How to make the perfect pasta?

Pastamuijat is Ann and Giuli’s joint project for the love of Italian food. Anni Paakkunainen

How to prepare the perfect pasta dish?

How do I distinguish high-quality raw materials?

Answers to these and many other questions related to pasta and Italian food are promised on the Pastamuijat Instagram account established in the spring of 2021.

Pasta muijas, i.e. childhood friends Anni and Giulia say that the idea was actually born quite by accident from a joint Instagram account.

– We have more than 30 years of friendship behind us, and with my Neapolitan roots, it has always been strongly associated with Italy and Italian cuisine, especially pasta, Giuli says.

– Giuli had dreamed that we would make a pasta book together, and after telling me about it, the idea of ​​pasta makers came to me. I suggested setting up an IG account first? Anni continues.

Both women work as entrepreneurs in the food industry. Giuli runs a restaurant as a family business, and Anni maintains her own food media, Anni uunissa.

We already know how to wait for pasta makers

In just a couple of weeks, the Instagram account gained more than 2,500 followers. Now there are more than 11 thousand of them. The popularity surprised even pasta lovers, although after thinking about it more closely, they believe they have created something that people have been waiting for.

As is well known, people have been enthusiastic about cooking at home during the past year, and since traveling is almost impossible, they have settled for taste travel.

– Finns love Italy and pasta. We want to bring people simple recipes that are prepared while the pasta is cooking, as well as tell about Italian traditions and the rules that are often argued about. The reception has been wonderful, we have received really good feedback! Anni and Giuli tell.

Asparagus pesto is the perfect sauce for pasta. If you don’t see the Instagram embed, you can view it from here.

The Pastamuijat account focuses on Italian food, and although the main focus is on pasta, there are also recipes for wonderful Italian desserts, product recommendations and Ann and Giuli’s own favorites.

Those famous Italian pasta rules

In Italy, pasta is known to be quite passionate, and it seems that there are a lot of different rules when it comes to cooking. Pastamuijas promise to present these “rules”, without taking them too seriously.

– I will highlight our family’s recipes and our ways of working. I’m from southern Italy myself, and the sauces used there are often olive oil-based, with the main focus on vegetables and fish. If you compare this to, for example, the cuisine of Northern Italy, they are very different. In the North, for example, creamier sauces are preferred, Giuli says.

The Pastamuijat account has discussed, among other things, that each pasta sauce has its own pasta quality.

– Certain pasta dishes have been prepared in the same way for years, and this is a good example Spaghetti Carbonarawhich is always made into long pasta, Giuli says.

Farfalle al Salmone i.e. salmon pasta, as the name suggests, is made into farfalle pasta, i.e. that pasta that looks like a butterfly or a bow.

The pasta makers have put together the instructions for the perfect pasta. If you don’t see the Instagram embed, you can view it from here.

Which of the Italian pasta rules would women rank as the most important?

– I would mention adding enough salt to the boiling water as the most important rule. If the cooking water lacks salt, the pasta will be tasteless and even the saltiness of the sauce will not save this. Then you have salty sauce and tasteless pasta. Another equally important thing is the correct doneness of the pasta! Or pasta al denteGiuli advises.

Anni adds to the list adding oil to the cooking water and rinsing the pasta after cooking – both methods get an absolute no. Adding oil to the cooking water does not affect the sticking of the pasta, but it does affect how the sauce sticks to the surface of the pasta.

How about eating pasta? Not everyone can, for example, spin spaghetti around a fork. Could you chop it up with a knife into smaller bites?

– In Italy, under no circumstances are you allowed to cut spaghetti with a knife! Originally, a spoon was not used either, but the spaghetti was rolled against the edge of the plate with a fork. The practice of spooning has become established later and it is also common among Italians today, says Giuli.

“Many people mistakenly think that fresh pasta is of higher quality because of the price”

What kind of tips would pasta lovers give for hunting for high-quality pasta?

– This is a bit trickier, because the fresh pasta sold in supermarkets in Finland is, for example, expensive, but in these cases the price is often not a guarantee of quality and many dry pastas are of better quality. Many people mistakenly think that fresh pasta is directly of higher quality because of the price, the women say.

Anni and Giuli themselves prefer dry pasta from Italian manufacturers, such as Rummo, La Molisana and De Cecco.

– These have a rough surface, so the sauce sticks to them better and their texture is also preserved when cooked. In low-quality dry pasta, the structure is not preserved.

The women recommend trying different brands of pasta and finding your favorite. High-quality dry pasta can also be found from many small producers, and the pastamuijat account is promised its own publication about high-quality pasta.

The story was originally published in May 2021.