“L’opera di Dante è il prodotto di un singolare uomo di genio, mentre gli spaghetti son l’espressione del genio collettivo del popolo italiano” scriveva il giornalista Giuseppe Prezzolini.
Per proseguire la nostra fortunata serie di ricette, vi proponiamo un altro caposaldo della Cultura italiana: gli spaghetti al pomodoro. Il perché ve lo spiega l’ex (e futuro) presidente del Consiglio, Silvio Berlusconi.
Preso atto della preferenza per i tortiglioni o rigatoni di Silvio, io preferisco rimanere sugli spaghetti. Come diceva l’attrice francese Catherine Deneuve “Les Italiens n’ont que deux choses en tête. L’autre, ce sont les spaghetti”.
E visto che la ricetta è ben nota a tutti noi, vi farò un favore scrivendola in inglese corretto. Così potete linkarla in chat alla/o svedese il cui tentativo di farvi sentire a casa con un piatto di pasta vi ha fatto accorgere dolorosamente che era davvero la prima volta, la prima volta che dubitavate nell’Europeismo.
Ricetta for spaghetti al pomodoro:
First, buy decent spaghetti. Example: Barilla may not be the best pasta, but is everywhere in EU, so no excuses. Do not buy fake pasta francese Panzani. Even good cook like Canavacciuolo cannot cook Panzani al dente.
Second, buy decent passata pomodoro. If you find decent passata al pomodoro like Mutti buy it. But good salsa not compulsory, we can fix it thanks to Genio Italico and long cooking time.
Now we can start.
Put water to boil in big pan. You can put salt now or later. If you wait, water without salt will boil faster.
Wait until water to boil (and in the meanwhile prepare the salsa) and then throw in spaghetti. Do not add oil in water. I do not care if you think this way pasta will not stick to the pan. If you do not want pasta sticked to pan, just stir it and not waste oil. Also do not break in two the spaghetti. If you want pasta corta just buy rigatoni as Silvio Berlusconi.
To know if spaghetti are cooked, taste one of them. They need to be al dente. Not well cooked. There is no such thing as well cooked pasta. If you overcook spaghetti, they will try to kill you.
For the salsa. Put a lot of olive oil in a pan. If you have olio italiano extra vergine di oliva is better. But also olio tunisino is good despite what polenta loving onorevole Matteo Salvini says on twitter.
Then cut scalogno (also know as shallot in english) in slices and put it into olio. Some people use garlic instead of scalogno. This is allowed and depends on you taste. Do not put high fire, otherwise olio and scalogno will burn. Then you need to throw it away and apologise with slightly racist onorevole Matteo Salvini in the hope he will share his polenta with you.
Once scalogno is nice and golden and your kitchen smell better than ever, put passata al pomodoro. Let it cook until it boils a little. Then wait. Patience will make it good. You can add a pinch of sugar if the sauce taste to acidic. Remember to stir it and taste it with a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon is the key. We love wooden spoons so much we try very hard to win one at Six Nations rugby competition every year.
Once sauce taste good, put the spaghetti in it and stir. Also add couple of leaves of basilico.
Then serve it with a waterfall of parmigiano. Nothing more romantic than a waterfall of parmigiano on spaghetti al pomodoro. To buy true parmigiano, look for one of these two logos on the pack. This photo of our beloved leader Sergio Mattarella will help you make the right choice.
If you can cook this correctly you are very welcomed to Italia. Even ius-soli opponent onorevole Matteo Salvini cannot say no to ius pasta.
Buon appetito a tutti!
Piersanti