and we didn't want to eat any other brand except "Rustichella" brand in the future.

So we have been eating more meals centered around pasta. We have been trying different dishes like pasta salad, pasta with meat sauce and others. This week I decided that a great meal would be linguine, drizzled with olive oil, a bit of garlic fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and smoked ham. I shredded the ham and chopped it into about one inch pieces. Then I sprinkled the smoked ham on top of the pasta. I didn't use much smoked ham maybe two or three ounces for the two of us. I added bit of ground black pepper and a little Fleur de sol sea salt. I wish I had a picture to show you but it was so good we at it all. So guess what I am having next week. The same thing only this time I will use some smoked brisket and then some pulled pork.

Now if you try this be sure to use really good pasta and don't cook it to much, follow the directions on the package. It really makes a big difference.

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Fleur de sel

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Last Updated on Sunday, 03 April 2011 01:57 Written by Ray Thursday, 25 June 2009 19:42

Truly a work of art suitable for framing.  Fleur De Sel is a great finishing sea salt from France.  There are three really good Fleur De Sel's produced from three different areas, pictured is one of them.  This is the one I use, Fleur De Sel De Camargue.  I don't think food tastes good without salt on it.  This is especially meats, potatoes and fish.  So even though I am careful about my salt consumption I have to have a little bit of salt on my food.

That is one of the good things about a salt like this, it only takes a little bit to add incredible flavors to your food.  This is not a cooking salt is should be applied just before serving.  You will find this salt dissolves faster than regular salt.  

If I was flat broke I would still try to have some of this salt so I could eat like a king and have hope for the future.  So do yourself a favor and buy some.  Use it sparingly and you'll be very happy you did this.   
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