How To Cook Like An Italian: 3 Mistakes to Avoid

Common Cooking Mistakes to Avoid

In this video, we’ll reveal the top 3 Italian cooking mistakes holding you back and provide expert tips for avoiding them. Learn how to cook like an Italian!

Italian cuisine is celebrated for its simplicity, freshness, and emphasis on quality ingredients. With roots dating back centuries, this Mediterranean cooking style has captivated taste buds worldwide. However, even seasoned travelers can make missteps when navigating Italy’s culinary landscape.

To avoid faux pas and fully immerse yourself in the Italian food experience, it’s essential to understand some of the unspoken rules that locals adhere to. These include how to treat meat and vegetables, how to handle pasta water, and how to properly use sauce. Let’s break them down.

Video Chapters

• 00:00 How To Cook Like An Italian: 3 Common Mistakes to Avoid
• 00:13 Overcooking Meat and Vegetables
• 00:59 Adding Oil to Pasta Water
• 01:59 Drowning Pasta in Sauce

Overcooking meat and vegetables is a frequent mistake. Using an egg wash and baking meat in the oven can result in dryness. To maintain juiciness and enhance flavor, try pan-roasting in a skillet with or without oil. This method helps create a caramelized exterior and rich flavor.

Another common misunderstanding is adding oil to pasta water. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t prevent sticking. It creates a greasy coating that keeps the sauce from clinging properly. Instead, salt the pasta water generously, cook pasta al dente, and reserve some water to finish the sauce.

Finally, many people drown pasta in sauce. In Italian kitchens, the pasta is the main act and the sauce is just there to complement it. Using too much sauce can hide the flavor and texture of well-prepared pasta. Balance is key.

This is my Sicilian mother-in-law. And it didn’t matter what she was cooking, whether it was pasta, fish, or chicken cutlets on Sunday, it was always delicious. She taught me a lot about how to cook like an Italian.

One of the biggest lessons was about how to treat meat. She always said that using an egg wash and baking meat in the oven dries it out. Instead, she pan-cooked it with a bit of oil or dry-roasted it in a skillet. It made everything taste better and stay moist.

If you still want to bake meat or vegetables in the oven, coat them in oil before adding breadcrumbs. Don’t skip the fat entirely or you’ll end up with dry food.

She also taught me to season in layers. Always salt the pasta water well. When the pasta is cooked, you should be able to just add butter and still enjoy the flavor. No one here adds oil to the water. It’s a waste of time and doesn’t prevent sticking. I’ve never seen an Italian in Italy do it.

We always cooked pasta al dente, meaning firm to the bite, never mushy. And we saved a bit of pasta water to finish the dish and bring everything together. That little step makes a big difference.

The sauce should enhance the pasta, not drown it. My MIL would make her own seasoned breadcrumbs for dredging meat, fish, or vegetables. She added grated Parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, never the curly kind.

I’m so grateful she passed these traditions down to me. They changed the way I cook and think about food. If you follow these tips, they can change your kitchen too.

Want to see how simple Sicilian cooking plays into everyday life? Check out our post on grocery shopping in Sicily.