FAQ · Things people ask
Remove from the heat immediately and keep whisking over a bowl of cold water. If it's starting to granulate, it may be saved by whisking vigorously off heat — but once the texture breaks, it cannot be reversed.
Zabaione is best served immediately while warm and still billowing. It can be cooled and refrigerated, but the volume collapses and the texture changes — it becomes more of a sauce.
Dry sherry, dry Madeira, or Vin Santo are the best substitutes. Prosecco works for a lighter version. Avoid sweet dessert wines — they make it cloying.
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Carbonara is technique, not ingredients. Get the egg-and-cheese mixture off direct heat and you've solved 90% of it.
Three ingredients. The simplest pasta in the Roman canon is also the most technically unforgiving — the sauce either comes together or it clumps.
Amatriciana comes from the town of Amatrice, not Rome, but the Romans claimed it long ago. The argument about whether it needs onion has been going on for decades — I skip it.
A good pasta al pomodoro is not a quick dump-and-stir — the sauce needs 15 minutes of focused reduction to turn canned tomatoes into something worth eating.