Pasta The Way Italians Do It

When we were staying in California last year, we had the very good fortune of staying with our friend Francesco and his girlfriend, Chi Li. Francesco, of course, is from Italy, but is completing his PhD in Irvine. We met when he came Australia a couple of years ago to do some work at UWS, and have stayed in touch ever since.

While we were there, Francesco graciously taught us a few "trade secrets" as it were when it comes to Italian cooking; the one I found most intriguing was the secret ingredient that apparently many Italians include in their tomato-based pasta sauces: Milk.

I was really surprised that such a simple ingredient made this dish so much better, but it really did. When at first the spaghetti was set to boil and the pieces of Italian sausage, asparagus and dried chilli were cooked down with tomato paste, I already thought the dish was going to be delicious; but then the tomato paste was diluted with milk instead of water until a perfect consistancy was achieved, and lunch was suddenly exponentially improved. The sauce was creamy and almost cheesy, and the flavour was so addictive. A little cracked pepper and I was in heaven.

Have you heard of a strange secret ingredient?

Comments

[yummychunklet]

I never heard of using milk. What a great idea!

[Linda]

How interesting...so only tomato paste and milk were used? no tomato sauce?? I've added cream at times to my sauce for a lighter color and creamier taste so I can only imagine how wonderful this must have tasted!!

[Jasmyne Tea]

Hi Linda, I should clarify - it wasn't concentrated tomato paste, so it was like a less-watery passata.

[Gaby]

Interesting, I didn't know that.

[Miss Piggy]

Ineresting...I've never heard of this before. Those Italians sure are nifty.

[Joanne]

I've cooked a LOT of Italian food and yet I've never heard of this secret ingredient. It's a must try!

[Jennifer (Delicieux)]

I have heard of using milk in pasta sauces, but I'm mainly seen it used in meat based sauces. I would be interested to try it in a vegetarian sauce and see if there is a difference.

[Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake]

I've never heard of or tried using milk in my pastas. I have used cream in the sauce though which made it very creamy and delicious. I'm sure milk makes it great too. :D

[Sara (Belly Rumbles)]

That's really interesting. Will be giving it a go, would of never thought of it.

[Chopinand @ ChopinandMysaucepan]

Dear Jasmyne,

I think this is a little similar to adding coconut milk to a spicy curry chicken stock to make the delectable laksa taste so good. I might give this a go the next time I'm ruffling up a pot of pasta.

[Lucas @CoverVersions]

I've used double-cream added to a tomato sauce to thicken it and it's great, especially with grillen chicken and/or a ton of garlic.