Simple Ways to Elevate Your Midweek Pasta, According to Julia Busuttil Nishimura

Australian cookbook author Julia Busuttil Nishimura has shared practical techniques and insights to help home cooks improve everyday pasta dishes, covering everything from selecting dried pasta to proper water seasoning and emulsion methods.

Choosing the Right Pasta and Ingredients

While fresh pasta is often viewed as superior, Nishimura notes that dried pasta holds an essential place in traditional Italian cooking. Dried varieties are particularly well-suited for classic Roman sauces such as carbonara, amatriciana, cacio e pepe, and alla gricia. When purchasing dried pasta, she advises looking for a rough surface to help sauces cling and a pale yellow color indicating low-temperature, slow drying for better texture and flavor.

For olive oil-based or tomato-based sauces, using extra virgin olive oil generously at the beginning helps build flavor and assists with emulsification later. When cooking base aromatics like garlic, chili, and onion, starting them in a warm rather than hot pan allows flavors to release slowly without turning bitter.

Cooking and Emulsifying Techniques

Proper water preparation and finishing methods are central to achieving restaurant-quality results at home:

• Salt the water: Use approximately one and a half to two teaspoons of salt per liter of water.
• Test for doneness: Cook pasta slightly under the packet instructions and taste near the end to ensure it reaches an al dente texture.
• Save the starchy water: Scoop pasta directly into the hot sauce rather than draining it, adding splashes of starchy cooking water to emulsify and glossy-coat the dish.

Cheese and Seafood Pairings

Nishimura also discusses regional cheese choices, noting that sharp sheep's milk pecorino is often preferred over parmesan for Roman sauces, spring vegetables, or lamb dishes. Regarding seafood, she advises against combining strong cheeses with fish and seafood, suggesting crunchy fried breadcrumbs as an alternative topping.

Readers can verify these techniques and find further recipes in Nishimura's cookbook, *Simple Pleasures: Recipes to Fall in Love With Every Day*, published by Pan Macmillan Australia.