16Grains, pasta and noodles

Corn, rice and wheat are the most important grains, and rice alone is the staple food of more than half the people on earth. A cook meets grains as whole kernels, as cracked or rolled grain, as meal and flour, and as the doughs that become pasta and noodles. Kept dry, cool and sealed, they store for a long time.

All of them are rich in starch. When starch meets hot water it swells and softens, and that is what turns a hard grain or a brittle strand of dried pasta into something you can eat.

Starch swelling in hot water is gelatinization. see chapter 7: Starch gelatinization

16.1 Corn, rice and wheat

Rice recipes → Polenta, grits and cornmeal recipes →

What a grain is

Most kernels grow inside a protective hull, or husk. Under the hull every kernel has the same three parts:

• Bran: the tough skin around the outside. It gives fiber and B vitamins.
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• Endosperm: the biggest part, made of starch and some protein. Flour is milled mainly from the endosperm.
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• Germ: the smallest part. It is the only part that holds fat, and it is rich in thiamin.
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Milling pulls these three parts apart. Most mills use steel blades. A stone mill works more gently and is less likely to grind the grain too far. Stone-ground products always say so on the label, and they usually cost more.

Corn

Of all the grains, only corn is also eaten fresh, as a vegetable. People in Central America were drying it as a grain thousands of years before anyone ate it fresh.

• Cornmeal is dried, ground dent corn, a kind of corn that can be yellow, white or blue. It goes into breads, coats food for frying, and is cooked into polenta or mush. It feels gritty and tastes sweet and starchy.
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• Hominy, also called posole or samp, is dried corn soaked in hydrated lime or lye. The soak swells the kernels so the hulls come loose. Hulls and germ are taken off and the kernels dried again. Hominy looks like white or yellow popcorn but is soft and chewy, with a smoky, sour taste. You can buy it dried, or cooked in cans, for side dishes, soups and stews.
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• Masa harina is a fine flour ground from dried hominy. It makes tortillas, tamales and breads.
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• Grits are dried hominy ground into tiny white grains. They can be baked, but most are eaten as a hot breakfast cereal with butter or cheese on top. Quick and instant grits cook faster.
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Rice

Rice is the starchy seed of a grass that grows partly in water. It probably first came from the Indian subcontinent or Southeast Asia, and today more than half the people in the world live on it.

Rice fits into almost any cuisine because it takes on the taste of the food around it. It is a side dish, but also goes into stews and curries, stuffings for vegetables and game birds, salads, puddings, breads and drinks such as Mexican horchata.

Rice is sorted by the size of the grain:

• Long-grain rice is the most popular and the most useful. Cooked well, the grains stay firm, fluffy and apart. Overcook it or stir it often and it turns sticky.
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• Medium-grain rice sits between the other two in look and starch. It goes sticky as it cools, so serve it fresh and very hot.
• Short-grain rice has the most starch. It cooks tender and sticky, and it is the traditional rice for Italian risotto, Japanese sushi and Spanish paella.
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Every grain of rice starts out brown. Leave the bran on and you have brown rice. Polish the bran away (pearling) and you have white rice. Either kind can then be made into converted rice or instant rice.

• Converted rice, or parboiled rice, is partly boiled before milling, which takes off surface starch and drives nutrients from the bran into the endosperm. It keeps more nutrients than plain white rice and tastes the same. It is not precooked, and it actually takes longer to cook than white rice.
• Instant rice, or quick-cooking rice, has been fully cooked and then flash-frozen. It saves time but loses some nutrients and flavor.

Some rices are known by name:

• Arborio is a round, short-grain rice, white, mild and very sticky. It is the rice of Italian risotto.
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• Basmati is a fine long-grain rice from the foothills of the Himalayas and a favorite in Indian cooking. It smells strongly, tastes sweet and delicate, and is a creamy yellow. It is usually aged to bring out its aroma. Wash it well before cooking.
• Jasmine is another fragrant long-grain rice. It grows in Thailand and is used all over Southeast Asia.
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• Brown rice has lost only its husk. The bran left on it makes it chewy and nutty. It needs more water and more time than white rice.
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• Sticky rice is a short-grain rice with fat, round, pearly white grains and a lot of starch. Cooked, it clumps into a sticky mass. Soak it for several hours first. It is also called glutinous rice or sweet rice. Ground into flour, it makes dumplings and pastries. Sake, mirin, Chinese Shaoxing wine and rice vinegar are all made by fermenting it.
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• Wild rice is not rice at all. It is the seed of a different, reed-like water plant, cooked the same way as rice. The grains are long, thin and dark brown to black, nuttier and chewier than rice. It comes in three grades: giant (the longest grains and the best), fancy (medium grains, for most uses) and select (short grains, for soups, pancakes and baking). It is grown in California, Idaho and Washington. Serve it with game, use it to stuff poultry, or mix it with ordinary rice. It is costly, but a little goes a long way.

Cooking rice

Rinsing washes off dirt and debris, but it also washes away some nutrients. Most rice grown in America is clean and free of insects, so it does not need rinsing. Soaking softens the grains, takes off some starch and shortens the cooking.

As a rule of thumb, use twice as much liquid as rice. Each kind of rice wants its own amount, though:

Cooked rice and safety

Raw rice and cooked rice are handled very differently. Any cooked starch, rice and pasta included, counts as a potentially hazardous food: one that lets harmful bacteria grow. Uncooked rice is on the safe list.

The figures for any cooked food, rice included, are these:

• Hot holding: keep it at 60°C (140°F) or hotter.
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• Cooling: within two hours it must drop to 20°C (68°F) from 60°C (140°F); within four more hours it must reach 4°C (40°F).
• Cold storage: 4°C (40°F) or colder.
• Reheating: bring it to 74°C (165°F) or hotter and keep it there for 15 seconds or more.

The danger zone, cooling and reheating are explained in full with food safety. see chapter 2: The danger zone

Wheat

Most wheat is milled into flour. Some of it reaches the table as grain: cracked wheat, bulgur and couscous serve as starchy sides and go into soups, salads, breads and dishes of ground meat. All three are mild and a little chewy. They should be fluffy when cooked, never soggy or sticky.

Wheat germ and wheat bran are sold on their own for their nutrition. They are rarely eaten plain; cooks add them to bread and other dishes.

• Cracked wheat is the whole kernel, called a wheat berry, broken into coarse or fine pieces. It is raw, and you should see the white inside of the kernel. Because the bran and germ are still there, it is high in fiber but does not keep long. Whole berries need several hours of soaking before cooking; cracked wheat cooks through with a long, gentle simmer.
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• Bulgur is a wheat berry with the bran taken off, then steamed, dried and ground. It is an even golden brown, which cracked wheat is not, and it has a nutty taste and texture. It cooks faster than cracked wheat, and one cannot usually stand in for the other in a recipe. For a salad, bulgur only needs soaking and draining; in a stew or pilaf it needs a short cook. It goes well with grilled meats and can replace rice in a stuffing. The fine grind goes into packet mixes for tabouli; the medium grind is the one sold in bulk.
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• Couscous is durum wheat with the bran and germ removed. The endosperm is steamed, pressed into tiny pellets and dried. It comes in several sizes, and medium-fine sells best. Cooks steam it in a pot called a couscousière, set above simmering water or stock, and it is the classic partner for North African stews. Use it any way you would use rice.
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Steaming is taught with the other moist-heat methods. see chapter 9: Hotter than poaching, but gentle

Buckwheat, millet, oats and quinoa

Buckwheat is neither wheat nor a true grain. Botanically it is a fruit, from a distant relative of rhubarb, but cooks prepare and serve it like a grain. The whole kernel is a groat. Most of what is sold as buckwheat is kasha: groats that have been hulled and roasted.

Kasha is reddish brown and tastes strong, nutty and almost burnt. It is sold whole or ground. Whole kasha cooks into separate grains; finer grinds turn sticky. Serve it as a side dish, often with pasta or vegetables, or chill it for salads.

Raw groats are ground into buckwheat flour for pasta, blini and pancakes. The flour has no proteins that form gluten, and it stays sandy and grainy, so it cannot take the place of all the wheat flour in a bread or cake.

Millet is a cereal grain high in protein, white, mild and a little nutty. In the United States it is grown mostly to feed animals. Cook it like rice, or toast it and cook it like kasha. It can be ground into flour, which bakes best mixed with wheat flour. The husk is very hard, so millet is usually sold hulled.

Oats are probably the most accepted whole grain in the American diet after rice. People eat them as hot porridge every day and bake them into breads, muffins and cookies.

• An oat groat is the whole kernel with only the husk removed, so it keeps its bran and germ.
• Steel-cut oats, or Irish oats, are toasted groats chopped into small bits with steel blades.
• Rolled oats, sold as old-fashioned oats, are groats steamed and then pressed into flat flakes.
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• Quick-cooking oats are rolled oats cut smaller so they cook faster. Rolled and quick oats can swap for each other in a recipe.
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• Instant oats are part-cooked and dried before rolling, so they need only boiling water. Do not use them in place of the others in most recipes.
• Oat bran is the outer covering of the hulled oat, sold on its own. Rolled and cut oats still carry some of it.

"Oatmeal" means two things: the processed groats, which are gray-white, starchy and sweet, and the thick, soft, full-flavored porridge cooked from them.

Quinoa comes from the Andes in South America, where the Incas called it the "mother grain". It is not a true grain, but its seeds are cooked like one. Each seed is a tiny flattened ball, about 1/16 inch across, with the germ in a ring around it. Cooked, the seeds turn see-through and taste slightly smoky, a little like sesame. Colors run from dark brown to nearly white; the bigger, whiter kinds are the most common and are thought the best.

The seeds wear a bitter natural coat that keeps birds and insects away. Before cooking, rinse them in a fine-mesh colander under cool water for several minutes. Then cook quinoa as you would rice; it takes up about twice its own volume of water. Toasting brings out a nuttier taste: give it about 5 minutes in a dry, hot pan before the liquid goes in.

Quinoa can be a hot breakfast cereal or take the place of rice. It thickens soups and stews, and it goes into salads, breads, desserts and casseroles. Quinoa flour is gluten-free. The seeds are a complete protein, with all the essential amino acids. For long storage keep quinoa in the refrigerator or freezer. The leaves can be cooked like spinach.

Grains and nutrition

Grains supply vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber, but milling and cooking change how much. The less a grain is refined, the more fiber it keeps. Rice is low in sodium and calories and has all the essential amino acids. White rice and oats are often enriched with calcium, iron and B vitamins.

16.2 Kinds of rice

Rice recipes →

The rice shelf can be sorted by how much of the grain the mill leaves on, and by what the rice is for.

• White rice has had the husk, the bran and the germ milled off. It is less nutritious than brown rice, but it keeps longer and cooks faster. You can buy it with short, medium or long grains.
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• Brown rice is the least processed. Only the outer husk is gone, so the bran and germ, with their nutrients, stay on. It is nutty, chewy and better for you than white rice, and it also comes in all three grain lengths.
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• Sweet brown rice is a short-grain brown rice full of starch. It cooks very soft and sticky and is popular in Asian cooking.
• Black rice is rich in iron, vitamins, antioxidants and fiber. Cooking turns it purple.
• Aromatic rices give off a perfumed smell as they cook. Basmati from India and jasmine from Thailand are the best known; Texmati is grown in Texas, and Wehani and pecan wild rice in Louisiana.
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• Risotto rice: Arborio is a starchy white rice with a medium-short grain, and the easiest risotto rice to find. Carnaroli, Vialone Nano and Baldo are others. Stirring risotto without a break makes the rice let go of starch, and that starch thickens the dish.
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• Sticky rice, also called glutinous rice, has short grains and is used for Asian specialities. In spite of its name it has no gluten in it.
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• Wild rice is the seed of a grass and not a true rice, though it often turns up in rice blends and pilaf mixes. It tastes nutty and has a chewy bite.
• Instant rice, or quick rice, is cooked, dried and then packed. It is fast, but it does not have the flavor or texture of regular rice.

16.3 Buying, storing and cooking grains

Grains recipes →

Buying

Good grains look plump and fresh, with an even, bright color. Pass over any that are shriveled or crumbly, or that smell musty or sour. Grains are sold by weight, in bags or boxes from 1 to 100 pounds; 10, 25 and 50 pounds are the common sizes.

Storing

Keep every grain in an airtight container in a place that is dark, cool and dry. Each condition does a job:

• The airtight lid keeps out dust and insects.
• The lid and the dark together slow the loss of nutrients to air and light.
• Cool air holds insects back.
• Dry air stops mold.

Vacuum-sealed packs last a long time. Whole grains still have their oily germ, so they can be kept in the refrigerator to stop them going rancid.

A dry store runs by a few plain rules:

• Keep it cool and dry; the best range is between 10°C and 15°C (50°F and 59°F).
• Shelves stand at least 15 cm (6 in.) off the floor.
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• Nothing is stored on the floor itself.
• Stock is rotated first in, first out (FIFO): the oldest goes out first.
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Once a grain is cooked, it is no longer a dry good. Cooked rice and other cooked starches are potentially hazardous foods. To cool a batch fast:

• spread it in shallow pans, no more than 5 cm (2 in.) deep;
• leave the pans loosely covered or open while they cool, since a tight cover traps the heat;
• keep the pans unstacked so cold air reaches every one;
• use metal pans, stainless steel or aluminum, which pass heat better than plastic.

After cooling:

• Cover the food tightly.
• Food that will sit in the cooler longer than 24 hours carries the date it was made and a "serve by" date.
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• As a general rule, potentially hazardous foods not used within three days are thrown out.
• Reheat leftovers once only; if they are not eaten, throw them away.

Three ways to cook a grain

Grains are cooked in one of three basic ways: simmering, the pilaf method and the risotto method. For pilaf and risotto the raw grains are first coated in hot fat; simmered grains are not. Pilaf and risotto differ in how the liquid goes in. A grain bound for a pudding, a bread, a stuffing or a baked casserole is usually cooked first by one of the three.

What a simmer looks like, and how hot it is, is covered with the other temperature words. see chapter 7: Temperature words

Simmering is the most common method. The grains are stirred into boiling salted water, measured first, or into stock for more flavor, with any herbs and spices. The pot is covered and the heat turned down, and the grains are left alone, without stirring, until they are tender.

• Bring the liquid to a boil.
• Stir in the grains and any herbs or spices.
• When it boils again, cover it and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until the grains are tender and most of the liquid is gone, then take the pot off the heat.
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• Drain the grains if the recipe calls for it, or leave the lid on for about 5 minutes so the last moisture steams off. Fluff with a fork and serve.
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The pilaf method starts with a light sauté. The raw grains are stirred in oil or butter, usually with onion or other flavorings. Then hot liquid, often stock, goes in all at once, and the covered pan simmers on the stove or in the oven until the grains have drunk it up.

• Bring the water or stock to a boil.
• Warm the fat over moderate heat in a heavy saucepan. Cook any onion, garlic or other flavorings in it for 1 to 2 minutes without letting them brown.
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• Stir in the grains until each one is coated with fat. Do not let them brown.
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• Pour in all the hot liquid at once, bring it back to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and cover.
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• Simmer until the liquid is absorbed.
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For a rice pilaf, cook the rice in butter until it looks glassy, about 2 minutes, before the stock goes in. After cooking, let it rest, covered and unstirred, for 15 minutes before fluffing it.

Sautéing is taught in full with the dry-heat methods. see chapter 8: Sauté and pan-frying

The risotto method comes from northern Italy. The grains stay firm in the middle but blend with the liquid into something creamy, close to a pudding. True risotto uses a starchy short-grain rice such as Arborio, but barley and oats can be cooked the same way. Do not rinse the rice; rinsing washes off the starch that makes it creamy. The liquid should be a rich, well-flavored stock, kept hot and added a little at a time so the pot stays at a steady simmer. Unlike the other two methods, risotto needs stirring often, sometimes all the time.

• Bring the stock to a simmer and keep it there.
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• Warm the fat over moderate heat in a heavy saucepan and cook any onion, garlic or other flavorings for 1 to 2 minutes without browning.
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• Add the grains and stir until they are coated with fat. Do not let them brown.
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• Add any wine and cook until the grains have taken it all in.
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• Add the hot stock 4 fluid ounces (120 ml) at a time, stirring often. Let each addition be almost absorbed before the next.
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• Start testing after about 18 to 20 minutes.
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• Take the pan off the heat. Stir in butter, grated cheese, herbs or any other flavoring. Garnish and serve straight away.
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Finished risotto is creamy and tender but still al dente, firm to the bite, at the center. Grated cheese, heavy cream, herbs, vegetables, and cooked meat, poultry, fish or shellfish can all go in, so a risotto can be a side dish or a whole meal. Another way is to add hot broth half a cup at a time and stir almost constantly for about 20 minutes.

Knowing when a grain is done

Most grains are cooked until tender, though some recipes want them chewier, or al dente. Cooking time and the liquid left in the pan are the usual guides. Wild rice is done when the grains puff open.

When almost all the liquid has gone, small holes like tunnels open up between the grains. That is the sign. You can take the pot off the heat at that point and let it stand, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes; the grains take up the last of the water without catching on the bottom.

Rice is done when a grain squeezed between your fingers is soft all the way through. If the pan runs dry before then, add a little water so the rice does not scorch. To keep cooked rice hot, set it in a strainer over a pan of boiling water.

Plain rice on the stove

Most rice takes two cups of water for each cup of rice; check the packet, because some kinds want a little more or less. Rinsing first is not essential, but a quick rinse in a strainer takes off dusty surface starch and any stray bits of chaff.

• Put the rice, the water, half a teaspoon of salt and, if you like, a tablespoon of butter or oil in the pan.
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• Bring it to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low and put the lid on.
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• Leave the lid alone. Lifting it lets steam out and throws off the timing. Cook until the water is gone, 18 to 20 minutes.
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• Take it off the heat, let it sit a few minutes, then fluff it with a fork.
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Rice swells as it cooks, so give it room: a 2-quart saucepan suits one or two cups of raw rice.

Grain by grain

For one cup of each grain:

Grains on the menu

Polenta is cornmeal, coarse or fine, yellow or white, boiled in water or stock. The name is Italian and goes back to a Latin word for hulled, crushed grain. Polenta can be eaten soft, or set and then baked, fried or grilled.

To make it creamy:

• Bring the stock to a boil.
• Turn the heat down to medium-low and whisk the cornmeal in very slowly so it cannot form lumps.
• Keep stirring with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom so nothing sticks, until it thickens, 8 to 10 minutes.
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• Off the heat, stir in Parmesan, butter and crème fraîche, a soured cream of about 28% butterfat.

For a baked polenta, simmer it for about 10 minutes, then layer it with Parmesan and Swiss cheese and bake it at 350°F until hot and bubbling, 15 to 20 minutes.

Other ways the grains reach the plate:

• Barley: quick pearl barley sautéed with onion and mushrooms in butter, then baked with stock in a tightly covered dish at 350°F for about an hour; or quick barley simmered about 40 minutes and stirred into a succotash of squash and corn.
• Millet: boiled with water in a covered pan until the water is gone, about 35 minutes, then served under a lemon and egg sauce.
• Fried rice: rice cooked first, then fried in a little oil until hot, with green onion, ham, soy sauce and egg stirred through.
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• Rice pilafs: brown rice and wild rice sautéed with onion and celery, then gently boiled about 45 minutes; or broken vermicelli browned in butter before the rice goes in, as in an Armenian pilaf.
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• Wild rice with white rice: the wild rice is boiled alone for 25 minutes before converted rice joins it for another 25 to 30.
• Baked rice: rice and onion sautéed in butter, then baked with boiling water in a covered dish at 350°F until the liquid is gone, 25 to 30 minutes.
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• Gnocchi from farina: farina (Cream of Wheat) cooked in milk with butter until very thick, cooled, mixed with egg and cheese, chilled, rolled into balls and baked at 425°F.
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• Bulgur for tabbouleh: covered with just enough boiling water and left 30 minutes, then drained and mixed with herbs, tomato, oil and lemon. It can also soak in lemon juice and water at room temperature for about 45 minutes.
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• Couscous: stirred into boiling water and left 2 to 3 minutes until the water is taken up; or cooked in hot broth in a double boiler for 10 to 15 minutes.
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• Quinoa: rinsed, then simmered in twice its volume of water until the water is gone and the seeds look clear, 10 to 15 minutes.
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16.4 Pasta and noodles: shapes and kinds

Pasta recipes → Noodles recipes →

What pasta is

Pasta is a dough with no leavening, made of flour and a liquid, usually egg, water or both. The flour can come from wheat, buckwheat, rice or a blend. Vegetable purées, herbs and other ingredients can color and flavor the dough, and it can be cut or pushed through a die into countless shapes. It is cooked fresh, while still soft and bendable, or dried hard first.

Pasta is eaten across Asia, North America and Europe. In Italy a pasta dish usually makes up its own course, sometimes called the minestre. Elsewhere it may be an appetizer, a main course or a side. It can be filled or sauced, or used in soups, salads, casseroles and even desserts.

Italian-style pasta

The best-known pastas follow the Italian way: wheat flour worked with water and eggs into a smooth, springy dough, rolled very thin and cut, then boiled or dried for keeping.

Most dried pasta for sale is made from semolina, a flour ground from hard durum wheat. It is cream-colored and gives a dough that is very smooth and holds up well, but it takes a lot of kneading. For fresh pasta made by hand, bread flour is a fair substitute.

How to judge dried pasta:

• Pure semolina gives the best pasta, with a rich yellow color. Gray or streaky pasta probably has softer flour in it.
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• Snap a piece: it should be very hard and break cleanly.
• The surface should look dull or lightly pitted. A smooth, shiny surface does not grip or soak up sauce as well.
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Beside plain pasta come green (spinach) and red (tomato), and newer flavors such as carrot-ginger, lemon-peppercorn and whole wheat-basil, often with flecks of herb showing. Hundreds of shapes exist, but only two or three dozen are easy to buy in the United States. Before using an unusual one, think about how the finished dish will look and taste once the sauce and garnish are on.

Ribbons and strands, tubes and shapes

Italian-style pasta falls into three groups by shape. English has no settled names for them, so the Italian names are used nearly everywhere.

• Ribbons and strands are cut from dough rolled very thin, in strips of many widths. Every ribbon suits tomato, fish and shellfish sauces. The thicker ones, such as spaghetti and fettuccine, are the choice for cream and cheese sauces. Pasta machines cut fresh dough into fettuccine, spaghetti and capellini.
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• Tubes are made by pushing dough through a die (extrusion). They can be straight or curved, ridged or smooth. Meat sauces and vegetable sauces suit tubes best, and tubes are often baked in casseroles. Large tubes such as manicotti can be filled.
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• Shapes are extruded too. Their curves and ridges leave pockets that hold sauce. Shells (conchiglie), farfalle and fusilli go best with meat sauces and with oil-based sauces such as pesto. Bigger shapes can be cooked, stuffed with meat or cheese and baked.
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Filled pasta and lasagna sheets

Sheets of fresh dough can be filled and folded into many shapes. Filled pasta usually gets a light cream or tomato sauce that sets off the filling.

• Ravioli: squares.
• Tortellini: rounds shaped like a hat with a brim.
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• Agnolotti: squares folded into rectangles.
• Lunettes: circles folded into half-moons.
• Cappelletti: squares folded and shaped into rings.

Cannelloni are made differently: a large square of cooked dough is rolled around a filling of meat or cheese and then baked. Lasagna sheets are wide and flat; they are cooked, then layered with tomato sauce, cheese, and meat or vegetables, baked, and cut into portions. Large shells (conchiglioni) and manicotti can be part-cooked, then filled, sauced and baked.

Asian noodles

Asian pasta is usually called noodles. The flour may be wheat, rice, bean or buckwheat, and the noodles are sold fresh or dried.

Noodles do not come in the endless shapes of Italian pasta, and they are not colored or flavored with purées or herbs. Nearly all are ribbons, thin or thick, folded into bundles; what sets them apart is the flour. Most dried noodles do better after a few minutes' soak in hot water, which softens the strands and loosens the bundle so it cooks evenly.

• Wheat noodles, also called egg noodles, are the most popular and the easiest to find. They are thin, flat and springy, sold fresh or dried. Boiled and then deep-fried, dried egg noodles become crisp golden chow mein, used mostly as a garnish.
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• Somen and udon are Japanese wheat noodles: somen are thin, udon thick. Either can be round, square or flat. Serve them in a broth, or with a sauce for dipping.
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• Rice noodles are thin dried noodles of rice flour. Soak them in hot water before cooking, and after boiling rinse them under cool running water to wash off starch so they do not stick. They go into soups or are sautéed.
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• Rice vermicelli has very fine strands that can go straight into hot oil without soaking. In seconds they turn white, puff and go crunchy. A mound of them makes a base for a sauté or for hors d'oeuvre.
• Glass and starch noodles are the bean starch noodles, also sold as cellophane noodles, bean threads, bean noodles or spring rain noodles. They are thin and clear and made from mung beans. Fry them dry like rice vermicelli, or soak them in hot water before they go into soups, stir-fries or braises.
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• Soba and buckwheat noodles are made with buckwheat flour in northern Japan and around Tokyo. They come fresh or dried and need no soaking. Traditionally they come in broth or with a sauce for dipping, and they can stand in for Italian pasta.
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Deep-frying is taught with the other dry-heat methods. see chapter 8: How much fat

Dumplings, gnocchi and spaetzle

Dumplings are small mounds of dough, steamed or simmered in a well-flavored liquid. They may be plain or filled, sweet or savory. Spaetzle are made by pressing a batter through a special tool.

Many cuisines have one:

• gnocchi in Italy;
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• spaetzle in Germany;
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• wontons in China;
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• pierogi in Poland;
• pelmeni in Belarus;
• matzo balls in Jewish cooking.
• Plain or drop dumplings use a bread-like dough, often raised with yeast or a chemical leavener. They should be light and tender yet firm enough to keep their shape. Serve them in stews and broths, or with butter or a sauce as a starter or side.
• Filled dumplings wrap noodle dough around meat, vegetables, cheese or fruit, and are then steamed, fried or baked. Asian doughs make dumplings, wontons, egg rolls from egg noodle dough, and spring rolls from rice paper.
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16.5 Cooking pasta and cereals

Pasta recipes → Oats recipes →

Buying and storing pasta

Pasta is bought by weight, fresh or dried. Tubes and shapes are rarely sold fresh. Dried pasta, by far the most common, comes in boxes or bags, usually of 1, 10 or 20 pounds, and keeps for several months somewhere cool and dry. Wrap fresh pasta airtight; it keeps a few days in the refrigerator or a few weeks in the freezer.

Pasta has very little fat and supplies vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrate; some products are enriched with extra nutrients.

Making fresh pasta

Fresh pasta needs only a few staples and almost no special tools. It starts as the sfoglia: one thin, flat sheet of dough, later cut into ribbons, circles or squares.

You can knead the dough by hand, roll it with a rolling pin and cut it with a chef's knife, but a machine makes the work easier. Some electric machines mix and knead the dough and then push it out through a cutting disk; these suit kitchens that serve a lot of pasta. The more common machine is turned by hand. Two smooth rollers knead and press the dough into an even, thin sheet, and a second pair of rollers cuts it into strips.

To make egg noodles by hand:

• Mix half a beaten egg with a tablespoon of milk and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Work in half a cup of flour, plus a little more if needed, to make a stiff dough.
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• Roll it out as thin as you can and let it dry for about 20 minutes.
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• Roll the sheet up loosely, like a jelly roll, and slice it into noodles a quarter inch wide, or use a pasta machine.
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• Spread the noodles on a tray under a towel and let them dry, two hours or longer.

Making ravioli

Almost any filling works, raw or cooked: meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, cheese, vegetables or herbs. A meat filling, though, must be fully cooked before it goes in, because the dough cooks too fast to cook the meat. Choose the filling, the dough and the sauce so that each suits the others.

• Make a pasta dough in the flavor you want, and make and chill the filling.
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• Roll two thin sheets through the pasta machine and lay them flat.
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• Pipe or scoop small mounds of filling onto one sheet, about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.
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• Brush water on the bare dough between the mounds.
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• Lay the second sheet on top and press around each mound to push out the air and seal it.
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• Cut the ravioli apart with a chef's knife, a pastry wheel or a round cutter.
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Filled pasta is boiled the same way as ribbons.

Al dente: knowing when pasta is done

Heat stored in food goes on cooking it after it leaves the heat. see chapter 8: Carryover cooking

Asian noodles are never served al dente. They are either cooked in boiling water until they are very soft, or stir-fried to a real crisp.

Well-cooked pasta shows it in three ways:

• Look: the pieces are separate and whole, with the color typical of that pasta.
• Texture: firm yet tender, moist, and gelatinized all the way through.
• Flavor: mild, with no taste of raw starch; egg noodles taste a little of egg.

Boiling pasta

There is only one way to cook Italian-style pasta and most Asian noodles: boil them. The key is plenty of water, 1 gallon (4 liters) for each pound (450 g) of pasta.

Use a pot big enough for the pasta to move freely. In too little water, the starch the dough gives off makes the pasta gummy and sticky. Bring the water to a rapid boil and add all the pasta together.

Salt the water. Pasta takes up water and salt as it cooks, and salt added afterwards does not season it the same way.

Chefs argue about oil in the water. Purists leave it out, holding that it makes the dough take up water unevenly. Others add it to cut down the foam. Some say oil stops pasta sticking, but that only works when it is tossed through pasta that is already cooked and drained.

To cook pasta to order:

• Bring the water to a boil over high heat, adding oil if you choose.
• Add the pasta and the salt to the water at a rolling boil.
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• Stir so the pieces do not stick together, bring the water back to the boil, and cook until done.
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• Drain at once in a colander. A little oil can be tossed through to keep the pasta from sticking.
• Serve it hot straight away, without rinsing; or, for a salad or another dish later, cool it in cold water.
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Noodles can boil uncovered in salted water about three times their volume, for about 10 minutes. Another way is to boil them 2 minutes, then cover the pot, take it off the heat and let it stand until the noodles are al dente, about 10 minutes.

Asian noodles are either boiled until fully cooked, or parboiled (part-cooked) and then stir-fried with the other ingredients to finish.

Cooking pasta ahead

Fresh pasta is delicate and very quick to cook, so always cook it to order. Dried pasta can be cooked ahead for large numbers:

• Boil it as above, but stop when it is about two-thirds done.
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• Drain it, rinse it lightly, and toss it with a little oil.
• Portion it, and wrap each portion in plastic or lay them on a covered sheet pan. Refrigerate.
• To serve, drop a portion in a china cap into boiling water to heat it, drain, sauce and serve at once.

Cooked pasta is a potentially hazardous food, so pasta cooked ahead falls under the same limits as any cooked food:

• Cool it to 20°C (68°F) from 60°C (140°F) within two hours, then to 4°C (40°F) within four more.
• Keep it at 4°C (40°F) or colder.
• If it will be held in the cooler past 24 hours, date it; potentially hazardous foods are generally thrown out after three days.
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• Before it goes into a hot-holding unit, reheat it to at least 74°C (165°F) for 15 seconds, then hold it at 60°C (140°F) or hotter.

Pasta in broth and with sauce

Pasta goes into broths, makes a bed for stews, fish, shellfish, poultry and meat, or is simply tossed with sauce. Small shapes for soup can cook in the broth they are served in, or be cooked apart and added to the hot liquid as it goes out; cappelletti in brodo and chicken noodle soup are made both ways.

Pasta sauces run into the hundreds, but most belong to one of six families:

• Ragù: a braise used as a sauce. Meat or poultry and flavorings are browned, then a tomato product goes in with stock, wine, water, milk or cream.
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• Seafood: white seafood sauces use white wine or stock and herbs; red ones are based on tomato.
• Vegetable: older sauces of tomato and stock with garlic and red pepper, and newer ones such as primavera.
• Cream: milk or cream, sometimes thickened with roux, and usually finished with cheese.
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• Garlic and oil: olive oil flavored with garlic and herbs, hot or cold, cooked or raw. Pesto is a raw, cold one.
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• Uncooked: dressings and garnishes such as fresh tomato, basil and olive oil; or olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, basil and red pepper flakes. Olives, capers, anchovies, flavored oils, fresh vegetables and herbs, and cubes of cheese all belong here too.

Braising is taught in full with the slow, low methods. see chapter 10: What braising is

Lessons from pasta recipes

• Save some cooking water. Keep back a cup of the starchy water. Tossed with the drained pasta and sauce, it loosens a sauce that has grown too thick.
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• Orzo looks like a large grain of rice. Serve it on its own, alongside soup, in a salad, tossed with sauce and vegetables, or in a baked casserole.
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• One-pot pasta. Spaghetti can cook straight in stock and cream over low heat, stirred, until the pasta is tender and the liquid has become a sauce.
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• Fettuccine Alfredo is fettuccine tossed with Parmesan and butter. As the cheese melts it binds the liquids into a smooth, rich coat. It takes its name from Alfredo, a restaurant in Rome, where it was named in 1914.
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• Pasta salad: farfalle cooked al dente, 12 to 15 minutes, then dressed with oil, vinegar and oregano, garnished, and chilled, covered, for 20 minutes before plating.
• Puttanesca comes from Naples in the middle of the 20th century. It usually holds tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, olives, capers and olive oil.
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Hot breakfast cereals

• old-fashioned, quick and instant oats;
• cream of wheat and cream of rice;
• Malt-O-Meal;
• quick and instant grits;
• cornmeal;
• multigrain cereal.

Look at how processing shapes each one, and check the packet directions against the two usual faults: lumps, and a raw starch taste that lingers.

Cook each cereal with water as the packet says, until the raw starch taste is gone. Add more water if it needs it, and stir it gently with a fork.

A well-made hot cereal:

• has the color of its grain, with no skin on top;
• is light and even, with the separate particles you expect of that cereal;
• has no lumps and no hard, unsoftened bits;
• feels moist and slightly chewy;
• tastes mellow and true to its grain, with no raw starch.
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Words for milling and shaping

• Cracking: breaking grains open.
• Grinding: crushing grains to a powder, fine or coarse.
• Hulling: taking the hull, or husk, off a grain.
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• Pearling: taking off some or all of the hull, bran and germ.
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• Extrusion: forcing pasta dough through plates with holes in them to make shapes. Dough that is not extruded has to be rolled and cut.
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• Macaroni: any dried pasta made of water and wheat flour. The word means elbow-shaped tubes in the United States alone.