The Life Changing Meaning of the Italian Word "Mantecare"
Alright, it may not exactly end up changing your life but this will definitely change your cooking habits.
Mantecare means turning a substance into a gooey cream.
More often than not la mantecatura (the blending of cheese or butter into a gooey cream) should occur at the end of one’s cooking.
If you are making a carbonara for instance, and you get to that crucial stage when the boiling pasta, the eggs, the guanciale are all ready, then wack in your pre-grated mound of pecorino, add some hot water from you pasta pot and make sure to toss and turn the whole thing until it becomes a soft, thick-enough cream. As you do this, just make sure your burner is off - too much heat will dry out your sauce too quickly.
Do that every time you are making pasta and mantecare will turn out to be the secret you really needed to turn around any of your favorite primi.
