Not bad advice. Another good tip is to use the right pasta for the right sauce.
As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bolognese. Basically, they'd serve you a tuna & tomato sauce. Nothing wrong with that of course. But if you want their famous meat sauce, order pasta alla ragu. Very different experience.
Italian food done right is pretty yummy and not that hard to master for a home cook. Half the success is using good ingredients. The other half is mastering some simple techniques. Pasta especially is not that hard and doing it right makes a huge difference.
Anthony Bourdain said: “Encapsulate the essential Italian philosophy of cooking here: Get a very few excellent ingredients, then proceed to not fuck them up.”
The main reason for tagliatelle/pappardelle is to get "fresh" pasta. "Pasta Fresca" or "Pasta all'uovo" is made of different ingredients than spaghetti. It's usually soft wheat and eggs versus hard wheat (durum wheat, semolina) and water.
I agree that finding the right pairing of pasta and sauce does make a difference, but I would also say not to overthink it. Most italians will use whatever's available in the pantry, even if it's sub-optimal.
The last line is so true. Italian cooking is a really good way to measure your progress as a cook, because you can use the exact same ingredients and get a completely different result with better skills. The simple recipes are a great testbed for the techniques you are picking up.
As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bolognese. Basically, they'd serve you a tuna & tomato sauce. Nothing wrong with that of course. But if you want their famous meat sauce, order pasta alla ragu. Very different experience.
Italian food done right is pretty yummy and not that hard to master for a home cook. Half the success is using good ingredients. The other half is mastering some simple techniques. Pasta especially is not that hard and doing it right makes a huge difference.