The upcoming version of my 80/20 Cooking course teaches a lot of dishes, but all through the lens of fundamental techniques.

As an example: this pasta all'amatriciana that I learned how to make last year in Italy. It's a very simple dish at its core, and in learning how to make it you'll not just add a new pasta dish to your repertoire but also: 

- learn about proper ratios for pasta water, how to ensure even cooking, and why you don't need to add oil to the water 
- learn how to properly salt pasta water to season the noodles from the inside out 
- learn how to cook dried pasta to the perfect al dente point 
- learn how to take a few simple ingredients and build a super flavorful sauce 
- learn how to use pasta water to thicken and build a better sauce 
- learn how to incorporate the cooked pasta into the sauce to finalize the dish

Now you've not only mastered pasta all'amatriciana, but you've also built up a set of skills that you can use in thousands of other pasta dishes.

entrepreneur, writer, and former professional chef / mylessnider.com