Andrea's funny interview for Italian Newspaper

[highness]

funny interview,i started to like him. gonna buy his jersey

Get ready to sell it in a month

[Uncle Hare]

I assume you have no idea how's made the original Amatriciana, and how big are portions in italy
Please, save you craps for stats, but don't touch pasta recipes.

I know exactly how to make an authentic amatriciana sauce, and I know exactly what the pasta:sauce ratios are like compared to here in North America. It's amazing: we North Americans have access to both the internet and movable type, and most of us know how to read. Therefore, because I love to cook and Italian food is one of my preferred culinary tastes, I am quite familiar with all the major sauces for pasta - and I make my own pasta at home as well - and how they're traditionally prepared and served. I've made them all at home many times: bolognese, marinara, amatriciana, putanesca, pesto, pomodoro, arrabbiata, carbonara - as well as many others of my own creation, including caribbean-styled coconut milk reduction sauces, and several based on béchamel for various chicken servings. If you want to come over here and do an episode of Iron Chef: RealGM Edition, get over here and let's see what you can do.

I'm not even a culinary professional (I know there are a few on this board), and the knowledge of what pasta is supposed to be like is well-known to me. There's no excuse from a guy who grew up in Rome to not have a basic idea as to how to pasta can be served.

Yeah, Nice, you know hot to cook 8 kind of pasta. Amazing. Too bad original Amatriciana isn't made with bacon.
You really want to challenge an italian about pasta cooking? Really? Come on, don't be silly. Your examples are just the basics.
BTW, try tuna fish and fresh tomatoes quickly scalded mixed with pesto and tagliatelle (every kind of pasta is good, but tagliatelle work pretty well with this one), with a little add of pepper, if you really want to try something new. Be sure to not cook too much the tuna fish.

[Uncle Hare]

Maybe he was referring to how he likes his pasta. What exactly did he say that makes you believe he does not "have a basic idea as to how to pasta can be served"?

Because generally speaking, sauces are not served at such a high sauce:pasta ratio like they are in most restaurants here. You don't need to dump a full cup of cheese and a half-pound of pancetta to completely saturate the noodles like we do here in this country; in Italy, sauces are simply a highlight to the pasta, not a complete cover of it. Andrea should know that.

Further, his claim that he'd balloon up to 300 lbs by starting to eat pasta in the offseason leads me to think he's not working out very hard, unless he was just joking.

You know, I eat pasta like you say - very little sauce. But that does not mean anyone else has to.

Do a google image search for "bucatini all’amatriciana", and I'd say that light on the sauce isn't exactly the standard...

Anyways, regardless of sauce, It's carbo-loaded pasta that is more the problem when compared to a steak for weight gain.

The "Artusi" one, of the oldest and most famour recipes book, often add to his recipes variations for those who'd like to "swim in the sauce". Please, you're embarassing yourself right now.

[Uncle Hare]

You know, I eat pasta like you say - very little sauce. But that does not mean anyone else has to.

Do a google image search for "bucatini all’amatriciana", and I'd say that light on the sauce isn't exactly the standard...

wtf?

[Uncle Hare]

is bunga bunga Italian for what goes on in Berlusconi's hotel rooms?

yeah. Not hotel room, his private houses. Seems that he learned that term from Gaddafi in one of his visits.

[fabste]

LOL funny interview....i read much much HATE for this season, he hate to lose.
Italian blood

He jocked but RIGHT NOW he wouldn't be sad if a trade in a good team happen

[5DOM]

Thanks Andrea. Now I know more about.... pasta

[Nothingface]

You know, I eat pasta like you say - very little sauce. But that does not mean anyone else has to.

Do a google image search for "bucatini all’amatriciana", and I'd say that light on the sauce isn't exactly the standard...

wtf?

lol, whats with the confusion?

[merlino]

Quentin Tarantino's recipe?

[Strategist1]

Andrea's too busy taking vacations, dreaming about beaches and pasta, and making jokes...while guys like Kobe and Chris Paul are watching the NBA finals with disgust... I bet after each game, these guys,... hit the gym out of frustration.

[BorisDK1]

Yeah, Nice, you know hot to cook 8 kind of pasta. Amazing. Too bad original Amatriciana isn't made with bacon.
You really want to challenge an italian about pasta cooking? Really? Come on, don't be silly. Your examples are just the basics.
BTW, try tuna fish and fresh tomatoes quickly scalded mixed with pesto and tagliatelle (every kind of pasta is good, but tagliatelle work pretty well with this one), with a little add of pepper, if you really want to try something new. Be sure to not cook too much the tuna fish.

Dude, you challenged my knowledge of basic pasta sauces. I never said that Amatriciana was made with bacon; I know it's made basically with guanciale but with pancetta or speck as substitutes. Guanciale isn't easy to find here and not cheap when you do; pancetta is a more than acceptable alternative, in that it's readily available, and far more affordable. All of the ones I just rhymed off are basic, building-block type pasta sauces, and I've made them all multiple times, which you implied I didn't have the knowledge to do. You have no business challenging my knowledge of basic sauces, noodles or presentations - and now you know.

I make my own pastas here at home - my preference is for whole wheat tagliatele marbled with squid ink (I harvest the squid ink myself, and make the pasta at home) tossed with calamari, shrimp and mussels in a coconut milk/"seasonin'" (i.e. a Caribbean green spice curry, a little more pungent than salsa verde) reduction, as my experimentation with fusion cuisine. I've also blended the seafood into a paste and stuffed it with the reduction in squid ink ravioli, served under a tropical salsa as a Caribbean faux-pomodoro sauce. You don't need to tell me how to make tuna, I'm quite familiar with that fish and how dry it gets when cooked beyond rare. You certainly don't need to tell me that pastas can be tossed without traditional sauces: I'm well aware, thank you.

If it seals the deal, I also only use elite medal award winning olive oils in my cuisine. I pay big bucks for them, but they're more than worth it. They're even usually from Italy (Tuscan, mostly, but the occasional Sicilian mixed in). It may come as a shock that the only product from Italy I have a problem with is Andrea Bargnani.

Point being, I'm not some jabroni in the kitchen who couldn't find the handle of a knife with both hands and an instruction manual.

[BorisDK1]

Please have us over for a BBQ.

I told you I would! I've built my own spice rub and injection sauce for BBQ chuck roast soon and I'd love to host the guys sometime post-draft. I think I'll also do some chicken and maybe pulled pork as well for those who aren't so concerned about dietary concerns.

We'll get that done in July sometime.

[sanity]

LOL funny interview....i read much much HATE for this season, he hate to lose.
Italian blood

He jocked but RIGHT NOW he wouldn't be sad if a trade in a good team happen

He hates to lose? He's never won anything

[Tacoma]

At the risk of possibly overgeneralizing, this interview is yet another data point of Bargs' lackadaisical attitude toward the game. As we watch the NBA Finals and seeing Dirk leading Dallas, you can see the fire and determination in him, supported by intense work ethic on and off the court. You sense he loves the game and even at age 32, is still a student of it.

Compare this to Bargs who has similar natural physical skills as Dirk but is the antithesis of Dirk where it counts - in his brain. Like he floats around on the court, he similarly "floats" around in the interview, making light of the team and of himself.

If Dirk was similarly interviewed by the German media, he would more likelyhave said something to the effect of this was a very disaapointing season, I failed to lead the team (not just in scoring via more FGA but actually LEAD) like I said I would do last summer, so I'm going to watch video of every game, learn my mistakes, hit the gym every day and show everyone next season, including BC, the kind of player I am.

But, instead, it's like, ho hum, another disappointing season, oh well... Same old Bargs.

[strangespot]

LOL funny interview....i read much much HATE for this season, he hate to lose.
Italian blood

He jocked but RIGHT NOW he wouldn't be sad if a trade in a good team happen

He hates to lose? He's never won anything

you may not understand what they say but watch it and you'll see a totally different Bargnani who WON and held the italian championship trophy. Also not many others can claim to be voted best european youth prospect and then been selected 1st overall in an NBA draft.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ae9l7NtDqA[/youtube]

[BorisDK1]

you may not understand what they say but watch it and you'll see a totally different Bargnani who WON and held the italian championship trophy. Also not many others can claim to be voted best european youth prospect and then been selected 1st overall in an NBA draft.

And that Bargnani has been on milk containers ever since 2006. I don't know whether he's just cowed by better competition or what, but I don't think we'll see that guy again.

[Mattd97]

I'm one of Bargs' biggest haters, but there's nothing wrong with that quote. One, it's hilarious. Two, I don't think that it suggests anything about his mindset, as Harry said...you can be a ferocious competitor and still be able to crack jokes like that. Bargs isn't that sort of competitor, by all indications, but he wouldn't be any more of one were he stripped of a sense of humour.

this, word for word

[J-Roc]

I enjoyed this one the best...

-Is there a compliment you received that pleased you most?
-Probably the one that Bryant made to me when we won in LA, I met him in the tunnel, he speaks Italian way better than me (laugh), without accent (laugh), he said I played well and I had to keep getting better…. And since there I never defeated him anymore (laugh)

[serafina]

-We made a test to see if you’re still Roman or if you became an American. First question, “bucatini all’amatriciana” or T-bone steak
-I’d say bucatini, but we’re out of season, I can’t eat them, I’ll became 130kg if I eat them everyday, so maybe T-bone steak is better (Laugh)

No wonder he's a spokesman for Primo: the boy knows nothing about pasta. Nothing! Somebody tell the boy that there are such things as fresh whole wheat pastas and - GASP! - if you go to a kitchen supply store and drop $60 you can buy a pasta machine and make the stuff yourself. Healthy, not nearly as many calories or fat - get a clue, dude.

Further, being Italian, he should know that you don't cover the pasta in sauce; you just put a little in the middle to get a taste of it. You don't have to have a plate completely slathered in pancetta to make a tasty amatriciana sauce.

Totally wrong about bucatini all'amatriciana.

In Italy WE do not put a little of sauce in the middle to get a taste of it!

When the pasta is drained very much "al dente" you have to cook it again for a minute in the pan of sauce all'amatriciana. You have to finish cooking so that the pasta absorbs the sauce that should be plentiful! The Bucatini are made with the "hole" just to have the sauce inside them!

Please, Andrea weaknesses can be many, but you cannot teach to a Roman the most famous pasta plate of his region!

Andrea has used the bucatini all'amatriciana as a correct example of not very light italian food.

And, please, do not tell anymore that speck (that's typical of the northern italian region, the Tirolo, near Austria) can be an alternative to the guanciale in the amatriciana, only pancetta can be used for it.