MAMMA MIA!!!

GREAT HEALTHY PRE-RACE DISHES PREPARED FAST AND EASY

People all over the world love pasta. You can enjoy it in its varied shapes, meatless meals with pasta as the entrée. Pasta, with its nonassertive flavor and complex carbohydrates, is a natural for pairing with a wide variety of ingredients perfect for the racing year.

Cooking pasta: Pasta fresh or dried should be cooked in an abundance of water at a full boil. When water is heating, bubbles appear at the bottom of the pan and then come to the surface. This is the water releasing dissolved air. If you can stir the water and stop the bubbling, then the water is not yet boiling. Adding pasta to water that is not rapidly boiling may make it mushy. Use at least 1quart of water for every 4 ounces of pasta. Add the pasta to the water in batches so the water temperature doesn’t drop too dramatically. Stir the pasta immediately with a long-handled spoon, being careful not to be burned by the steam. Stir frequently. If you use plenty of water, you will not need to add any oil, as oil is used primarily to keep the starch foam from boiling over onto the stovetop. The oil will also coat the pasta and cause the sauce to slide off then noodles.
Most fresh pastas take 2 to 3 minutes to cook. Boxes of dried pasta usually give cooking times, but these should be thought of as guidelines only. A good rule of thumb is to cook the pasta 3 minutes less than indicated in the directions. Before draining, break one piece of pasta in half. There should be a small line or dot of white in the middle. The pasta will be al dente, or “to the tooth”, at this point and perfect. If the pasta is to be baked in a casserole, consider cooking it a few minutes less.
Pasta being used for cold salads should be rinsed with cold water.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Sometimes deiced tomatoes give a better flavor to red sauce than crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce. You may want to try them-if you don’t want a chunky sauce you can purée it.

1-tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2-tablespoon tomato paste
2 canes of diced tomatoes
½ teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and cook the garlic for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring for 2 minutes or until the paste is heated through. Add the pureed tomatoes and salt, cover the pot and cook the sauce for about 40 minutes on a low heat.
Makes enough sauce for 8 ounces of pasta, or 4 servings.





My little suggestion: instead of using real cheese, which is high in cholesterol and sat. fats you can use Rice cheese, which by the way tastes like the real thing, my favorite brand is Galaxy Nutritional Foods, Rice Grated Topping, Parmesan Flavor and for the canned tomatoes look for the Italian imported San Marzzano tomatoes because they are really rich in flavor.



BUON APETITO A TUTTI!!!