Why do restaurants that don't specialize in pasta dishes, always drown pasta in sauce?!
Also, why is the pasta served over cooked more often than not?
A lot of times when we're served our orders, the pasta is so badly over cooked that its just barely pasta shaped, its super soft and squishy like baby food.
Its a wonder Italy hasn't declared war against the US for defemation of their culture.
Answers: Is this only an "American" stereotypical culinary problem?
Also, why is the pasta served over cooked more often than not?
A lot of times when we're served our orders, the pasta is so badly over cooked that its just barely pasta shaped, its super soft and squishy like baby food.
Its a wonder Italy hasn't declared war against the US for defemation of their culture.
It is so true that American pasta is all about plenty sauce over pasta. In Italy, they are focusing on pasta( noodle) itself and sauce is just enough to coat pasta. You can have great pasta dish at a restaurant if you can find the owner is from Italy. I usually cook pasta myself so I get to eat my pasta Italian way.
I prefer my pasta, with a drizzle of olive oil and a little pepper.
Your complaint is sad but true. It's depressingly difficult in the US to get correctly cooked pasta that's also correctly sauced.
It is said that the Mafia were originally culture warriors sent to the US to straighten out our terrible pasta-eating habits. When that failed, they took up other pursuits out of revenge.
because cooking in a restaurant "alla minute" u must par cook the pasta for faster table turnarounds. so this is why the pasta is left in the water longer than needed resulting in mushy pasta. at home u are able to cook it to ur liking. ps quick great pasts sauce cook noodles and use the water as a base for a sauce that includes butter olive oil salt and wht wine vin...good luck n keep cookin
Yes I agree. This is a North American thing for sure.
Pasta is probably over-cooked because the kitchen cooks large quantities of it and it just sits there until someone orders it and the sauce is poured on. Yuk!
Why would you order a pasta dish in a Non-Italian restaurant anyway? You wouldn't go to an Lebanese or Chinese restaurant and order waffles and bacon?
Ah, the Americanization of Italian Food. It's surprising just how many people really prefer the sauce/ragu to the pasta here. Restaurants indulge their clients and give them what they want. Most Italians or families of Italian descent only have enough sauce to coat the pasta, often they eat it 'bald' with just a little virgin olive oil & perhaps parmesan regiano, often with simply a few sauteed vegetables. In fine Italian restaurants you will rarely find a lot of past and risotto is very popular with meat dishes.
Children and those of Italian descent grow up in or near the kitchen and rarely eat out or have canned foods. While, we on the other hand have very often been introduced to pasta via the tinned spaghetti, alpha bits, ravioli. Easy to switch to the real thing, but like everything else it's small steps at a time i.e. spaghetti with meat balls, fettucinni alfredo, leap to veal, pork, beef,seafood, crustaceans, and it gets better.
Good night, Merry Christmas and salute.
because most restaurants precook their food, freeze it, and then microwave it. It's much easier and cheaper for them to do this, and it's easier to microwave it evenly if there's lots of liquid (ie sauce). That's why it gets so soggy and gross. Even in Olive Garden, which claims to be an Italian restaurant, the pasta is squishy and gross.
Try going to small family-owned places. Even the ones that don't specialize in pasta have better pasta dishes, and it's going to be worth the 5 extra minutes of waiting.
Pasta is raw unless it is soft enough to chew easily. Italians eat it raw because they cannot to afford the fuel to cook properly.