What's the point of putting oil in my pasta water?
What's the point of putting oil in my pasta water?
There is no point. Oil and water don't mix, remember?
Some people -- including certain Italian grandmothers -- add oil to their pasta water because of the received wisdom that it will prevent pasta from sticking. In fact, if you add oil to your pasta water, it will merely float to the top of the pot. Worse, it may give your pasta a slick surface, preventing sauce from being properly absorbed, which is the trick to a good marriage of pasta and sauce.
If you want to prevent pasta from sticking, stir it. The only thing you need to add to pasta water is a good dose of salt to season it. Properly seasoning your pasta -- while it cooks -- may result in less salt consumption overall, since you won't need to compensate by adding extra salt at the table.
What is extra-virgin olive oil?
What is extra-virgin olive oil?
Extra-virgin olive oil is the precious unrefined first result of cold-pressing olives to make a fruity liquid that contains less than one percent acid.
Extra-virgin olive oil is the most expensive olive oil variety, and it is best appreciated in salads or as a garnish to give preparations a final flourish. If you are using olive oil to cook, it's fine to use regular olive oil.
Greece is the #1 consumer of olive oil in the world and also the leading producer of extra virgin olive oils, which account for 82 percent of their olive oil production. The U.S. is not a member of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC), which regulates olive oil standards worldwide, and the IOOC does not recognize the U.S. standards for extra-virgin oil.
There is much controversy in the olive oil world, with accusations of corruption and adulteration smearing consumer confidence and shedding doubt on the purity of so-called virgin olive oil.
PDO stands for "Protected Designation of Origin," a product label established by European Union law in 1992 to protect the names of regional foods.
The designation is meant to keep producers of regional products safe from unfair competition and rivals who may try to pass off inferior knock-offs using prestigious labels. The notion of PDO is tied to the idea of terroir and the importance of using raw materials and production methods from a certain region as a measure of authenticity.
PDO laws are designed to protect cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano and Champagne, the world's most famous sparkling wine. But the laws also extend to hams, olives, sausages, beers, vegetables, and regional breads.
The EU has bilateral agreements with some countries to help enforce these laws. The U.S. is not one of them, which is why you can find generic American-made "parmesan," "champagne," "camembert," "prosciutto," "feta" and other protected products on the market.
Some regional trademark protections do exist in the U.S. for products such as Vidalia onions, which must come from a designated region around Vidalia, Georgia. But keep in mind that brand names don't necessarily indicate where a product is made. Philadelphia Cream Cheese was never made in Philly.
A list of PDO-designated products can be found here.
what you should know
Last spring, we marveled at themuddled taxonomy of mint. We're similarly impressed with the many different faces of mustard greens, which are grown and eaten all over the world.
Mustard greens, in all their forms, are the leaves of the plants from which we get the seeds used to make mustard. Not surprising then that they tend to be the spiciest of the bitter greens (aka, the "cooking greens"), a group that includes kale, collards, beet greens and turnip greens.
changing flavor Baby mustard greens start narrow and peppery, "like fresh salad greens with a little dose of wasabi." As they grow, they get curly and more bitter.
greenskeeping Big, leafy greens always need a thorough washing. Start by submerging the leaves in a big bowl of lukewarm water. Shake them back and forth. Pull the greens out and pour off the water. Then, do the same thing again and again and again. Once you've got them clean, be sure to dry your greens before cooking them.
what you need
You can cook enough greens for a jamboree with this 12-quart stock pot from Cuisinart.
Mustards and most other bitter greens are available year-round, and they all go well with pork. With a Bacon of the Month Club membership, you could set yourself up for an indulgent 365 days of soul food.
John T. Edge is the luckiest man alive; he's director of theSouthern Foodways Alliance and author of, among many others, Mrs. Wilkes' Boardinghouse Cookbook.
what you do
Inspired by a similar dish at Whole Foods, Brys has fallen in love with raw mustard greens dressed with garlic mayonnaise.
Left in a pot on low heat for an hour (at least), long-cooked mustard greens lose their bite and become soft. Some chili-infused vinegar reinvigorates the greens and gives some edge to their tenderness.
Braised mustard greens with bacon and shallots bridge the texture-flavor gap between the leafy pungency of raw greens and the mellowness of long-cooked greens.
Quickly sautéed mustards add a sharp, hot note to the sweet richness of pumpkin ravioli. Grating fresh parmesan over everything at the end adds savoriness and rounds out the dish.
The hearty, bitter greens hold their shape and flavor well in this stir-fried chicken with mustard greens and garlic.
Whether carved into jack-o'-lanterns, baked into pies or covered in proverbial frost, pumpkins symbolize our annual descent into winter.
Giant pumpkins are best for carving; the flesh has little taste. For cooking, look for the smaller specimens known as sugar pumpkins (or "pie pumpkins").
Thin-skinned summer squash are harvested before maturity; thick-skinned pumpkins aren't picked until after the first frost. A grooved woody stem and deep orange color set the pumpkin apart from other winter squash.
Many American holiday recipes call for canned supermarket pumpkin -- but pumpkin purée is easily made from scratch.
Whether it's visible or not, vegetables usually have dirt, dust and other residue on them. Here's an easy and thorough way to wash all kinds of leafy greens:
Grab a bowl large enough to easily hold the greens and fill it with lukewarm water. Submerge the greens in the water and shake them back and forth to dislodge or dissolve the dirt. Then just lift the greens out of the water so the dirt stays behind. Pour out the water and repeat with clean water until the water stays clear when you pull out the greens.
