The perfect Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

I’m currently working with ASK Italian to promote their brilliant campaign to #Respectthepasta! A couple of weeks ago I visited my local ASK Italian in order to tell you about their delicious menu. This week I wanted to share some tips for cooking the perfect pasta at home.

ASK Ambassador Theo Randall, has had a huge hand in creating some of the delicious menus at ASK Italian, he has also created a set of rules for creating perfect pasta:

Pasta DO:

-Use LOTS of boiling, well-salted water
-Cook for two minutes less than the packet instructions and finish cooking in the sauce with a spoonful of cooking water -Enjoy immediately in small portions in warm bowls or plates – “pasta waits for no man”

DO NOT

-Tip pasta into a colander to drain it – use tongs or a slotted spoon to take pasta out of the water -Test ‘done-ness’ by throwing pasta onto the walls
-Use too much sauce – coat the pasta, don’t drown it

Using the rules above I was tasked with creating the pasta dish of our choice. I turned to the ASK Italian cookbook and chose the recipe for Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, my husband’s favourite Italian dish. It’s a simple, classic recipe which we’ve made many times before. We opted to leave out the parsley but we did use cream, I didn’t realise this was a controversial ingredient!

We followed the recipe which meant we cooked the pasta the ASK Italian way. I’ll hold my hands up and admit to usually over-cooking pasta so cooking it for slightly less than normal meant it tasted perfect and slightly al dente. This is a great classic recipe and I would definitely recommend trying the pasta rules next time you’re cooking at home.