The history of Italian cooking dates back to ancient Greek times where it was first invented. If one wants to learn specific details of this long enduring cooking style they can be easily and readily found on the internet. The internet these days seems to be the number go to source for information on just about anything and everything on can think of. The results that come up for the history of Italian cooking will have you reading for days, months, and even years depending on how serious you are about the subject.

Or maybe you like to learn from books. Your local bookstore or library will definitely have plenty of resources for you to choose from when looking up the history of Italian cooking. These resources will often give you titles of other books and publications that can offer you more information and insight on this interesting subject.

Some people enjoy talking with others when it comes to learning rather than sitting with a book or a blinking internet page. Why not ask someone you know who is of Italian descent and see what they might know about the subject. This endeavor might lead you on an interesting new adventure in your life. They might know more about the history of Italian cooking than you could have ever imagined. Maybe someone in their birth heritage was one of the first Italian chefs in history! You never know! Your simple investigatory search might open up a world of new ideas you never thought possible! You might even find yourself writing a book on what you have discovered. Or maybe you find yourself taking a trip to see some of the places where the first Italian meals were prepared! Or it might it even make you realize that studying history is your passion. Maybe now suddenly you want to teach the history of Italian cooking to others. The possibilities are endless!

Giada Italian cooking demos on TV are shown on the Food Network on a daily basis and provide a unique educational and lively feature into the “Everyday Italian” menu that is chock-a-bloc with distinctly flavored Italian cuisine that is filled with the best of her cookery ideas!

If you want to learn more about this style of Italian cooking, the easiest way to get the information is to conduct an online search for all the answers to your query on quality Italian cooking besides getting to know about the new menu items that will be covered in future cooking shows. This may also be the best way to get news and views on dishes you may have missed!

Besides the above internet based search, you can locate more information about specific Italian cooking simply by clicking on the selected cooking menu article of the day and find yourself face to face with the missing link - of best Italian cooking ideas, that is! For those that have not been able to tune into the cookery show for a particular recipe, this is the best way to add to their Giada Italian cooking recipe collection as it allows for taking printable copies of the methods and ingredients used too!

Bringing a whole new world of classic continental cooking, the Giada Italian cooking show is the best platform for getting fine dining ideas and adding to your knowledge of recipes, how to make each taste unique even with similar ingredients and cook pasta just right - like the super Italian chefs. What the cookery books do not explain fully, Giada Italian cooking is sure to do - with easy demos and instructions!

Just to watch the cooking show is enough for many enthusiasts of Italian cooking to ignite the passion for whipping up a storm in their kitchens too as she is superb in her role of master-chef, besides being inspiration for turning professional, should you enjoy the experience of learning from her. Perhaps, with the regular attendance of watching the show, you learn the art well enough to teach others and end up signing a TV contract for a show of your own - who knows? There are endless possibilities for a creative cooking hobbyist out there, tuned into a great and educational show like Giada Italian cooking - along with the added fun of sharing the knowledge and dishes with loved ones!

Sorry to say, that is wrong. What is hopefully true is that the secrets I am going to reveal to you will make pasta one of your favourite dish to prepare and enjoy by yourself or with your dear ones.

First of all, allow me a short digression. To a serious pasta lover the name “noodles” is plain simply dreadful. Noodles is a very good name for Chinese pasta, or Japanese, or Thai, or any other nationality pasta, but not for Italian pasta. Calling Italian pasta “noodles” would be like calling American baseball or English cricket something like “Stickball”. That is just sad.

Yes, pasta is easy to cook, *if* you have the right ingredients, *if* you know the right way of preparing it, and, above all, if you have the right attitude. “What is this?” - I hear some of you gasp - “I now have to be like a zen archer or a samurai warrior just to prepare a bowl of noodles?” Let’s proceed in order, one secret to the next (by the way, didn’t we agree never to call pasta noodles again?)

PASTA SECRET #1: ATTITUDE

Let’s start with the most important aspect: attitude.

If you feel your guest swooning in delight over your steaming pasta is a good thing, you have to take cooking seriously. Cooking, and especially cooking pasta, is an act of love and self-sacrifice. It requires your personal energy, your prana, your inner and outer purity, and your uninterrupted concentration. Without these elements, cooking is not cooking anymore, but just cold, mechanical, heartless food preparation. Would you feed such food to your dog?

Before even start preparing your utensils, stand in your kitchen, facing the stove and get inwardly ready to cook. Silence around you and inside you is needed. A short meditation would be even better. Soulfulness is essential.

Feel inside you and visualise in front of your mind’s eye the final pasta dish you want to prepare. Feel the aroma of the pasta, the looks, the sound the moist pasta strands do when stirred together, even before they are cradled by the sauce. Imagine the joy on the face of the friends that soon will be enjoying it.

Then, act with determination and precision but never with hurry.

Attitude is the most important aspect. We should give the greatest attention and focus to our cooking and not get distracted by other things.

PASTA SECRET #2: THE WATER, THE POT AND THE SALT

To cook pasta we need only four things: good attitude, good water, good salt and good pasta.

Always use a large and deep pot. No shallow or small pan for boiling pasta. The best ones are those wonderful stainless steel beauties, with a very thick bottom. Puts lots of water to boil. Even if you are going to cook just for yourself a quick “spaghettata”, always use at least 1 quart of water. You need 1 quarter for each 100 gr of pasta.

If the water from your sink taste too much of chlorine, you may want to buy a good filtration system for your kitchen. It is worth it!

Regarding the salt, you need 10 grams per each quarter of water in the pot. Always salt the cooking water. If salt must be eliminated for health reasons, then maybe you should stick to rice for the time being. Salt is a must. You need to buy rock sea salt, possibly harvested from the Mediterranean sea.

PASTA SECRET #3: PASTA, BUT ONLY THE RIGHT ONE!

Pasta, of course, must need to be made only with 100% Durum Semolina, but that is not enough. The serious pasta lover distinguishes pasta from pasta. Buy only imported Italian pasta, and make sure it is made in Italy (the pasta package could say “Imported from Italy”, but actually made somewhere else). Do not trust huge companies like Barilla, that actually make their pasta locally. Their quality is not the same.

Also, do not trust a packaged pasta just because it has an Italian name. Check that the package reads “Made in Italy”. Use the best pasta available. I recommend you look for Italian favourites like De Cecco, or Voiello, that you can find at your local grocery store or supermarket. De Cecco is probably one of the best pasta you can buy abroad. High-quality pasta has a golden color with a vaguely translucent appearance.

PASTA SECRET #4: COOKING

Once the water is boiling you need to throw the pasta in the pot.

The most important test for cooking pasta is the cooking time. Usually the cooking time is written by the manufacturer, on the pasta box, but you may have to try

Only add the salt when the water is ebullient, and with that I mean boiling with zest. After adding the salt, wait for the water to start boiling again. The salt will have melted completely in the water. Throw the pasta in the pot, having great care of submerge it completely all at once, at the center of the pot, where the boiling is stronger. Once it is all submerged, stir it as soon as possible with a wooden fork or spoon. Stir pasta as soon as it is dropped into the boiling water and keep stirring every minute or so.

Never add oil, which will coat the pasta and cause it to repel instead of absorb the sauce. Oil would be needed if you are using a low quality pasta, since the cheaper wheat would make it much easier for the strands to get glued together.

Let the pasta cook on a lively fire, stirring it every now and then. Be careful of the cooking time: on italian packages it is usually correct. Better to stop cooking a few seconds sooner than later, since the paste will in any case continue cooking for a little while after you drain it.

How do you know the pasta is cooked? Well, if you do not have a cooking time on the pasta package, just sample a strand of the pasta. Break it, and see if the inside is still whitish. That means the pasta is still not cooked. Once the core the strand has lost its whiteness, that is the time for draining.

PASTA SECRET #5: DRAINING

Never overcook pasta. Only serve pasta “al dente”, which literally means “firm to the tooth.” Pasta needs to be cooked so as to be still firm when bitten (but only dry pasta should be cooked “al dente” because “fresh” pasta already is soft to begin with.)

Make sure it is as much as possible “al dente” (not soft), because that is the most digestible state. Mushy pasta is not edible anymore, at least for the pasta lover.

Once the pasta is cooked, before draining add a glass of cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the pasta, but make sure you do not drain the pasta too much making it dry. The strands need to be glossy with moisture. Also, you may want to preserve a glassful of the cooking water to add to your sauce. That water will help form a perfect marriage between the pasta and the sauce.

Again, never ever drain your pasta too much. If you use a good pasta brand, you do not need to eliminate any excessive starch, on the contrary, too much rinsing takes away the superb flavour of your pasta. Remember, pasta water is not “dirty water”. It is important to keep a little to maintain the strand moist. In this way you also need less sauce.

PASTA SECRET #6: THE SAUCE

I am not going to talk about the infinite variety of sauces you can prepare for your pasta, but make sure you do not “over-sauce” pasta. Use just enough to cover the strands. In any case, the right kind of pasta, when cooked right, is a veritable delight in itself. No sauce is needed to savour such a nourishing food. No matter what, serve the pasta piping hot! Never, ever serve lukewarm or cold pasta.

PASTA SECRET #7: PRACTICE!

I did my part. I shared the jealously guarded secrets handed down in the Bontempi family from generation to generation, since the times Rome was a just rustic village on the Mediterranean sea and pasta was still made of *farro* (spelt flour). Now it is really up to you. Let me part by saying: Practice, practice, practice! Invite friends over, or treat yourself and your dear ones to some simple, satvic pasta or some zesty one. Remember, a good pasta lover eat pasta at least 5 times a week.

Italian cooking has many varied styles, methods and aspects to the whole preparation process and presentation, fine dining etiquette, sharing with loved ones and friends is a big part of their food stories. So, as far as authentic Italian cooking is concerned, this must combine cultural and social elements besides the fresh, distinctly Italian seasonings and main ingredients with a love for cooking and sharing it as these people have even given to the world the Joy of Cooking!

Even Americans have adapted certain traditional Italian cooking recipes to suit their tastes, but keeping them as filling and wholesome as the authentic Italian dishes are prone to being; but those on home ground with Italian cooking will assert the differences between their style and that of Americans

Keen on learning true Italian cooking or desirous of picking up more tips from professional Italian chefs that can sharpen your skills? Then you can load up on information related to Italian cooking culture and traditions, including tips on selecting the right cookware and perfect vegetables, meats and making sauces to boost your knowledge.

Recipe books are a-plenty that deal with all these aspects of Italian cooking besides more handy hints to make your home cooking tasteful. Visiting an expert chef’s blog on great Italian cooking is another place to get in-depth info on techniques, approaches and efforts on the style besides learning what not to do!

Italian cooking is so vast and varied a domain that many people are amazed to find there’s more to it than simply the regular pastas; there are vegetable and meat salads and many varieties of healthy, wholesome soups too besides the famed sauces, pizzas and breads!

Some people mistake Italian cooking to be only the fattening variety, but this is not always true as this style of cooking can be readily made more nutritious and healthful by simply substituting or deleting the more fatty items, such as oil, high-fat dairy products like cream and cheese, with low-fat or no fat alternatives! This way you get the goodness of Italian cooking in your diet and necessary nutrition fro hair, skin, nails and bones by keeping only the essential oil and fat in the menu, but cutting off the excess! Hi-carbs like in Pastas are not bad by themselves, if taken in moderation.

Besides the above tips on finding resources for real Italian cooking, you can consider eating out at an authentic Italian bistro; the internet is a great search tool and will give you the top listings for local restaurants with Italian delicacies galore. Do check for customer feedback, the reputation of the business, items on the menu and its price list so you and your family or friends have a great time enjoying the ambience and the food with no worries!

Artichokes (CARCIOFI)

There is no better place to experience the wonders of the artichoke than in the Italian capital of Rome. Not only do the market stalls beckon buyers with bouquets of these torch like vegetables, but the hard working vendors crouch down to prepare the difficult to access inner hearts and leave them to float in citrus spiked water. The prized interior of the artichoke is quiet different to any other vegetable, a dense flesh with an immensely subtle taste.Cooked in the classic Roman style the artichokes are baked with lemon, mint and garlic which delicately penetrates the head of the vegetable. The Jewish culinary influence on Rome has spread across the city with Romans adopting the simple and timeless alla guida method - flattened and fried.

FLAT-LEAF PARSLEY (PREZZEMOLO)

March can seem lacking in interesting seasonal ingredients, straddling the cruel winter season and the fresh spring months. One of the month’s highlights is the arrival of the first of the fresh parsley, which only competes with basil for the title of most important herb in Italian cuisine. Compared to its curly counterpart, flat-leaf parsley is more pungent and flavoursome, and most often used as a garnish on fish and shellfish. And that’s not to mention the ubiquitous gremolata - the tasty parsley-based salsa.

JOHN DORY (PESCE SAN PIETRO)

An odd name baptises an even more unusual fish. One of the great predators of the sea, thanks to its shimmering fins that refract the light, the gargantuan-mouthed John Dory is a menacing beast, stalking its prey then swallowing it whole. Where the strange name came from is a bit of a mystery, but in many of the Romance languages, including Italian, this demonic-looking fish is referred to as Saint Peter. Two round dots on the body of the fish are said to be the imprints of the thumb and index finger of Saint Peter, who grabbed one from the Sea of Galilee at Christ’s request.

SPRING ONIONS (CIPOLLINE)

Spring onions are the perfect compromise for those who insist they dislike the pungent smell of onion. Although they are, of course, part of the onion family, and mostly immature onions, these white-tipped roots are perfect for sprucing up late winter meals. Eaten raw they add a bite to salads, especially good when combined with something sweet (think pear and watercress salad with slivers of spring onions), but they also offer a subtle flavour when cooked. Two types are available to shoppers - most commonly the elongated two-toned mild onion, while you may also come across the shiny bulbous variety, particularly good cooked whole.

CELERIAC (SEDANO RAPA)

If John Dory are the ugliest fish in the sea, celeriac should definitely be crowned with the title of the least attractive vegetable in the plot. These round globes, with inconsistent knobbly texture and nondescript beige-brown tone have a lot to offer, albeit not in the aesthetics department. As the root of a variety of celery, this vegetable offers much the same flavour as its relative. Like celery, it is equally delicious served raw or cooked as a side dish, or even as a dish in its own right. One of the most popular uses is to peel and grate the raw celeriac and douse with a mayonnaise dressing.

OYSTERS (OSTRICHE)

Oysters - you either love them or hate them. If you happen to fall in the latter category you’ll be happy to hear the season is drawing to an end. For lovers of these iridescent pearls of the sea, it’s time to enjoy them for the last time. Synonymous with luxury and sensuality, the oyster enjoys an ever popular reputation as the food of passion. Venetian adventurer and notorious womanizer Casanova would consume vast quantities of the mollusc each day. Although many prefer to eat their beloved oysters raw with a spritz of lemon juice, oysters are also delicious deep-fried in a light batter or delicately poached.

If you like pasta, then you will love Italian cooking because pasta is one of the main ingredients of most recipes. We live in a push button world and it’s all about convenience. You can buy dried pasta in any size shape or form in a bag or in the grocery store there is a section which could be located around the cheese area that carries fresh pasta already made in about any style, shape or form. All you do is cook it in boiling water. I told you Italian cooking is easy. All you would have to do is make the sauce, which you can also buy already prepared if you so wish. You can also buy pasta in the frozen food section that is already prepared and all you do is boil it or heat it up either in the microwave or bake in the oven. There are machines now that you can mix up the dough and run it through the machine which will make it into the pasta shape. Home made pasta is delicious and easy to make. Italian cooking can be as simple or as hard as you want to make it.

Another favorite Italian cooking meal is pizza. You can find pizza parlors all over the world. Besides pasta made meals, pizza is probably one of the next best choices. Other than burgers, it is most likely one of the most favorite family meals. You can do so many different things with pizza. Italian cooking allows for many variations of preparing it. You can either make the dough fresh at home or you can buy it in cans and all you do is roll it out or press it into your pan. You can also buy just the pizza dough already formed at a pizza shop and you take it home to add your own sauce and toppings. Which ever way you prepare the dough, you can make your own sauce and add what ever toppings you would like to it. If you are a vegetarian, you don’t have to use meat on it. Italian cooking is probably a favorite way of cooking for a vegetarian, because you can still get protein from cheese without using meat.

Besides, pizza and spaghetti, macaroni and cheese is a favorite Italian cooking dish in most families. Most children love macaroni and cheese and it can be cooked with many different cheeses. You can either make it home made or you can buy it in the box and you just cook the macaroni and add the sauce. You can now even buy it so all you do is heat it in the microwave. You can add pepperoni or hot dogs to it to give it that added boost for children. I told you Italian cooking can be easy, but more importantly it is delicious to eat.