Italian Cooking - Keep It Simple

By Maria Gedding

For some reason Italian food is often thought of as a fattening food - this is not the case at all! The idea that pasta will make you fat is not really true. As Sophia Loren, who ate spaghetti all her life, says in her book, it is not the pasta that makes you fat, but what you put on top of it. To be honest , a diet that is made up of Italian food, based on Mediterranean food is going to be quite healthy. You do of course need to be aware which Italian foods you can eat, and of course how to prepare the food properly.

Sophia Loren, who was brought up on spaghetti, said in her book that it's not the pasta that makes you fat, it's what you put on top of it. The creamy sauces like Alfredo sauce, if eaten in very large quantities, are of course likely to cause weight gain. The Mediterranean way of preparing food does not rely on the creamy, rich sauces, but use olive oil in place of butter which makes the sauces much more healthy.

Some basic ingredients you need to keep to enable you to prepare healthy Italian food are will include a good quality Italian pasta, olive oil, onions, garlic, fish, lean meat and seafood. You will also want herbs like parsley, oregano and basil. Don't make the mistake of using masses of cheese, just a little parmesan as a topping to your favorite Italian dishes.

There are quite a few light Italian food recipes that you can make with very simple ingredients, here is an example of one that is really easy to make;

Pasta with Tomato Sauce - use any type of pasta that you like. Boil the pasta in water that has been seasoned with salt. Don't overcook the pasta - it must be tender and firm.

For the sauce all you need to do is to chop up an onion, some garlic (to taste), and some tomatoes (or use a tin if you prefer). Use one tablespoon of olive oil and saute the onions and garlic till soft. Then add the tomatoes and cook until all of the ingredients have mixed together well. Then you can add some of your favorite herbs, like basil, oregano or parsley. You can really add any herbs you like, try a few till you come up with the ones you like best. Serve the sauce over the hot pasta and if you want you could sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on to it.

I hope that you can see how easy it is to make a nice, tasty, yet healthy Italian food dish. You will not need any type of accompaniment, such as bread, with this. You can change the taste of the dish by varying the herbs that you use, and you can also try it with various types of pasta. Find the pasta and herbs that you like and you will have found a simple Italian Recipe that can be made very quickly and easily. - 30210

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