Italian Cooking
Italian cooking can be simple, or very complex. There are a lot of different recipes out there, some of which use authentic ingredients (such as prosciutto, fresh herbs, ricotta, Italian sausage, and stewed whole tomatoes), and some of which use less than authentic ingredients (such as brand name sauce, cottage cheese, and dried herbs). Regardless of how authentic you want to make your Italian dishes, there are some things that can really add flavor to them.
One of the most obvious ways to improve an Italian dish is with wine. It is both an authentic and an easy way to modify your existing dish. The general rule of thumb is to add red wine with red sauces or white wine with white sauces. You can apply this rule further with dishes that do not employ either sauce. When cooking a light meat, such as chicken or fish, use white wine. When employing a dark meat, such as beef , use a red wine. Pork can be accented with either white or red wine. If you are cooking any meat gamier than beef, red wine is definitely the best choice. A more dramatic result can be had using a small amount of balsamic vinegar in place of red wine. Too much can really overpower a dish, but in small doses this can really bring a red sauce to life.
In addition to wine, garlic is one of the easiest authentic ways to improve a dish. If you have a dish that calls for garlic powder, try substituting whole chopped garlic clove. When garlic is dried and ground into powder, a lot of the flavor is lost. Most of the authentic garlic flavor comes from the oil in the garlic. The surest way to lose this is by excessively drying the garlic. Whole garlic is not as time consuming or difficult to work with as it may seem. You can buy a whole head of garlic for less than the cost of most dried spices. It keeps fairly well, usually for a period of months. The trick when working with it is to remove all of the skin first, which can be done by making a slice along the length of the clove and peeling the skin away. Only peel the cloves that you will be immediately using. To release the oils, you can press the side of a heavy chef knife against the clove until you feel it squish, using one hand to hold the knife and one to press against the side of the knife. Alternately, you could use a meat tenderizer to squish the clove of garlic. After releasing the oils you can throw in the whole clove, or chop the garlic into finer pieces to more evenly distribute the flavor. How much to add depends on individual taste, but it’s hard to go wrong using fresh garlic. Most people who complain of too much garlic in a dish are complaining of powdered garlic or garlic salt. Garlic salt is often used in restaurant chains, and it has the adverse effect of dehydrating the consumer. It is usually the sodium in the garlic salt that people are reacting to, not the garlic.
There are many other ways to spice up an Italian dish. Although fresh herbs and spices can help, they are not always necessary. The lighter the sauce the more noticeable fresh herbs will be. A very tasty, but simple dish can be made by simmering white wine and butter, and adding fresh garlic and fresh sage. This works well with stuffed pastas, such as tortellini. The most common herbs used in Italian cooking are oregano, marjoram, savory, thyme, basil, rosemary, and sage. An easy solution to buying them all separately is to purchase an “Italian herb” seasoning from any of the major spice/herb companies. This works especially well when trying to enliven common red sauces. Often these premixed herbs can be purchased in much larger containers. It certainly makes cooking a well flavored Italian dish quicker and easier. In addition to the normal Italian herbs, ground mustard seed can be used to great effect in white sauces. This adds a distinctive sharp flavor to simple white wine sauces, but you have to be careful not to overdo it.
So far, we’ve only covered ways to flavor the sauces. This brings us to one of the most important aspects of Italian cooking: the sauces. It is true that a good sauce can make a dish, and that a bad sauce can ruin a dish. You can only add so much flavor. Originally, strong sauces were used to hide less than fresh ingredients. The lightest of sauces can enhance the flavors inherent in the ingredients, while the heavier sauces tend to balance out strong meats. By seasoning an otherwise dull store-bought brand you can add life to a sauce, but this will only work to a certain extent. The worst tasting store-bought sauces will have to be seasoned all the heavier. While a lot of red sauces just need some subtle tweaking, a lot of store-bought alfredo sauces are beyond help. A great home-made alfredo sauce can be made with cream, butter, parmesan cheese, white wine, and garlic. The trick is to simmer on low heat until a lot of the moisture steams out and the sauce thickens. Also, you can add corn starch or wheat flour to further thicken the sauce. Bear in mind that as the sauce cools, it will thicken quite a bit. A simple white wine sauce can be made using white wine, butter, garlic, ground mustard, Italian herbs, parmesan, and black pepper. A store-bought red sauce can be enhanced by adding fresh garlic, red wine or balsamic vinegar, Italian herbs, and a pinch of cinnamon for fragrance (not everyone likes the cinnamon, but it’s worth trying at least once for a unique red sauce). If too much balsamic vinegar is added, some grape juice can be added to the sauce to counteract the tartness of the vinegar. With sauces, it’s all about flavor. It’s not a bad idea to taste-test the sauce after every addition, bearing in mind that the flavors will change as the sauce simmers.
An often overlooked benefit of the sauce is its cooking capabilities. Sometimes the most tender meat can be achieved by submersing the meat in the sauce to cook. This requires that the meat be mostly covered by the sauce, so a lot of sauce is required. You may want to prepare for leftovers using this method of cooking. This works especially well for meat. A great chicken dish can be made by simply seasoning your red sauce to taste, then submersing a few boneless chicken breasts in the sauce until they are fully cooked.
With Italian cooking, the best meals can always become better with fresh parmesan. The difference between processed powdered “parmesan cheese” and the real thing is staggering. Even if you aren’t going to go out and buy a fresh wedge of parmesan cheese, at least use the pre-grated parmesan cheese. There’s nothing that destroys a great Italian meal faster than bad cheese. Why go to all the trouble of flavoring your dish just to add powdered cheese as a garnish? The parmesan cheese is more than a topping on a good Italian dish; it adds greatly to the flavor. If you have trouble keeping a good supply of fresh parmesan cheese, simply purchase it in bulk from one of the warehouse grocery stores. Hard cheeses keep a lot longer than soft cheeses, as the moisture content is not nearly as conducive to common mold. There is nothing better than enjoying a great Italian meal with a mound of fresh-grated cheese on top.
We at Chefknife.net hope that this quick guide to Italian cooking has been helpful. It is not a substitute for a good recipe, but there is certainly no shortage of recipes out there. It is helpful to have a general idea of the process when using recipes. We hope you can apply this to every recipe you cook.