10 most common errors that ruined Italian food

10 most common errors that ruined Italian food

Italian cuisine is one of the most international but, as with all regional preparations globalize, on the road has lost many of its fundamental aspects. Worldwide eat pasta and pizza, but, in most homes and restaurants the basic rules of traditional Italian cuisine, much given, moreover, culinary dogma are not respected.

Academia Barilla, one of the most prestigious cooking schools in Italy -located in the city of Parma-, this week published a Decalogue with the most common mistakes foreigners make when approaching the Italian food. The institution, which has among its objectives "to defend and safeguard the Italian food products made by renowned artisans and appellation shoddy imitations" and "promote and disseminate the role of these products in traditional Italian cuisine" It leaves no room for heterodoxy. Or is Italian cuisine, or it is not.

The list of the ten most common mistakes is clearly geared to the Anglo diner, but in Spain, despite being closer, either we get rid of punishing the Italian cookbook. Until recently the only Italian we knew was preparing macaroni and sausage, and not just al dente, and although now is "the most" provide cover risotto, keep making errors book. For all lovers of Orthodoxy in the kitchen -and with respect to the Italian tradition following tradition is a guarantee of success-these are the ten mistakes you should never make.

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1. Give the pasta as an accompaniment

Or pasta or risotto should never be served as accompaniment. Except in recipes like meat "Milanese", pasta and rice are taken in Italy as main course something that also is required if we want our calories to trigger. In Italy it is "sacrilegious" to use as a garnish, a space that is reserved almost exclusively, to vegetables.

2. To throw ketchup to pasta

The absolute height of all attacks Italian pasta recipe is accompanied with ketchup, a sauce spaghetti still bathing the middle -dorados- Spain, especially when diners are aimed at children. Academia Barilla qualify this practice as an "authentic culinary sin," although he forgets the other boat tomato sauces, which are nothing widespread in Italy. The reality is that to succeed with a good plate of pasta with tomato, you need to prepare a homemade sauce. There are thousands of recipes and, although there are very worthy products, any industrial preparation exceeds the benefits of a sauce made with fresh tomatoes in season. In winter, however, the pot peeled tomatoes may be the best alternative.

3. Cook the pasta in water with oil

In Spain is very usual squirt of olive oil to the pasta water, a practice that according point in the Academia Barilla, adds nothing to the dishes cooked. In his view, the oil should be added after draining the pasta.

Another ugly Spanish custom of the Decalogue is to forget to wash the pasta in cold water before drain it, which only serves to make it lose flavor. The Academy offers its own instructions to cook the pasta "al dente". One of the secrets, chefs say, lies in drain the pasta a minute before the cooking time indicated on the package, because the pasta will cook while making the sauce.

4. Serve the spaghetti with Bologna sauce

While the spaghetti Bologna are one of the most popular Italian dishes, the Academia Bacillary says the recipe is an international invention impossible to find in any restaurant in town that shares its name. The famous sauce, which itself is one of the basic classics of Italian cuisine, often accompanied by tagliatelle, pasta typical Bologna in Italy always cooked egg, not spaghetti.

Fussy remarks aside however much tell the difference between Academia Bacillary spaghetti and noodles is about to jump from the poles-, there are many Italian recipes that have perverted their way to international recipes. In the case of Spain spaghetti carbonation, which tend to smear cream, bleeding is particularly lacking an ingredient of the authentic Italian recipe that is made with egg.

5. Use the chicken as an ingredient in a pasta dish

"Nobody in Italy would throw chicken to pasta," says Academia Barilla Decalogue. According to the cooking school it is very typical in the US. In Spain, however, it is not at all popular. With the ingredients we seem to be more respectful, but perhaps it's because we have a similar raw material. One of the most ingrained habits in Spain is to prepare the pasta with tuna, which also make the Italians. In fact, in Italy the paste with fish or seafood is tremendously popular. Spaghetti with fruity de mare, or just with mussels, are one of the most successful preparations.

6. Ask a Caesar salad in Italy

The Caesar salad is a popular dish, present on the menus of cafes and restaurants around the world, but it is not an Italian recipe. In fact, it is very difficult to find in the country of the boot. There are different versions about the origin of the salad, but all agree that it began to pour in Mexico and later went to the US. It is believed that its inventor, Alex Cardin, which itself was designed in the Italian-restaurant that his brother, Caesar Cardin, ran in Tijuana: the Cesar's Place. While other stories place its origin in Serenade, what is certain is that Caesar Cardin patented the sauce in Los Angeles in 1948 and has since started to become popular in the US.

7. Decorate the restaurant with red checkered tablecloths and white

The cinema has exploited the image of the typical Italian restaurant with candles, great pasta dishes, jugs of wine and checkered red and white tablecloths. The first three elements may be true, but according to the checkered tablecloths Academia Bacillary are not typical anywhere in Italy.

8. Ask for a cappuccino after lunch

In Italy the cappuccino is only taken at breakfast, never after meals, when the espresso or machination (the equivalent of our cut) is taken. Not that it served in restaurants, but it is something reserved for tourists. Remember that the cappuccino is stronger than our "relaxing" coffee with milk, which in many parts of Spain is halfway between machination and cappuccino.

9. Find the Fettuccine Alfredo in Italy

Although Fettuccine Alfredo themselves are an Italian invention, no one in the country knows that name. The Alfredo sauce is a simple accompaniment for pasta made with butter and Parmesan cheese became famous in the restaurant Alfredo all Scrota in Rome, owned by Alfredo di Leloir. For some unknown reason, the recipe became popular in the United States and therefore in the world with the name you gave the seasoned restaurateur, but is only a version of the traditional Fettuccine -that donkey to say, "the butter "- one of the basic dishes of Italian cuisine, which itself can be found in any restaurant.

10. Go eat alone

The last point of the Decalogue of Academia Barilla, which could well have entitled "Italian cuisine for Dummies" - has more to do with the customs of the Italian company with the food itself. According to school chefs in Italy you will never go to a restaurant alone (which, today, is shocking if true), since the food is always enjoyed with family or friends. "The love and family is everything," says the Decalogue.