welcome to the kitchen.

Before we straight up go into the recipes.

i am going here to do a big dump of info that i will then take for granted that you will know. (granted meaing that i'll say it and in bracket say "if you don't know, read the first paragraph" or something like this) reason being that when i'll speak for the pasta, how to cook it, what oil to use and few other informations that are pretty much general basic for me and not specific for the recipe unless specified by the case, that will all be pointed here. here i will discuss for why it's so important to check what pasta you're getting, and not the shape but what wheat has been used, how to cook the pasta properly, with what timing for cooking and how to salt the water. and last but not least a big explaining for why you shouldn't use extra virgin olive oil to cook but only as final touch as dressing. i hope to be as clear as i can to give such information, with that said, you're free to do whatever you like, BUT if you do not follow certain things the recipes i will put might result in a bummer since some parts have not been followed. not as the biggest difference, but that might give actual change for the taste or feel in the mouth of who's going to eat the dish. with that said, let's begin.:

Let's talk first of all about the pasta. not for the shapes that it comes and stuff, but for what pasta to buy. the reason being that if you are not italian or no one ever told you, you may not know that there are different kind of wheat used to make pasta, in italian we call them "Granoduro" or "Durumwheat" in english and "Granotenero" or just "Wheat" in english, why this is important? good pasta is made of Durumwheat. not ideal pasta is made with whatever is left, reason being the following: have you ever heard of the word "Al Dente"? you most likely did, do you know what that means? if you don't it's normal, Al Dente is a specific word that means a very specific moment in the cooking time of the pasta that gives the spaghetto or penna or whatever pasta you're cooking a specific feeling in the mouth, soft and nice on the outside but still nicely hard inside but not too much to be undercooked. it's a very specific feeling that you get when you try it, why this is important with the whole wheat discussion? well, when you cook anything, you are putting it on pot, pan or whatever that is hundreds of degrees hot, either Celsius or Fahrenheit (or however it's spelled... i'm a Celsius boy) and when you take your steak, your pasta or whatever off from the cooking pot, sure it does slow down the cooking but it doesn't actually stop cooking. it slowly keeps going on, and this happens for the pasta aswell, and in italian we have this thing called "Reggere la cottura" which is "Hold the cookign" in english, meaning that if you strain the pasta in time, the one made of Durum wheat will hold much better on long time the cooking and feel nice and well cooked and not mushy and overcooked for much MUCH more time. and trust me, the difference is very obvious when you compare the two, SO to put this first big dump in the bag, always try to get pasta made with Durum wheat. AND AVOID ANY BIG "ITALIAN" BRANDS like Barilla, DeCecco or whatever, why? they use all the durum wheat for italy, all the rest of the wheat for the rest of the world... we eat a lot of pasta guys, they have to feed us LMAO, for any american folks, i tested myself the brand Rao's pasta, that's a good one. so if you have that around, i can promise you that's good pasta compared to anything else i saw.

$ status: the bro is finally cooking — but slow cooking indeed.