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Browning and light frying
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| Browning, light frying, frying until yellow, until golden, sautéing, pan-frying... there is an infinity of technical terms in the culinary glossary. And yet these actions are fundamental, especially when preparing pasta dishes. |
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A good light fried mixture of vegetables is the key to success of the most simple sauce; a plate of spaghetti or bucatini, lightly tossed in strongly perfumed olive oil has a much more decisive flavour. So to help you understand the array of tones of pan cooking, we would like to present a brief overview of the most common techniques.
Suitable tools. A large, shallow pan is essential, much better if with a non-stick base, which allows the food to have an even contact with the cooking fat (technically this pan is called a sauteuse or sautoir). Cooking is done without a lid, quickly and stirring the food frequently using a wooden spoon, so that a golden crust forms over the surface of the food.
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The irreplaceable starting point for a sauce or soup (and many other dishes besides, such as casseroles), a master soffritto, the lightly fried mixture of vegetables, adds a lively, rich flavour to any recipe: light frying involves colouring a mixture of chopped vegetables and herbs in oil or butter at a lower temperature than would be used for frying. The essential ingredients for the soffritto is garlic or onion: both have a more delicate flavour and are more easily digested if cooked over a low heat for not too long; many recipes suggest this cooking should continue only to the point when the onion becomes transparent, or "slightly golden" at the most; on the other hand, if garlic is left on the heat for too long it darkens and becomes bitter.
Those who prefer less strong aromas may wish to replace the onion or garlic with shallots; an excellent garlic and oil pasta dish includes chilli pepper in the sauce, adding the drained pasta to the pan and sautéing it for a few minutes.
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Give an even colour to the food to flavour it; browning can be done over a high or low flame according to the type of fat used (butter, extra virgin olive oil); the cooking fat is drained off afterwards. To brown particularly delicate vegetables such as asparagus, soften them first by steaming briefly, and then fry them lightly and quickly in the pan until golden.
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Cook until golden. Cook food until it is golden coloured on the surface: vegetables, meat and fish can be fried until golden by frying lightly in the pan, while cakes are cooked until golden in the oven, brushing the surface with a mixture of egg yolk and milk to help the process.
Sauté. This is a very quick method of cooking, over a high flame, allowing the previously heated fats (oil, butter or other) to cook only the underside of the food, on the part that touches the pan: this leads to the action of "sautéing", which requires the food to be turned over frequently to allow it to cook evenly. In meat recipes the term "sauté" means to cook by browning; vegetables and pasta are instead sautéed with oil or butter using a characteristic wrist and hand movement to "throw" the ingredients up into the air and have them land back in the pan on the other side. The timid, or beginners who do not feel like doing acrobatics at the hob can simply turn the pasta and vegetables frequently with a wooden spoon, so that all the food gets flavoured by the dressing, and all surfaces are covered by a golden crust. When cooking with butter, it is preferable to clarify it first; when cooking meat in this way, for example to make a ragout sauce, pay attention to the quality of the flame, which must be high at the beginning but then be turned down slowly to stop the meat from "sweating" (so the juice escapes) and getting tough.
There is also a particular method used for pasta dishes, called padellare, which involves dressing the pasta in the chosen sauce and mixing it directly over a high flame.
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Just a few words to finish, dedicated to a process that does not need a pan but which is equally important when preparing many pasta dishes: the gratin, which adds that final inviting touch to timbales and oven-cooked pasta dishes, and which has been made even quicker today by the widespread use of the microwave oven. To gratinate generally refers to the finishing of an already cooked dish, put into the oven to form a crispy golden crust on the surface. There are two methods of gratinating: full, which involves cooking and gratinating raw food in one go, and a quicker method, where the crust is simply added to pre-cooked food. In the first case, the whole cooking process is done in the oven, with the food covered with enough liquid to allow it to cook without burning; the second method, normally used for pasta, involves sprinkling grated (preferably on the spot) cheese and breadcrumbs, adding oil or butter and placing in the oven (also using the grill as the heat source).
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