Pasta Cooking Tips
By one count, there are 600 shapes of pasta in circulation today. There are plain shapes like spaghetti (little strings), fancy shapes like stelline (little stars), whimsical shapes like creste di galli (cockscombs), and shapes that are just plain weird, like radiatori (radiators). They have exotic Italian names which lose their romance when translated, when they turn into little worms, little tongues, little boys and little ears.
Whatever shape you use, all pasta is mush until you cook it correctly. Some suggestions:
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Use a large pot and at least a quart of water for every 4 ounces of dry pasta. |
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Bring the water to a full, rolling boil. |
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Add plenty of salt to the water, but don’t add oil. Despite what some people think, oil doesn’t keep pasta from sticking. Lots of water and a full boil do. |
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Add the pasta and as the water returns to the boil, stir to free any pieces stuck to the bottom of the pot. |
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Keep the pot at a full boil while the pasta is cooking, to keep the pasta moving freely. |
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Don’t trust the cooking time printed on the package. Test the pasta as it cooks by fishing pieces from the pot and chewing them. Past is ready when it’s al dente (to the tooth), i.e. tender but chewy. If it offers no resistance to your bite, it is overdone. |
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Unless you are making pasta salad, never rinse pasta after draining, you’ll lose the starchy coating that holds the sauce. |
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In Italy, sauce is treated as a coating, not a bath. If you over-sauce, you’ll lose sight and taste of what the pasta course is all about. |