Here’s a foolproof way. Put your pasta in boiling salted water (it should taste like the ocean), stir immediately to keep it from sticking. Then as soon as it returns to boiling, turn off the heat and cover it. Let it sit for 18 mins, no touching. Bam, no sticking, no wasted energy. Drain and toss with your sauce.
Edit: while the method above is easy, it’s not ideal for perfect pasta texture. Alton Brown knows what’s up.
Don’t make it as salty as sea water, that’s waaay too much salt. I live in Hawaii and read this tip before so I decided to test it. I figured why make sea water when I live in the middle of an ocean. So I gathered sea water from around 6 miles offshore and strained it to ensure I wasn’t getting anything but sea water and made pasta with it. The pasta was absolutely inedible it was so salty
LOL what an experiment. Iirc Gordon Ramsey said it like that on some segment about boiling pasta but I doubt he went to the lengths you did to verify his claim
And make sure you save some of that pasta water to add to your sauce. A tablespoon or two helps emulsify the oils and gives it a thicker consistency without ruining its ability to cover the pasta. It also gives the sauce a bit of “noodliness” to help the flavors gel
Here’s a foolproof way. Put your pasta in boiling salted water (it should taste like the ocean), stir immediately to keep it from sticking. Then as soon as it returns to boiling, turn off the heat and cover it. Let it sit for 18 mins, no touching. Bam, no sticking, no wasted energy. Drain and toss with your sauce.
Edit: while the method above is easy, it’s not ideal for perfect pasta texture. Alton Brown knows what’s up.
Cold Water Method
Don’t make it as salty as sea water, that’s waaay too much salt. I live in Hawaii and read this tip before so I decided to test it. I figured why make sea water when I live in the middle of an ocean. So I gathered sea water from around 6 miles offshore and strained it to ensure I wasn’t getting anything but sea water and made pasta with it. The pasta was absolutely inedible it was so salty
LOL what an experiment. Iirc Gordon Ramsey said it like that on some segment about boiling pasta but I doubt he went to the lengths you did to verify his claim
What does the ocean taste like?
Boiling pasta water, duh
And make sure you save some of that pasta water to add to your sauce. A tablespoon or two helps emulsify the oils and gives it a thicker consistency without ruining its ability to cover the pasta. It also gives the sauce a bit of “noodliness” to help the flavors gel