Top chefs reveal the worst crimes against Italian food: “I wouldn’t serve store bought pesto to my worst enemy”

There are many things that can go wrong with Italian food, from overcooked swollen pasta to pizza topped with cheap oil, according to chefs.

“Pizza, pasta, bread, and salad dressing are Italian foods that are very often ruined abroad,” says US-based Sylvia Baldini, a Food Network “Chopped” winner who has trained in Michelin-starred kitchens.

Most cooks tend to make the food too complex by combining too many flavours or by a saturation of questionable chemicals in the case of manufacturers, according to the Independent. These mistakes give Italian food like pasta and pizza a bad reputation, when in fact the Mediterranean diet is among the healthiest in the world.

“My favourite dishes are often the ones from my childhood and they are the celebration of seasonal and local ingredients,” says Baldini. “I find that pasta is the most ruined dish outside Italy. It’s often overcooked or under-cooked, badly seasoned and served with too many ingredients.”

Regarding pizza, the former “Chopped” winner can’t understand why the dish is weighed down with chicken or meatballs, or why a crust might be thick or soggy. “A thin crust is a tasty vessel to showcase a few well chosen toppings. Pineapple doesn’t belong on it and it makes me cringe,” she said.

Sylvia Baldini also shares her hatred towards bottled salad dressings and mass-produced pesto: “Salads should be coated with good olive oil, vinegar or lemon for acidity and seasoned with sea salt salt and a little pepper, never with corn syrup and vegetable oil. The same goes for pesto. In Italy pesto is made by grinding pine-nuts in a mortar with a handful of fragrant basil leaves and salt and by adding good extra virgin olive oil. The store bought kind is a scary garlic loaded version I wouldn’t serve to my worst enemy.”

“Finally one should never end a meal with a cappuccino because cappuccino is for breakfast or an afternoon interlude. Espresso is a better choice.”

Private chef Marco Scire from La Belle Assiette thinks that bolognese pasta, while being one of the UK’s favourite dishes, is often very different from the original versions.

“Although every nonna or mamma has their own recipe, the bolognese sauce should contain two types of meat, 75 per cent beef and 25 per cent pork, tomato paste, a good quality red wine, some fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme, plus some garlic and onion,” he said.

“Use pappardelle or tagliatelle pasta as they will retain the sauce and not spaghetti which is more commonly done in the UK. This is because the sauce will not stick to the pasta.”

“It shouldn’t contain bacon or other type of fat or any ‘cooking wine’, like I have seen during my career in restaurants. Only use a wine which is good enough to drink.”

What Scire despises most is chefs cooling off pasta by putting it in cold water: “It washes the gluten off, which is vital for both Restahe flavour and the binding of the sauce.”

“A good Italian chef knows that when cooking pasta, adding a couple of spoonfuls of the water used to cook the pasta will enrich any sauce and help bind together the pasta with its sauce.”

Another La Belle Assiette private chef, Neal Otter, is contempt regarding risotto. Remembering his days training to become a chef, he said: “I was frequently slapped on the back of the head with a wooden spoon if my risottos weren’t oozy and silky smooth.”

Sylvia Baldini concludes that the secret to delicious Italian food is easy: “it is simple and should remain simple.”