What The Pasta Queen Says You Get Wrong When Cooking With Onions

Nadia Caterina Munno, better known as The Pasta Queen on social media, is talented, vivacious, and theatrical, and you better believe she has strong opinions about pretty much everything related to Italian cooking. When it comes to onions, Munno's advice goes against what some cooks' instincts may be. "We do not burn or brown the onions," she said in her new Amazon series "The Pasta Queen." Munno went on to say that even if a recipe says to cook onions until they are golden brown, it is not the best method in Italian cuisine. "No! When it's golden brown, it's gone!" she exclaimed. "That's not how Nonna taught us."

Cooking onions gently and for a short period of time significantly cuts down the pungency and brings a delicate sweetness to the forefront without introducing caramelized and meaty flavors. While that profile can be nice in some applications, lots of Italian recipes rely on this vegetable to introduce bright sweetness without overshadowing the other delicate flavors, as would happen with onions that are overly browned. In the case of a simple tomato sauce used in a classic eggplant parmigiana, Munno only cooks the finely diced yellow onions for just about 3 to 4 minutes until translucent before adding canned tomatoes and "a tiny bit, a splash of red wine" (read: one cup).

Every chef has their own tried-and-true onion cooking hacks, and The Pasta Queen is no different. First, Nadia Caterina Munno advises cooks to curl the tips of their fingers towards the palm, which is also Anthony Bourdain's crucial advice for slicing onions. The flat side of the knife butts up against the flat part between the knuckles, and the ends of the fingers are well out of the way of the blade.

To break an onion down, Munno likes to slice off the end and peel off the papery skin, but she leaves the root end intact. Then she slices it in half, so that both pieces are still held together by the root. After making a few horizontal slices, she then makes several vertical slits, getting the tip of the knife as close to the root as possible. This way, when Munno passes the knife through from pole to pole, the onion comes out diced.

When it comes to cooking the onions, Munno cautions against adding salt to the sauteing onions, explaining that it draws out the moisture too soon. "And don't put the onions after the tomato! They have to release those juices before the tomato goes in," she explained in her show "The Pasta Queen." When it comes to Italian food, it makes a lot of sense to take advice from a woman who passionately described onions as "the work of God on this planet" (via YouTube).