We’ve all been there and we’ve all heard a variety of different things:  Use salt in the pasta water; Use oil in the water; Rinse or don’t rinse the pasta after it’s drained. I’ve heard it all and I still wasn’t sure exactly what I should be doing when cooking pasta.  What I typically did turned out to be all wrong…I added both salt and oil to the boiling water, I don’t usually use enough ‘water to pasta’ ratio AND I rinse my pasta off after it’s drained…ALL WRONG!  So, I did a little research to find out what the best practices were.

1. Amount of water to use.  Here’s the deal, a generous pot (like 4 to 5 quarts) of water does several things: It comes back to a boil faster after you add the pasta; it makes it easier to add long pasta, like spaghetti or linguini; and, it helps to reduce stickiness by washing away the starch that’s on the surface of the pasta.  Hence, if you have sticky pasta a lot, it might be because you’re not using enough water.

2. Stirring the pasta.  I found out that pasta is to be stirred in the first one or two minutes of boiling.  The reason for this is that the first couple of minutes are a critical time when the pasta is coated with sticky starch.  If you don’t separate the pieces, they will stick right together and cook that way.

3. To salt or not to salt, that is the question.  The answer is YES, salt the water. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of sea salt a large pot of boiling water.  What this does is season the pasta internally as it swells up. You might not even have to add as much salt to the final sauce because the pasta will be seasoned properly.  It’s important to note that adding salt does not cook the pasta faster or increase the heat of the water.  We’re not  using enough salt to raise the temperature more than one degree or so.

4.  What about Oil? Ok, so here’s a big one. I used to always use oil.  But, you ARE NOT supposed to do this with pasta and here’s why. Essentially, oiling the water makes the pasta oily and hence, the sauce slides off.  You might have heard that using oil will make the pasta not sticky, but if you use enough water, then you should avoid this problem.  When the sauce doesn’t stick to the pasta, the result is less flavor.  You can avoid this by skipping the oil in the water.

5. Another biggie is rinsing the pasta, what to do?  Do NOT rinse the pasta after it’s cooked.  Rinsing the pasta will cool the pasta and make the sauce not stick to it because it washes away the surface starch that makes sauce stick.  Also that small amount of starch can thicken your sauce a little, which is a good thing.

6. Here’s a good plan.  Cook your pasta sauce first in a large skillet or sauce pan (this works whether it’s a tomato-based sauce or just olive oil, garlic and herbs).  When the pasta is done, strain it out with a ladle strainer directly from the pot to the sauce pan.  Stir it up and plant the lid on top and just let it sit for a few minutes absorbing the sauce.  Then serve.

These tips should result is pasta with delicious flavor, and at the end of the day, that’s what we’re all seeking, right?  Good food, good flavor!

Hope these tips help you and please send us an email if you ever have ‘cooking questions’. 

kelly@youfoody.com

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Bon appetit!