No, please don’t stir for gods sake. Don’t add oils or anything either. What you need is just a big enough pot with water and salt, add the pasta when it’s boiling and get it out once it’s done. Simple as that.
Pro tip: let it just a little bit undercooked and finish it in a pan with the sauce on it.
I’m not even italian.
Does pasta stick together when you don’t add salt? I’ve never stirred a pasta pot in my entire life
You add salt for the flavour. Oil does prevent pasta from sticking together, but it’s not necessary.
Oil also makes a coating that prevents sauce to integrate into pasta. Also makes boiling water smell bad. Really, just get a big pot and let water boil hard.
Oil prevents pasta from sticking if you add it after you’ve drained it. If you add it in the water, it will do nothing. Also if your pasta is sticking while in the water, use a bigger pot and a lot more water.
No, it doesn’t. Salt is just for flavour. Pasta will be dancing in the boiling water, no time to stick together.
Salt actually does more than add flavor - it also makes the water boil at hotter temperatures
How much salt would you recommend for a normal sized pot?
In Italian we say “use your feelings” (vai a sentimento).
Since all pots are different and the amount of salt depends on the amount of water (not of pasta), you just have to try a few times and get the hang of it. Generally speaking, in American terms, I’d say a couple tablespoons of coarse salt, less if you use fine salt.
Anyhow, the bottom line is, it’s not a pinch of salt, it’s a fist of salt. Don’t skimp on salt in pasta water. If you are concerned about the amount, just know that almost all of the salt will remain in the pasta water. If you want to check how you did, taste your pasta a couple minutes before it’s done, and add more salt if it’s bland.
This!
You absolutely need to stir pasta while it’s cooking. And once you get it out, if you’re not going to add sauce right away or at all, you absolutely need to add some olive oil. If you don’t stir it while it’s cooking, it will get cooked unevenly. If you don’t add olive oil, it will clump up and become basically impossible to eat properly.
Ok, I may stir a bit when I put it in, specially with long pasta varieties, but if you have enough space and hard boiling water that’s all. You don’t need to be on it like it was a witch’s cauldron. Once it’s done, it’s better to add the pasta on a pan with the hot sauce and not the other way around, and then yes, stir it gently to integrate it. You can add some of the cooking water to the pan to thin the sauce if needed. If you aren’t mixing with the sauce right away it won’t be great anyways, just edible.
Basic knowledge if you’re Italian, but impressive if you’re not. Kudos.
“Spadellare” the pasta when it’s almost cooked with the hot sauce in a separate pan is the easiest way to make your pasta go from “home grade” to “restaurant grade”.
I’m spanish, but I try to respect traditional cooking techniques and the way each region treats their products. Because I’m aware I don’t know better.
I can appreciate that approach (which I also follow): start from tradition to understand the dish, and once you’ve got the gist of it, put some personal twists in it. Makes sense for a lot of stuff.
You DO NOT have to stir it, even for things like spaghetti, as long as you’re using the right amount of water. The motion of the water boiling is already stirring the pasta.
You just stir for good measure. Yeah you might not need to if you have the perfect amount of water boiling in the perfect way, but honestly it’s not worth the risk. Just stir it from time to time.
This is why pasta instructions will tell you to add the pasta only when the water is at a vigorous boil. Either you stir, or you have the pasta boiling like it’s a volcano about to pop.
There was a neat cooking blog where an italian fella went into all the ‘old myths’ that his grandmother used to tell him: Vigorous boiling; Large Pot; when to add sauce; etc. It all boiled down to knowing what you’re cooking. Pasta is starchy, so if it sits in hot water instead of being tumbled about, all the starch that’s been liberated into the water settles back on the pasta (and not in a good way).
Okay we need a blog post on the best way to cook pasta. I am going try all these methods out. We cook a lot of it in my home. But the kids hate the sauce. Any suggestions?
Okay, I think this is the one I read way long ago, but it says it was updated in 2021. I remember when I read it must have been early 2010s, and this dude even admits his grandmother was an impasta so… /shrug Amazing how memory gets skewed. I must have remembered the grandmother not being Italian line and somehow mangled it into him being Italian.
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
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
The problem isn’t that you’re not stirring it enough, the problem is that you cook it too long.
Pasta doesn’t need to be stirred while cooking.
Edit: Or you have a too small pot / not enough water. If in doubt, go with 1 liter per 100g.
Speakin of, did you hear about the that famous chef who died?
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He pasta way.
My girlfriend didn’t believe me when I said I could make a car out of spaghetti.
Should’ve seen her face when I drove pasta
Can you make one out of snails?
Ha, stealing that one.
Buy better pasta! I’d suggest rummo or de Cecco, they are good and easy to find outside Italy
Bro there was a Turkish Golda pasta that tasted insane. Can’t get it anymore and no pasta that’s available tastes good :(
This is why you lube up your pasta with butter.
Repost
Olive oil is your friend.
NO. Just NO! Stir it! Putting oil to the water will prevent the sauce to actually stick to the pasta.
Stir it up, little darling, stir it up.
Less cook time, add olive oil to the water before you add noodles. Works like a charm.
Noodles are not pasta, you don’t need to add oil to the water. You only need to use a properly sized pan and to add the pasta when the water is already boiling. Agreed on don’t cook it for too long.
