First things first: pasta with different structure will give you different results. If you use smooth pasta it will cook uniformly, non smooth pasta like rigatoni, don't have that quality, but they make the sauce stick.
Pasta needs boiling water and a saucepan, even the worst cook in the world knows that. But how much water? Well, a lot, consider 1 liter for every 100g. That would be 4 liters for 400g. Pasta needs to swim.
What about salt? Is there a rule for that too? Yes, actually there's two: salt has to be added after water has reached boiling temperature, or boiling will be delayed. If you have one liter of water add 10g of salt, for 2 liters add 20g and so on.
A general opinion about cooking pasta is that you have to add oil to the water in order to keep the noodles separated. This is useless, and a waste of precious olive oil too. Use good quality pasta and enough water and it won't stick.
The salt will take a few seconds to disappear in the water. Then you can pour the pasta. Long pasta will stick out of the pan, but there's no need to break it, use a spoon to push it down. Remember: boiling water hurts, so be careful!
When you add the pasta, the water will stop boiling, so try to make it boil back as quick as possible by turning up the flame and covering the pan. When it's boiling again, turn down the heat a little bit and uncover the pan. In general, the level of heat should be the highest you can get without making the water boil out of the pan.
Stir the pasta a couple of times while it's cooking so it won't stick to the bottom of the pan. For how long should it cook? A great underestimated reference is the packet itself: there you'll find the number of minutes necessary to get pasta al dente (dente means tooth). Al dente means not too soft nor too raw.
Al dente is how pasta should be in the end. Don't overdo, for at least three reasons: pasta won't stop cooking until it's cold, and long before you've finished eating it, it will be like chewing gum; if it's too cooked your stomach will take longer to process it. And finally: this is the way the do it in Italy. Once you become an al dente expert, you can taste it to know when it's time to drain it, using the packet as general guide.
When it's time, have the colander ready in the sink, and drain the pasta. Get rid of all the water (in some cases you might still need a little bit of it. Add the pasta to the sauce, if it's in another pan, and let it go for 2-3 minutes, until everything is well mixed.
If you're preparing a cold pasta dish (like pasta salad) or you're eating it later at work, you can stop the cooking with cold water, after it's drained.
Pasta needs boiling water and a saucepan, even the worst cook in the world knows that. But how much water? Well, a lot, consider 1 liter for every 100g. That would be 4 liters for 400g. Pasta needs to swim.
What about salt? Is there a rule for that too? Yes, actually there's two: salt has to be added after water has reached boiling temperature, or boiling will be delayed. If you have one liter of water add 10g of salt, for 2 liters add 20g and so on.
A general opinion about cooking pasta is that you have to add oil to the water in order to keep the noodles separated. This is useless, and a waste of precious olive oil too. Use good quality pasta and enough water and it won't stick.
The salt will take a few seconds to disappear in the water. Then you can pour the pasta. Long pasta will stick out of the pan, but there's no need to break it, use a spoon to push it down. Remember: boiling water hurts, so be careful!
When you add the pasta, the water will stop boiling, so try to make it boil back as quick as possible by turning up the flame and covering the pan. When it's boiling again, turn down the heat a little bit and uncover the pan. In general, the level of heat should be the highest you can get without making the water boil out of the pan.
Stir the pasta a couple of times while it's cooking so it won't stick to the bottom of the pan. For how long should it cook? A great underestimated reference is the packet itself: there you'll find the number of minutes necessary to get pasta al dente (dente means tooth). Al dente means not too soft nor too raw.
Al dente is how pasta should be in the end. Don't overdo, for at least three reasons: pasta won't stop cooking until it's cold, and long before you've finished eating it, it will be like chewing gum; if it's too cooked your stomach will take longer to process it. And finally: this is the way the do it in Italy. Once you become an al dente expert, you can taste it to know when it's time to drain it, using the packet as general guide.
When it's time, have the colander ready in the sink, and drain the pasta. Get rid of all the water (in some cases you might still need a little bit of it. Add the pasta to the sauce, if it's in another pan, and let it go for 2-3 minutes, until everything is well mixed.
If you're preparing a cold pasta dish (like pasta salad) or you're eating it later at work, you can stop the cooking with cold water, after it's drained.
About the Author:
Andrea loves cooking. Cheese and Pears is his blog about Italian food recipes. If you think you know more about pasta after reading this article, start with an easy pasta recipe.
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