• PostingInPublic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    To those who don’t know, Italians can be super particular about what pasta goes with which condiment. If the recipe says linguine, it’s linguine or you can’t cook the dish. Spaghetti aren’t acceptable.

    Also if you sit with some Italians and want to troll them ask them what they think about farfalle (the bowties) and watch the show, most are super opinionated as well.

    • porkins@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ketchup and MSG are the secret ingredients in my marinara sauce. I go as far as to use proper other ingredients likes San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, and garlic, but I am fairly certain that my special additions to the recipe improve it. I’ve been told never to utter this to an Italian mother.

      • golden_calf@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s funny because you are just doing the same thing in a different way. Tomatoes and mushrooms have msg naturally. The ketchup is mostly about adding some sugar.

        A secret ingredient in a lot of sauces is anchovy paste and it’s partly for the msg. It does make a sauce taste great though.

      • TongZiDan@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        My wife insists that ketchup and marinara sauce are the same thing. At the same time she insists that 40 different Chinese dishes with the same mala flavor profile are vastly different because of some minor change to the cooking method.

      • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Ketchup has a distinct taste to it that I feel you can taste through most sauces. But perhaps it’s the type of ketchup you use? I also don’t know what “Marinara Sauce” even is, never saw it in Italy or Italian restaurant.

        • porkins@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Just standard Heinz works fine. Only a squirt or two seems to round off the flavors, giving just a hint of sweetness. Heinz ketchup is intentionally well balanced through countless trials with consumers. The exact proportions are super proprietary. People shouldn’t use any other brand because no one has invested nearly as much in getting the formulation correct. I don’t understand what you mean by not knowing what Marinara sauce is.

          • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            I don’t understand what you mean by not knowing what Marinara sauce is.

            Well I never heard the term, I looked it up with Google and it seems to be a tomato sauce.

            Perhaps I try the variant with Ketchup, but will it not simply change the taste? What kind of oil are you using and which tomatoes? In the recipe I found they simply say “olive oil” but it is super important. When you just use any oil or tomatoes it won’t taste as good.

            • porkins@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Marinara is the most basic of Italian sauces. It is the red sauce on pizza and the default for most pastas at standard Italian restaurants in the US. I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find it in Italy since it isn’t like how Americans take a food like tacos and completely alter the original recipe. Sure, they make all varieties of jarred marinara in the grocery store where some are much better quality than others, but the basis is pretty much tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and something to add sweetness like letting a carrot stew in it, adding sugar, or a squeeze of ketchup per my shortcut. Most recipes call for whole canned San Marzano tomatoes that are crushed while you simmer the sauce. This allows for a nice chunky consistency. The olive oil is always supposed to be the best you can find, so extra virgin olive oil works since you aren’t really cooking it at sauté-level heat.

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      To troll an Italian it is also good to cut the spaghetti in half before cooking them in water with oil, or also to order thick American style Pizza with pineapple. There were even killings for these things.

    • gramathy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      To be fair I won’t make cacio e Pepe without bucatini. There’s just something about the bigger noodle