10 Recommendations For Cooking Pasta
Mamma mia , who never wants to cook a good pasta dish? It is one of the most versatile ingredients known, affordable, with many recipes and delicious. And it also tends to be liked by older children.
But be careful, it is such a common dish in many houses that it is not always cooked properly. And it is that there are many mistakes that we can be committing without realizing it. Even the most prestigious Italian chefs share these 10 recommendations for cooking pasta.
10 Recommendations for cooking pasta
1. Start by choosing the sauce
Although it may seem that we are starting at the end, a good pasta dish always begins with the sauce. As we will see later, there are suitable combinations of sauces and pasta. That is why before putting the pot on the fire it is important to choose the recipe we want to cook and choose the right pasta shape.
2. Large tall container
To cook the pasta we need a large pot with high edges. Even if we only want to make one serving, we don’t have to stick with the smallest saucepan in the kitchen. The pasta needs plenty of water and enough space to be able to move freely and thus prevent it from sticking together.
3. Only two ingredients
In the pot to cook the pasta, only two ingredients are necessary: water and salt. It seems simple but it is enough.
As we have seen, the amount of water has to be abundant. As a general rule we can calculate 1 liter of water for every 100 grams of pasta -which would be the equivalent of the approximate portion for one person.
We also add a teaspoon of salt for about 500 grams of pasta. If we are going to prepare a recipe with very salty ingredients such as sardines, amatriciana sauce or with pecorino cheese, we will be a little more cautious with the salt when boiling the pasta.
4. Neither oils nor butter
It may seem that we repeat ourselves, but it is okay to insist on this point since it is one of the most common mistakes. It is not necessary to add oil or butter to the cooking water of the pasta.
It is a popular belief that in this way we prevent it from sticking to us. On the contrary, we will only make the pasta slippery and then not blend well with the sauce. If we use a large enough pot and with plenty of water, the pasta will not stick.
5. Cooking time
A good plate of pasta has to be al dente: tender on the outside and a little harder in the center .
Once we have added the pasta in the pot, we leave the heat on high until it boils again. Then we stir once and lower to medium heat. It is good that the pasta moves inside the pot but it does not have to come out in a gush.
Normally in the pasta packages the recommended time will be indicated. Generally between 8 and 12 minutes depending on the type of pasta and its thickness. It is important to respect it because otherwise it will be overcooked. We can even say that the al dente point is always the lower time, that is, about 8 minutes.
6. Strain and reserve
Once the pasta is cooked, it is best to remove it from the pot with a spiked ladle or a slotted spoon. And pour it directly into the container where we will have cooked or heated the sauce.
We can also drain it in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water. It will help us to add it to the sauce a little later. By containing part of the starch that the pasta had, it will give the dish a shiny finish and will help us to thicken the sauce a little.
It is not necessary to rinse the pasta with cold water, not even if we want to make a pasta salad. By staying warm it will better absorb the flavors of the sauce.
7. The sauce before the pasta
Although we have started with the recommendations for cooking pasta, a good pasta dish should start with cooking the sauce. For this we must choose a very large casserole or paella, where the sauce fits and there is enough space to add the pasta at the end.
So you can serve everything together and not in a bowl with the pasta and sauce on top as if it were a topping .
8. Finish cooking with the sauce
Once the pasta is cooked we pour it into the sauce pan over medium or low heat. So we have finished giving a last touch of cooking with all the ingredients together and we heat the dish. All the flavors perfectly amalgamated and all the pasta impregnated with sauce will remain.
If it is dry, we gradually add the water that we have reserved from the cooking.
9. The perfect combination: each pasta with its sauce
Although it may seem incredible, not all sauces go well for any pasta. And this is very clear in Italy. Did you know that spaghetti Bolognese is not cooked there?
Some types of pasta work best with certain sauces. As a general rule we can say that:
- With short pasta types (macaroni, bows, spirals or rigatone ) it is better to choose Coarse and thick textured sauces such as cheese, vegetable or bolognese sauces. Since some of them have different concavities and shapes, the sauce is very well impregnated.
- For spaghetti or linguines (long and thin pasta) the best accompaniment is a light sauce such as tomato sauce, pesto or oil and garlic. On the other hand, long and wide pastas accept sauces such as carbonara well, with a little more texture.
10. The final touch, a good cheese
When we have the pasta on your plate, we end up grating a little cheese on top. The most used are hard pasta such as Parmesan or Roman pecorino.
If we grate them just at the moment they will retain a perfect texture and flavor. And now we just have to sit at the table and taste this delicious delicacy of Italian gastronomy!
