Pasta is pasta, right?

You couldn't be more wrong.

There's the cheap stuff that cost $0.60 a pound.

Or you can buy pasta.

Real, authentic pasta makes you swoon with pleasure when you eat it.

We'll talk all things pasta and visit an amazing family pasta company in Granato, Italy today on Christina Cooks, The Macroterranean Way.

(Music) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Jonathan Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherrywood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

Hi, I'm Christina Pirello and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Yes.

One of the things I love about Italian cooking is that it's so easy to be plant based and plant passionate because it's just so easy.

Everything's so fresh.

And so today we're going to talk about pasta and you're going to eat pasta from the supermarket, or you can eat pasta, and we're going to discover a great pasta today.

But first, let's talk about pasta a little bit while we cook.

I'm going to be dicing some potatoes.

And so for those of you who are a carb phobic, this may not be the show for you because we're doing potatoes and pasta together.

But did you know that 90% of Italians, 90%, nine, zero, eat pasta multiple times a week?

Well, wait, how do they do that and still look like Sophia Loren?

Americans eat pasta.

Maybe 23% of us eat it multiple times a week and we struggle all the time.

Well, they eat real pasta.

They eat it at lunch when it's earlier in the day and they're still going to be active.

Italians rarely pasta at dinner and they don't eat a platter of pasta that takes four waiters to bring it to the table.

They eat a serving.

For a pound of pasta.

Italians will make four servings out of that.

So, that's how they do it.

So we're going to take some extra virgin olive oil into a skillet.

I'm going to be generous with the oil because this is actually my gravy, let me lower down my orecchiette, which is cooking here so that it's ready when the gravy is ready.

Because orecchiette takes a longer time to cook.

It's the pasta that looks like little ears.

You'll see it.

So into this goes some diced fingerling potatoes.

I'm going to do a couple more.

This dish is really fun to make and a little bit interesting because it cooks a little differently than sometimes you're used to with pasta.

And pasta and potatoes together is a really, really common thing to find, especially in the south of Italy.

So we have some potatoes in here.

We're going to add some red onions.

Now, we're going to add a pinch of salt and you can make this dish spicy.

I'm not going to because we're using nice bitter arugula.

So I really don't need to make this dish spicy.

And raise my heat.

There we go.

And we're going to cook this until the onions are translucent.

So the biggest amount of work on this dish is that you have to stir the potatoes and the onions pretty constantly over a medium high heat until the potatoes are tender-ish and the onions are tender-ish.

So that's the biggest amount of work on this dish.

Then it gets fun.

So now you're going to reduce your heat a little bit and you're going to make a well in the center of the potatoes and the onions, right.?

And you're going to put into that some minced garlic.

Now it's really hot.

So this is going to happen quick because you don't want the garlic to burn...a handful of baby arugula to wilt, right..like that.

And a sprig of rosemary, which does two things.

One--flavors the dish with that lovely earthy rosemary, but more importantly, it makes the potatoes digestible.

Cooking potatoes with rosemary neutralizes the alkaloid solanine that exists in potatoes that can cause your joints to become arthritic.

So just that little sprig of rosemary, even if it's just for a minute or two until your arugula wilts changes the way you digest this dish.

So now you stir just a little to move the garlic around so it doesn't burn to wilt the arugula.

And if you're feeling adventurous, take your rosemary.

Rather than discard it, pull the leaves off so that they become part of the dish.

That's up to you.

You don't have to do that.

But for me, it could change the day.

All right.

So now we're going to turn off the heat because this is basically ready to serve.

So now we're going to take our orecchiette.

Orecchiette is the pasta that's known as little ears, right?

It's a little curved.

They go right in on top.

You're going to take some liquid from the pasta water with you.

That's okay.

Orecchiette takes a good 12 to 15 minutes to cook.

It's a one of the longer cooked pastas.

And what I like about it is in a sauce, if you will, like this, all the little potatoes will get caught up in the little curve of that.

The little pasta.

More baby arugula on top.

You stir it in just until it wilts.

Try to pull the whole thing together.

And so you've got the super-wilted arugula and you've got the arugula that's fresh.

So as the arugula that you put it in the beginning, cooked, it became sweeter.

And now you've added that lovely bitterness of arugula that we love.

Now we're going to plate this up to a serving bowl.

I like to garnish with one more tiny bit of baby arugula, and now you are in for a treat.

We're headed to Gragnano, which is just outside Naples, to work with a family business that's been making pasta for three or four generations.

You'll want to discover pasta?

Come with me.

(Music) Welcome to Gragnano, the city of pasta.

Also the city of murals.

This is a famous Neapolitan after Antonio de Curtis, who is eating the pasta of Gragnano and now I'm off to Pasta Cuomo to cook with my friend Alfonso Cuomo.

Let's go.

Alfonso.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) Today we do nerano by our spaghettoni.

Before we prep the vegetables.

Let's (swish) the macaroni.

Yes.

Okay.

We take the salt here.

Yeah, we move.

As you can see, it's bigger salts.

Okay, (speaking Italian).

So put that out.

Look, the boiling water is the moment to throw the pasta inside.

So more here and then.

And don't break.

And don't break.

Don't break.

Don't break because not this pasta more small pasta for us.

(speaking Italian) More or less ten minutes.

It's because we need the turn around sometimes the way that don't stick each other.

Okay so the pasta doesn't stick.

You want to cook it.

Because, now what's up the pasta absorbed the water so it's come to be a little bit fat.

So the salt and the water help the pasta to get flavor.

So when you don't salt your pasta water, your pasta tastes like nothing.

So you have to create flavor because you don't... the vegetables are fresh, but the pasta is the star, right?

So now we open for you.

Yeah.

We waiting that the.

Oh, look.

Oh boil.

So we know one minute time we to this margarita.

Oh yes.

My thing.

Okay, chef.

Let's do.

A.

Style.

Yes, exactly.

This way.

And the boiling water is a helper to zucchini to be fry, to preserve the flavor inside.

And you think that zucchini is coming from a vegetable garden, that this grows right here?

Yeah.

Yes, yes, exactly.

All o zero kilometers.

Yes.

Beautiful, big and very nutritional.

But also important.

More tender.

Yes, lovely.

Okay This is certainly low.

The pasta.

The pasta and the way that the the water don't matter to turkey.

Yes, yes.

Ah, we cooking it crispy or soft.

Crispy for the concept.

But the original recipe wants so that the zucchini needs to be very crunch because it's the fry in them boil water.

So why as you can see on with the zucchini I can continue to cook for the person needs low low fire so a bass so.

Once you put the pasta in you lower the heat so we can sort of not boil so crazy.

No, no, no, no.

We need to boil the low.

Low.

Yeah.

No, no.

And so it's interesting because the zucchini is in the oil a long time.

Yes.

It's not.

You can see it's not too grassy.

It's not becoming oily coming browns.

Go with because these and when the ingredients are not this treat is different.

Yeah in fact all the time is not exactly exact.

I think you got to move on on this.

You move on then.

And that's when we change the pans because in this way we can add the the pasta that is quite 3D.

And it's so important that you preserve the flavor, the pasta and zucchini as well.

So now we open the fire and the pasta is ready to in fact, I think it's a move on.

And zucchini.

Zucchini inside.

And we exactly we just a little bit that a bit of water of the pasta helps.

Okay.

The water of the pasta.

And so in this way, the flavor of zucchini is come to spread [inaudible] Exactly [inaudible] .

But the [inaudible] And the pasta as well.

In fact, now we added the pasta that is so ready.

And this way we can move on this plain order.

Well, [inaudible] understand if it's al dente, all done.

Okay at as well more I think I think as well.

Wow.

[inaudible] And it's funny because it looked like so much salt but it's not at all.

Not at all.

It's perfect.

We put this basil in the different pieces this way, and then we throw on the fans in the way that the [inaudible] .

Profumo.

Yes, the Profumo.

[Inaudible] We carry on.

Amazing.

Look at this.

How the how the just the pasta water and the oil from the zucchini made this beautiful.

It looks like it looks like there's a sauce, right?

[inaudible] Imagine how good it smells.

Si.

So now we take two pans in the way to make the fantastic because I need to show you always.

Si.

So now we take a look because after you need to do the same.

Oh turn around in the spoon.

Make these and the make the first after we take another one.

Okay.

But turn around and make the second and we make the third.

We say (speaking Italian).

We don't.

Two, you have to have three.

Two without the three.

And the third.

Okay.

And that's okay.

Your turn.

Of course.

I know that you know.

I would go.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) As well with the [inaudible] okay.

[inaudible] Okay, okay, okay.

(speaking Italian) We make the same as well.

Okay.

Oh, oh, oh.

(speaking Italian) We need to taste each other's Or do we taste the same?

Same The same and the same.

Oh, okay.

Enjoy the meal and hope you will make the same.

Enjoy.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) Exactly.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (Music) So now we're going to make a dish that is famous in America as heart attack on a plate.

Fettuccine Alfredo, which is actually not really an Italian pasta dish.

But we're going to make a healthy version of it.

We're going to cook the fettuccine as we do all pasta challenged at the beginning because you don't want to cook your pasta in a ton of water.

You want to cook it in less water and let it slowly sort of soften and melt until it's all just under the water.

And this is going to take about 7 minutes.

And while the pasta cooks, you know, a lot of people who are into fitness really struggle with eat pasta or don't eat pasta.

We're going to clear that right up for you.

(jibber-jabber) I'm here today with Nicole Andreola, a certified fitness trainer who happens to train at my gym and is one of my spin instructors and Nicole, I wanted to talk to you today.

The theme of the show today is pasta, which in everybody's world, in sort of the fitness world is, pun intended off the table.

So you as a nice Italian girl who's raising a family here in Philadelphia, where do you see the role of pasta in people trying to stay fit and still enjoy life?

Exactly.

Still enjoy life.

That's the part that I know you and I are on the same page about.

I think that pasta has a bad rap.

Really.

I mean, truly it does.

And I think if we educate ourselves a little bit more about pasta and about what it can do for our body, I think that that's where we need to start.

I think there's two points.

Pasta we view as an indulgence.

Right.

Which it is and it can be, but if we kind of change the perspective on that.

So when we think of pasta, we think of pasta with the oil and the sauce and the cheese and the bread and it's a whole meal that is the overindulgence.

But when you just take the pasta by itself, what does that really do for us?

So what it does for our body is it actually gives us energy.

It's stored glycogen in our body.

It's a little technical term, but it gives us energy.

So if you ever have heard about a person that runs or athletes they carb-load, right, it's called carb-load, the day before.

Right.

Now They have these big pasta dinners at the New York City Marathon.

That's what you're supposed to do the night before you run.

Right.

Exactly.

So you eat pasta a.k.a carbs.

What does that do for you the following day?

That translates to energy.

So when you're 2 hours into your race, you have energy that's going to be pushing you.

So I think if we start to change the way we view pasta, carbs because there's a bad idea behind that.

So so you're saying that it's not a bad idea to store some glycogen for the next day's activity?

It's a great idea.

You need that to perform.

However, if you're sedentary, now we're in a whole different realm.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So then we talk about moderation, which we all talk about.

But think about that.

Instead of something simple, a half a pound of pasta, which a lot of us can consume because it gets indulgent with the bread, with the butter and everything else that we talked about.

We scale it back a little bit, have a cup of pasta, with a big salad and offset the balance.

So you still get the satisfaction of having your bowl of pasta.

Yes.

And then you finish filling up, if you will, on something that's not going to do damage to your waistline.

Absolutely.

Yes.

So so pasta is not off the table.

Absolutely not.

And if you are active on a regular basis, you kind of have a little more leeway, would you say?

Absolutely.

Well, it's used as an energy source.

Absolutely.

So you could also have the theory of on the days that you exercise, maybe that's when you eat your pasta before your workout or after your workout.

I actually do that.

I don't workout on Fridays.

so there's no pasta in our house on Fridays.

And that's okay.

If that's sometimes it's also a mindset that helps people when eating pasta.

Yeah, but again, I think pasta having energy source with everybody that's in a world of busy, we're on the go moving, moving, moving.

It's energy, it's fuel for us.

And I think that's the point I want to make.

Food is fuel for our bodies, which help us, of course, to perform at the level that we perform.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Now we know.

Now, now you can have pasta with less guilt.

Just exercise.

Okay?

So you can see.

You can see the pasta in the water.

It's not drowning.

So this pasta is going to have more flavor.

If you cook the pasta a ton of water, it tastes like water.

So now we're going to make the gravy and we all know that Fettuccine Alfredo is cream and cheese.

We're going to get the richness from pine nuts.

You could also use walnuts if pine nuts are too rich for your taste.

But we really want to get this richness and pine nuts give that to us.

We going to add some chopped garlic for flavor instead of cheese.

We're going to use white miso.

Good for digestion, tastes like parmigiano.

That goes in.

Tiny, tiny bit of red wine vinegar for acidity and a tiny, tiny bit of brown rice syrup, which is a glucose based fermented sweetener to take the edge off and give us some satisfaction.

Okay, now we're just going to pulse this until it's sort of course.

Try not to add water at this point.

You can, but try not to.

I really want it to be a paste when it goes into the skillet.

I'm going to call this ready.

It's not real smooth and that's okay.

Okay.

Now we're going to take this.

You can see it's really thick and rich right in to our warmed skillet.

Okay.

Because you really don't want to eat raw miso.

It's a little strong.

Now we're going to take our fettuccine, which has been cooking for 7 minutes right from the pasta pot right into the skillet.

And because there's a little bit of liquid on it from the cooking water, this is going to give us enough liquid, I hope, to thin the gravy down.

If it doesn't, we'll just keep this pasta pot right here, and use a little ladle here or there to make the sauce creamy and a little bit thinner.

So we're going to start by just stirring it and seeing if that works.

And you can see the gravy is white, it's thick.

We want it to be thick, but not crazy thick.

So let's add a tiny bit of cooking water here.

Okay.

Now it's doing it.

So you just want to loosen this up.

You can take it off the heat, make sure that when you do take this off the heat because you really don't want the vinegar to overcook and the skillet's nice and hot.

So it's cooking the miso enough without boiling it, if you will.

You don't want to boil miso because it destroys the enzymes that help you to digest.

And because this is rich, that miso is going to come in handy with digestion.

Okay, now we're going to take our fettuccine right into the bowl.

And now you have discovered in your travels with me today and there's pasta, and then there's pasta.

So what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks, the Macroterranean away.

(Music) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at Christina Cooks.com and by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The Companion Cookbook, The Macroterranean Way, Volume Two combines the Mediterranean diet with the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, allowing us to understand how food affects us so we can cook deliciously while creating the wellness we want.

To order your copy for $19.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815.

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