VOTE! Cook time or no cook time

Ethnocentrism (noun): evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.

At Cucina Calabrese, we realize that we might have been guilty of this by assuming other families have had pasta as such a staple of their food culture. Each in our family can usually tell when pasta is done just by looking. Not the case for everyone else, so we shouldn't have been surprised when kind customers began asking how long to boil the pasta. There has been debate in our family about whether to list cook times on the pasta bag, so we wanted to let our customers decide on what to do. Here's a list of some benefits to each decision. Take a look & let us know on social media by 8/4/17 what you think...

Listing cook times:

-removes the step of looking it up for people who don't typically make pasta

-people have been asking for it

-some of the flavored

pastas cook for much less time than non-flavored pastas

-prevents silly techniques for checking doneness (e.g. throwing pasta against the wall to see if it sticks)

Not listing cook times:

-most artisan & imported pastas don't have cook times listed

-cook times can be different based on a number of factors (e.g., burner heat, altitude, etc.)

-people have different preferences between softer & more al dente noodles

-you likely pay closer attention to the pasta without cook times, giving it some attention with stirs & whatnot