Never expect cooking Italian food to be a quick and easy procedure. While there are some easy recipes, most require a lot of work. Good Italian cooking means layering the flavors, which means you have to add the required ingredients one at a time, never adding the next until the one before has assimilated into the dish.

When you drain your pasta after boiling, don't rinse it. This will leave the pasta noodles a little starchy, but the starch will make the sauce stick better. This will require you to use less sauce in your Italian food, which makes it last longer and, if you're watching your weight, can be beneficial to your waistline, too.

Not all Italian food requires you to boil the pasta you use. When cooking lasagna, just add them directly to the recipe dry. Cover the dish with foil before you put it in the oven. This will help the dish retain heat, so that the moisture from the sauce and cheese cooks the noodles.