Last night a friend of mine decided to give whole wheat pasta a try for dinner, as well as mentioning his personal experience of doing so online and let me tell you, his reaction to the experience did not surprise me one bit. In many cases, most pasta products made with or consisting of "whole wheat," "whole-grain" and/or "multigrain" ingredients in them taste sorta off. Whole Wheat pasta especially is very true to form on this factor for one simple reason - it simply tastes downright nasty!!! Dont let those health-food-foodies or Vegan folks out there inform you otherwise because if they tell you "Oh, we think that stuff is soooo yummy!!" you have my full blessings to literally tie them to a chair, present them with a Big Mac from Mickey-D's and instruct them to tell the truth or else! Trust me, they'll fess up instantaneously because there is not one single person on this planet who doesnt know the difference in texture and flavor of whole wheat pasta, as well as it's horribly, wet-cardboard-like, grainy aftertaste! Or, simply put, "Bleecchh!!!" Just because a food product is suppose to be healthy for you doesnt necessarily mean that it's gonna taste delicious. No pasta product out there presents a better illustration of this fact than whole wheat pasta.
Now that I have just said this, I'm sure there may be some professional cooks, experienced chefs and even simple home cooks such as myself who will say "Well, you're making it the wrong way, if you make it this way or that way, it is delicious!!!" Oh please, those people are so fulla shit! It doesnt matter how you make it, regular or al dente, with a bolognese, marinara, alfredo or garlic/butter sauce, there is only way that whole wheat pasta of any variety can be made to even taste remotely delicious and that's via one thing - improvisation. There are two ways to improvise to make that kinda crap taste better.
First, do what the North End Italians do in Boston and not just beause they are from my beloved Boston but beause they know exactly what the hell they are doing when it comes to pasta. Whenever you make whole wheat pasta, the secret to making it taste good is the following - dillute it. Yes, simply dillute it. Like this. No matter how much pasta any recipe calls for it, use 1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta within 1 cup of regular, normal pasta. In other words, let's say you're making HivSpice's Baked Ziti Casserole, which calls for 2 cups ziti or penne pasta. Use 1 cup regular, normal pasta and 1 cup whole wheat pasta. Yep, it's really that simple. Whole wheat pasta is good for you and yes, it can be delicious; BUT, the only way to achieve that is by mixing it together with regular, normal pasta because if you eat it full strength, God help you.
Now if for some reason the half to half ratio still is not palatable enough for you, then cut it back down one more notch, go 1/4 cup whole wheat pasta within every 1 cup of regular, normal pasta.
Second, should you not exchange notes with anyone about the evils of whole wheat pasta or read the warning I have included in this piece before preparing it, there is one way that you can salvage post-prepared whole wheat pasta. Simply add sliced cherry tomatoes, chunks of feta cheese, sliced black olives and your favorite Italian Dressing or Balsamic Vinegarette to your drained, cooled whole wheat pasta, mix well, chill for about 2 hours and throw some chopped fresh Basil on before serving and you're good to go. Also, should you ever overcook pasta, which happens to all of us from time to time, the above method can also be utilized to salvage that as well.
Whether it be a coupla pieces of whole wheat toast buttered with low-fat margarine or even some of the newer bagel varieties out there that are made with various multi-grains, I do thoroughly enjoy some of whole-wheat/whole-grain/multi-grain food products that are available on the market these days; but, what I dont like, is when some of the major food companies out there tamper with, as well as screw up, something as simple as your average pasta product with ingredients that simply arent suppose to be there in the first place! Hey, what good is nutition if you cant eat the product itself? It ends up being a waste of both money and time for the everyday consumer and that's simply not right. And if you wanna go tit-for-tat on this issue, then look at it this way - if pasta was intended to be made any other way than what most of the entire world has experienced thus far, dontcha think the great chefs of Italy, Tuscany, Sicily, and the like woulda altered their recipes thousands of years ago? Finding new ways of eating old-time favorites in a much healthier way is a fantastic idea; but, if anyone is gonna do any new pioneer work in that field, please do your best to make it edible, okay? Chef Boyarddee my ass. Thank you for reading.
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