We all know what pasta is. It's that huge range of funny shapes made out of dried flour and water that are a centrepiece in Italian cookery. What we don't all know is how to cook it properly.
- Fill a large stockpot with water. The more the better - pasta sticks when cooked in too little water.
- Add salt. Salt makes pasta taste better, and won't increase the sodium level of your recipes.
- Bring the water to a rolling boil.
- Measure the pasta you need (normally 100 grams per person). Pasta generally doubles in size when cooked.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water.
- Stir and stir some more! Pasta will stick together if it isn't stirred during the crucial first moments of cooking.
- Start timing when the water returns to a boil. Most pastas cook in 8-12 minutes. Check the package directions!
- You can regulate the heat so the pasta/water mixture doesn't foam up and over the pot sides.
- Really the only way to tell if the pasta is correctly cooked is to taste it. It should be 'al dente' - firm, yet tender, with a tiny core in the middle.
- You can also cut a piece you've fished out of the pot. There shouldn't be any solid white in the centre of the pasta - just a shading to more opaque cream.
- Now drain the pasta into a colander placed into your kitchen sink. Lift the colander and shake off excess water.
- Don't rinse if you're serving a hot dish. That removes the starch that helps hold the sauce. If you are making a cold salad, rinse so the salad isn't sticky.
Tips
- By covering the pot when you bring water to a boil, you are lowering the air pressure directly over the water, making it easier to boil.
- Never mix pasta types in one pot.
- Watch the cooking process carefully. Pasta can overcook very quickly.
- If the pasta is to be used in a casserole, undercook it slightly. It will finish cooking to perfection while in the oven or skillet.
At the end of the cooking time it is essential to drain the pasta immediately. If it is left sitting in boiling water it will overcook.
A Pan to Cook With
The first mistake people make when cooking pasta is the size of the pan to use. Pasta needs a lot of space to move around in while it cooks. If it doesn't have this space, then there is a good chance that the pasta will stick together or to the sides of the pan, with disastrous consequences for the finished dish.
Salt
Salt should always be added to the water when cooking pasta. You need to add 30g (2 tablespoons) of salt to the water when cooking pasta for four. The addition of salt is vitally important to the cooking process, as it ensures even cooking throughout the depth of the pasta. If you don't add salt, the integrity of the surface of the pasta is destroyed and it acquires a slimy texture when cooked.
The Art of Timing
Timing is quite simply the most important part of successfully cooking pasta.
A guide to the cooking time for the pasta will be given on the packet, and it will depend upon the type of pasta that is being used. Three minutes or so should be enough for fresh pasta, 8 to 10 minutes for dried varieties. But these timings are only a guide and the final decision is down to individual circumstances.
How Much Pasta to Cook
This partly depends upon how hungry you are. It is more important to work out the ratio of pasta to sauce.
The pasta is the meal, and the sauce is the flavouring. To be authentic you should not have a 'soup' of sauce with some pasta floating around in it! When served, the pasta and the sauce should be well mixed together, with the sauce as merely a coating for each piece of pasta.