Might’ve been beginner’s luck, but bought the kitchen aid thing, used the recipe IN THE MANUAL no less, and the result was shockingly good. It was not however especially speedy. It helped to be drinking wine whilst making the pasta. Perhaps not the best judge really of what’s shockingly good and what ain’t after a couple of glasses of wine, but who am I talking to here that won’t likely be similarly affected?
I’ll try the Rao’s just for the sake of science and report back.
Actually. the Rao’s arabiatta sauce is excellent and the only jarred sauce I could ever recommend; read about it being good somewhere and tried it, wouldn’t buy any of the others. Plus, it’s been on sale for about $6.45.
Also I recommend Whole Foods Linguine which is imported from Italy and is 99 cents a lb. I was raised on Ronzoni but I think regular American pasta sucks, probably due to the lack of Italian hard Durum wheat. My go to is De Cecco and I can even get the organic for $1.77 a lb.
If it matters that much to you, Leonard, some Barilla pasta actually is imported from Italy.
+1 for De Cecco and the price is not different here than Barilla’s.
We have a hand-crank pasta machine but I’ve considered the Kitchenaid attachment. That’s $200? which buys a lot of pasta. I’m determined to make good pasta with the hand crank before shelling out the money for the KA roller/cutter.
My pasta is always too rubbery.
Mine was pretty rubbery too, but I considered it a good thing. I used bread flour. Might’ve contributed to that elastic quality.
200 bucks will buy a ton of pasta. And it takes a lot of time and effort, did I mention?
But I have this one grandma who sends a Macy’s gift card every holiday. So once a year I find myself going to Macy’s with a little stack of cards. I’ll eventually have all the attachments.
Some pasta is best fresh, some, dried.
Worth a few min of your time.
George
Our last try was I think 100% Semolina, or maybe 50% AP 50% Semolina. I’m sure we can get to making good pasta, just a matter of commitment. Or having someone teach us.
That Back in Black segment is fabulous! thanks
apropos of little to nothing… but I did promise I’d try Rao’s jarred sauce.
Just had some for lunch. It was not bad at all.
It’s too thin cuz they’re being stingy. But no resemblance to Prego. No sweeteners in it. They’re using decent tomatoes – just not many of them. Kinda oily as well, but that’s not a knock, and they need that for texture to make up for the lack of tomato solids.
But it’s the money. 8 bucks for 24oz that you could cook up slightly better for probably close to $1.
Money no object and your time is priceless and there’s no garlic in the house, I could see it.
Several years ago at The Fancy food Show in Chicago they had a tasting of jarred sauces. There were probably 25+ different sauces and Rao’s was by far our favorite. I sold it for a while, too, but it is just too expensive. We don’t use jarred sauces a lot b/c good, simple sauce is so easy to make.
JD
Classic Lewis Black. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. Though I have heard to the contrary that Italy is a particularly gay friendly society as he seems to say at the beginning…
Had Rao’s last night - surprised, pleasantly