Italian Cooking Need Not Be Unhealthy

Italian cooking has somehow been thought of as using fattening food – this is not the case at all! The idea that Italian pasta will make you fat is not really true. In all honesty, a diet of Italian food, based on Mediterranean food is really fairly healthy and should help you to stay looking and feeling good, so long as you are aware of what Italian food to eat, and how to make it of course.

When you put sauce on your pasta, if you use the creamy sauces such as Alfredo sauce, then if eaten in large quantities, you are of course going to run the risk of increasing your weight. The way the food is prepared in the Mediterranean does not rely on the creamy, rich sauces, made with butter , but instead uses olive oil – this makes the sauces much more healthy.

So that you can make healthy Italian food you will need some basic ingredients in your store cupboard, these will include good quality Italian pasta, onions, olive oil, fish, garlic, lean meat and of course seafood. You will also want to keep a good stock of various herbs like parsley, oregano and basil.

There are many Italian food recipes that you can prepare with the use of very few ingredients. A good example of one of these dishes follows;

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.

Make sure to visit Italian Cooking for Italian pasta.