How to cook pasta
Fill a pot with 1 litre of water per each 100 grams of pasta. Do not add the pasta yet. Bring water to a fast boil, put in the pasta and add a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally, when cooking time reported in the package is due, drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Broadly speaking for each 100 grams of pasta you will need 1 litre of water and a teaspoon of salt.
How to properly cook pasta
If your pasta recipe has detailed instructions to cook the pasta and the sauce, follow them. These beginner guide provides the basic steps to follow to cook pasta in general if you never did it before.
1. Fill a large pot about 2/3 full of water.
Later, the pasta will need enough room to move around as it cooks so use a big pot.
If you use a pot that’s too small, your pasta is more likely to clump together as it cooks.
For example, if you are cooking 450g (1 pound) of pasta, get out a pot that’s at least 3.8 litres (4 US quarts) in size.
2. Set the pot of water on the stove and put a lid on it. Turn the burner to high and let the water come to a boil.
Covering the pot with a lid will make the water boil faster.
You’ll know the water is boiling when you see steam escaping from under the lid and water making bubbles.
3. Verse the pasta in the boiling water making sure that all pasta is fully immersed.
Add a pinch of salt and leave the lid off the pot.
4. Set a timer for the time printed on the package.
Cooking time can vary depending on pasta’s shape, brand, quality.
Fresh pasta may cook even in 3 minutes while durum wheat semolina pasta may need over 10 minutes and there are more types as well.
Oven baked pasta, pasta salads or more elaborate recipes may require different process.
Find in the pasta package the recommended cooking time and set a timer for the minimum time suggested or so called “al dente”.
For example, if the box says to cook for 8 to 10 minutes, set a timer for 8 minutes.
You can also taste some pasta to understand if it is cooked.
5. Stir the pasta time to time.
In the meanwhile be sure you have the sauce ready within few minutes.
6. Once the pasta timer is due, pasta is cooked and ready to be drained.
If the sauce you want to use is too thick, reserve a little bit of pasta water to thin it down with.
Place a large colander in the bottom of the sink and wear oven mitts to protect your hands from the boiling water.
Even though the burner is turned off, the water can burn you if it splashes your skin.
7. Put the pasta in the sauce pan or back in the pot or anywhere you will mix it with the sauce.
You can keep apart some sauce to garnish the plate later.
Once pasta is well mixed you can share portions and serve it on a plate.
Avoid adding oil or running cold water over the pasta unless explicitly told by particular recipe instructions.
Enjoy your perfectly cooked pasta.
More about pasta
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