Rouxbe

No problem, Vanessa. All purpose flour works just fine...the crust won't be as crispy, but as long as its thin, will work well. You can add a bit of whole wheat flour, or even cornmeal for that crispy texture...or simply bake a little longer.

You can make breadcrumbs with any bread. Simply break it up and pulse it in the food processor, fresh, until semi-coarse. Let them dry a bit before using, or dry completely and store. Sprouted wheat breadcrumbs actually sound quite nice.

The feel method already takes into consideration the carry-over cooking. But remember, this only works for steaks, not roasts. Also, much depends how the carry-over cooking is done. If tented and turned occasionally on a rack (as opposed to no turning and on a plate), the doneness will be more even throughout. This means that the blood, heat, and continued coagulation has spread throughout the steak perfectly.

The beauty of this dish is it's so versatile. Once you know how to combine the cooked pasta to the olive oil in a pan with enough pasta water to create that wonderful emulsion, what goes with it is really up to you. More often than not, it depends on what is in my fridge or pantry, and sometimes on what I crave. When I crave anchovies or fresh basil, well guess what, it's going in.

If you're going to cook frozen gnochhi, make sure they go in plenty of boiling, salted water ONE AT THE TIME. If they are thrown in, they will quickly cool the water and sit at the bottom as a lump. Make sure they float, take one out and taste to make sure they are cooked through. Also, frozen gnocchi will cook a bit more starchy than fresh ones, so may require being re-freshed in cold ice bath to remove the starches, set in the fridge AND THEN pan fried in the butter.

These, in general, give you a very rough edge, though sharp for the first few cuts. They also tend to rip away at your knife much faster. Let's put it this way, I wouldn't put my best knives through them, but perhaps would my $5 a shot paring knife. Renata makes the key point in all this: cutting will be a joy with the best edge you can produce. Look for a future lesson on how to do this with a stone.

One key to aglio e olio is to end up with a pasta that is not too oily. Adding some pasta water to the pan, about 2 T or more per serving, creates an emulsion with the olive oil. This emulsion carries the oil better, so you don't end up with an oily plate when finished eating. You can achieve this when straining the pasta and leaving some of the cooking water on the pasta before adding to the pan - so straining lightly, not diligently; but it is best controlled by straining well and adding reserved starchy water later. The starch and seasonig of the pasta water is quite tasty, so it serves two purposes. Most moms don't do this technique, mine doesn't, but my dad likes my aglio e olio better than her's - though he'll never tell her. Ma, if you're reading this, please forgive me!

An oversight. It's with two WHOLE eggs. Written recipe already fixed. Some recipes call for only egg yolks, which results in a very rich dough. This is a matter of taste.

A 16-ounce can of tomatoes is equivalent to 1/2 kilogram or just over a pound of fresh tomatoes. Make sure they are very ripe. You can ripen them at room temperature on a counter covered with a towel for a day or two (NOT in the sun).

Titanium pans have non-stick properties, some feel suprerior to teflon. But they don't like to be heated too high and have similar limitations.

Renata, I use a good grape seed oil to cook with. I used to use sunflower oil, but converted to the health benefits of grape seed. Remember that all unrefined oils have very low smoking points, so once heated in a pan they denature and lose their flavour and health benefits. Some olive oils are refined, so more ideal for sauteeing. Keep the real good stuff for seasoning salads and other dishes, or simply add a bit AT THE END of cooking for its flavour. Grape seed oil is semi-refined, so with high smoking points but still excellent health benefits. Hope this helps.