scale<\/a>, measure the water, tare the scale, add the right percentage of salt, put it on the fire<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn important thing to remember: if the water boils for a long time – it boils out (thanks Cap), but the salt does not go anywhere, so your water becomes saltier and the pasta may be over-salted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They say “the water for pasta should be as salty as sea water”, is this true?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Be sure to ask them which sea you should focus on. Because, for example, the salinity of the Baltic varies from 3% to 14%, the salinity of the red sea is about 40%, and the dead sea is up to 300%. But even if you take the generally accepted, average value of 3.5% – it is still too much and you will get over-salted pasta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you realize this statement is false and should be taken with some degree of convention. The water should be salty, but not that salty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How and how much to boil<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTo cover or not to cover?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Until recently, I thought that after adding the pasta to the water – you need to cover the pot with a lid to make the water boil faster. It turns out that this is not necessary at all. Moreover, the water doesn’t even have to reach boiling point to put the pasta in it. But more on that later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is boiling water necessary?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n In brief, it turns out that it is not. Before I started writing this text, I hadn’t even given it much thought. But several reputable sources say that the pasta will boil in colder water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It doesn’t affect the result as much as the amount of water, so I haven’t switched over yet and cook it the old-fashioned way. But if you like experiments – try this method: bring salted water to a boil, put the pasta, cover and turn off the heat. Cook according to the instructions on the package, stirring after 30-40 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of the above applies to dry pasta and does not work with fresh egg pasta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why does the paste stick together?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The pasta sticks together because a lot of starch is released in the first couple of minutes of cooking. It is therefore important to stir the pasta well about a minute after adding it to the pot and again about a minute later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will help distribute the excess starch and prevent sticking. This is often enough, but depending on the type of pasta and the amount of water, it may be necessary to stir the pasta further in the middle of cooking and towards the end of cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe add some olive oil to the water?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Adding olive oil or any other oil to water does nothing to prevent it from sticking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, it may even be counterproductive. It just floats on top and when you drain the water, some of the oil will envelop the pasta and prevent the sauce from spreading evenly later, but more on that below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How long to cook the pasta?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Cook according to the instructions on the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the package does not say anything (although I have not met such pasta) – taste and cook until almost fully cooked (when there is still a small undercooked part in the core of the pasta, white in color) – for al dente or a minute – two more for full cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, it will be enough just to be guided by the taste, as soon as the taste of raw pasta is gone – they are ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al dente or raw pasta?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n You don’t boil pasta for a minute or two less, not because you like undercooked pasta. Pasta is undercooked so that when you finish cooking it in the sauce it doesn’t overcook. Well, and also because the elastic texture of pasta tastes better than cooked and mushy pasta. In addition, pasta (and any other product) continues to cook for some time, even after you have drained the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nEnd of cooking<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSave and drain the water<\/h3>\n\n\n\n When the pasta is ready, drain the water, saving about 100-150 ml of the water in which the pasta was cooked. This is necessary if you are going to combine the pasta with the sauce to adjust its consistency, to make it thicker and more sauce-like. The thing is that the starch that was washed off the pasta during the cooking process will help you in this. Remember Chinese<\/a> and other Asian recipes<\/a>? We add starch to make the sauce thick and glossy, it’s the same here, only instead of starch we use water.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOf course you shouldn’t bother with this if you’re just going to dress your pasta with ketchup (and I’m not judging you, if anything, at all), but even with store-bought pasta sauces like pesto and other pasta sauces, adding starchy water can have a positive effect on flavor and texture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe put a little oil on it to keep it from sticking together?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Or maybe you shouldn’t. If you plan on topping your pasta with a sauce, adding oil won’t do any good. The oil will create a film on the surface of the pasta, which will prevent the sauce from bonding well with the pasta. For the same reason, it is recommended to saute the salad first and only then dress it with oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then how do I make sure the pasta doesn’t stick together while I’m making the sauce?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Very simple – prepare the sauce in advance. If, after the pasta is ready, you immediately top it with the sauce – you won’t need any oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or maybe rinse the paste so it doesn’t stick together?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n This should not be done either. Pasta is rinsed only if it is going to be used in salads or other cold dishes. By the way, if you are going to use them for a salad, it is not forbidden to dress them with oil after rinsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGood luck with your culinary experiments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It so happened that the elementary, it would seem, kitchen operation under the name of “boil pasta” is covered with a bunch of myths, secret techniques and other recommendations, far from always correct. What is the reason? Is it that mankind cannot come to a single correct consensus on how much water to pour, how … <\/p>\n
Get Recipe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1163],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101669"}],"version-history":[{"count":78,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101988,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101669\/revisions\/101988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayevskitchen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}