According to the author's mom, the great Marcella Hazan, colander should be sitting in the sink so the pasta can be drained the very instant it's cooked.

It doesn't get any better than a bowl of pasta, right? But too often cooks ruin a great dish by following one (or more) of these myths. Avoid them, and you'll be licking your plate clean in no time.Myth: Breaking long pasta into shorter pieces makes it easier to eat.If spaghetti were better short, it would have been made that way! Plus, broken strands are hard to eat since they’re not long enough to twirl onto a fork.

Myth: Add olive oil to the cooking water to keep the pasta from sticking.

Pasta shouldn’t stick when properly cooked. If it’s cooked with olive oil, it will actually coat the noodles and prevent sauce from sticking.

Myth: Throw the pasta against the wall—if it sticks, it’s done.
The only way to know if it’s done is to taste it! It should be al dente, or firm to the bite. The more pasta cooks, the gummier it gets, so if it sticks to the wall it’s probably overdone.

Myth: Rinse pasta after cooking and draining.
This will make the pasta cold and rinse away the starch that helps bind the sauce with the pasta.

Myth: It’s all about the sauce.
Italians will tell you it’s pasta with sauce—not sauce with pasta! Too much sauce buries the flavor of the pasta and overwhelms it.

By Giuliano Hazan | Photography by James Wojick

Ramen, a taste of asia

Soup noodles are the best food in times like rainy days especially when you’re strolling around inside a mall and hunger suddenly pangs, you need a fast and hot food to warm you up. I tried a new bowl of soup noodle, the appearance quite have a little similarity with the all-time favourite Miso Ramen. It has sukiyaki beef, lots of vegetables and slices of good tasting roasted pork. The noodle is also ramen and the soup is different because you can taste a little garlic that my chef friend who prepared it described it unique. I finished one large order of it because it’s so good and very nutritious too! If you need to know its nutrition fact, here are some facts; LOW in cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium and most importantly NO sugar and monosodium glutamate. Now that you know the facts are pretty good I’m sure that it can be part of your great complete meal. So if you want to try it, you will have no worries. Also when it’s stormy, it’s also great to sip a hot coffee.