The pasta dish may even require less salt overall. A generous amount of salt in the water seasons the pasta internally as it absorbs liquid and swells. This is a much better solution than greasing your pasta and sacrificing flavor. Pasta that’s cooked in oily water will become oily itself and, as a result, the sauce slides off, doesn’t get absorbed, and you have flavorless pasta.Īdding oil may keep the pasta water from bubbling up and boiling over the rim, but this can also be achieved by making sure you use a large pot and also by reducing the heat a little (but still maintaining a boil). This can prevent sticking, but at a great price. You may have heard that you can avoid sticky pasta by adding oil to the pasta water. If you don’t stir, pieces of pasta that are touching one another literally cook together. This is the crucial time when the pasta surface is coated with sticky, glue-like starch. To keep pasta from sticking, stir during the first minute or two of cooking. Many pasta recipes begin like this: “Bring a large pot of water, 4 to 5 quarts, to a rapid boil.” Do you really need this much water? Well, if you’re only boiling a small amount of pasta (less than half a pound), you don’t need so much, but a generous pot of rapidly boiling water is helpful for several reasons: it comes back to a boil faster when you add the pasta it makes it easier to submerge long, rigid pastas like spaghetti and it helps to reduce sticking slightly by quickly washing away the exuding starch from the pasta surface. Eventually, most of this surface starch dissolves in the water and washes away, and the pasta surface becomes a soft solid. The starch rushes out and, for a brief time, the pasta’s surface is sticky with this exuded starch. When you drop pasta into a pot of boiling water, the starch granules on the surface of the pasta instantly swell up to their maximum volume and then pop. You can help your pasta dish be its best-whether it’s a baked lasagne, a pasta salad, or a slap-dash plate of spaghetti and pesto-by knowing a few of the hows and whys of cooking the pasta itself. IMO the fresh garlic makes a huge difference, compared to powdered.Pasta dishes can be so wonderful-incredibly light, unbelievably flavorful-but they can also be dense, stuck-together disappointments. After you add the pasta, wilt in the basil. Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan a couple mins before you add the pasta. chop up some fresh basil and cut a handful of cherry tomatoes in half. add the pasta, turn off the heat, and quickly stir in a well-beaten egg w/ lots of black pepper (essentially a bacon-less carbonara) sautee the garlic & pepper flakes in oil, then when it's fragrant, toss in a can of baby clams (liquid and all) and cook for a few minutes before adding the pasta. sautee some anchovy filets (smash them up) / chopped black olives with the garlic sprinkle grated cheese (parmesean, pecorino romano, etc.) on after you add the pasta (they're kind of special ingredients, but they keep in the fridge for ages) toss in some washed & dried baby spinach or arugula after you add the cooked pasta, and stir it around until it's wilted sautee some shrimp or canned tuna or sliced mushrooms in the oil as the same time as the garlic. Yes! This is great as-is, and also serves as a nice base for so many simple pastas! Some additions I like, using mostly things that can be kept as pantry staples or will last a while in the fridge:
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