{"id":335,"date":"2007-10-20T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-20T13:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2007\/10\/20\/335\/"},"modified":"2015-07-30T19:44:20","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T00:44:20","slug":"335","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"PASTA PROBLEMS:"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a nice little article in the NY Times the other day (by the so-called \u201cMinimalist\u201d) about how pasta should be served<\/a>. The bottom line is that a pasta dish, whether at home or in a restaurant, should have a lot more vegetables and a bit less pasta than most of us are used to. The role of pasta in an American meal has gone through some changes over the years. Back in the 1950s, pasta was generally served as a plate of spaghetti with a heavy dose of meat sauce. It was your once-a-week break from meat and potatoes. <\/p>\n

Then in the 1980s, pasta became a bit more fashionable, and people re-discovered the various shapes and sizes it came in (rigatoni, capellini, twists, shells, bowties, etc.). Cooking it into a limp paste (just like canned Spaghetti-O\u2019s) became a no-no; al dente became the watchword for the culinary police. Also, the sauce now became a supporting actor; you no longer drowned your noodles, and maybe tried some different twists on the basic marinara or meat ragu. Then came the Atkins diet craze, and carbs became the enemy. So pasta portion sizes shrank, and it was back to overwhelming it with rich, heavy sauces, frequently cream-based (e.g. the popular \u201cvodka\u201d sauce, which doesn\u2019t really have any vodka in it). In recent years, I\u2019ve notices a retro-trend, back to big portions of pasta with lots of heavy sauce.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMinimalist\u201d makes a cry for sanity in this long night of pasta madness. The world shouldn\u2019t revolve around heavy sauces. Pasta should indeed be a bit chewy, but it shouldn\u2019t cover the plate; it should almost be looked at as a side dish. And the cheese and oil need to calm down too. The star of your plate should be fresh vegetables, preferably saut\u00e9ed in a bit of garlic and olive oil. This could be more than one vegetable or mix of veggies; perhaps peppers, tomatoes and onions on one side, and zucchini and mushrooms on the other. For you carnivores out there — fine, add your sausage or chicken strips. As a vegetarian, I\u2019ll stick to the veggies (other than my occasional foray into linguine with clam sauce; clams aren’t really vegetables, but they aren’t sentient animals either). <\/p>\n

The bottom line here is that pasta should be a complement to the vegetables, not the other way around. Overcooked noodles are considered \u201chigh glycemic\u201d; their calories get digested into the body too quickly. At some point, foods that are high-glycemic<\/a> might contribute to obesity, diabetes and liver problems (or so I\u2019ve read; I\u2019m not a doctor or an expert on this). Increasing the veggies and reducing the pasta (and keeping it al dente) certainly makes for a healthier meal. Another factor is the protein balance; wheat flour needs vegetables to give a properly balanced protein mix. But, in my opinion, and the Minimalist\u2019s too, the veggie-first, pasta-second philosophy also makes for a nicer, better tasting meal. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s my 2 cents; I guess that everyone likes what they like. All I\u2019m saying is that you might want to try it, if you haven\u2019t yet. Bon appetite.<\/p>\n

CHEAP-SKATE VEGETARIAN SIDENOTE: As an aging veg-head, I have to take my daily vitamin supplements, to make sure that I\u2019m not missing anything by cutting meat out entirely. About two years ago, my doctor ordered me to take a B-complex every day. And I\u2019m glad that he did, because I\u2019ve been feeling a bit better since then, and haven\u2019t gotten sick as much either. But a good B-complex pill can be relatively expensive. I\u2019ve seen some premium vitamin brands charge as much as $20 per hundred tablets. (Another B-complex problem: their RDA percentages vary a lot; the mix of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B-6, B-12, biotin and pantothenic acid vary all over the place.) <\/p>\n

I found a pretty good B complex at Whole Foods that goes for about $22 for 180 tablets, or around $12.22 per 100. Given the Whole Foods persona and client\u00e8le, I would assume these pills are of high quality. Then I saw Sundown B-100 going in the local Shop Rite at around $8 for 60 (about $11.67 per 100). They have a bit less biotin, but more of the other stuff in each pill (except for folic acid \u2013 just about all B complexes come with 100% of the RDA for folic). Sundown is a Rexall brand, and I would assume that on old-time pharmacy company like Rexall knows to sell a decent if not top-line pill.<\/p>\n

Today I picked up a B complex with the same daily values as the Sundown product, but only costing $7 for 100. This was the house brand at the local A&P; it’s called America\u2019s Choice. I\u2019m hoping these are decent vitamins, without any harmful ingredients. I see carnauba wax and polyethylene glycol listed on the bottle, although this article from Better Nutrition<\/a> hints that such stuff isn\u2019t anything to freak out about. P.E.G. isn\u2019t anti-freeze, which is ethylene glycol, a cousin. <\/p>\n

Well, as a cheapskate, I always love a bargain. But as someone concerned about health and nutrition, I think I\u2019ll hedge my bets and buy the Whole Foods brand sometimes; maybe I\u2019ll go 50-50, cheap-o pills and better-made pills (no car wax or quasi anti-freeze) every other day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a nice little article in the NY Times the other day (by the so-called \u201cMinimalist\u201d) about how pasta should be served. The bottom line is that a pasta dish, whether at home or in a restaurant, should have a lot more vegetables and a bit less pasta than most of us are used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5592,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/5592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}