Cooking Pasta is one of the most loved dishes globally, but are you sure you know how to cook it to perfection? Usually, the preparation of the pasta foresees that it is cooked in boiling and salted water and then seasoned with oil or sauces. Indeed, We grew up with a kind of savoir-faire for which practically everyone knows how to cook pasta even if no one has ever taught us how to do it. It is part of our cultural heritage, but there are rules to follow that can save us time, and above all, they can guarantee a better result.
8 Tips For Perfectly Cooking Pasta
So let’s see together our 8 tips to ensure that your pasta is good, indeed very good!
Pay Attention To The Amount Of Water
To prepare an excellent pasta dish, you need to start from the basics, that is, from the water in which we are going to cook it. The rule states that we use one liter of water for every 100 grams of pasta. Therefore, it is essential not to leave anything to chance and measure each quantity. In this way, you will optimize the resources used without waste! To ensure that the pasta cooks evenly, it is also essential that there is always plenty of water.
No Oil
Unless poor quality pasta is used, it is generally not recommended to add oil to the cooking water. This is because it risks greasing the pasta and causing the sauce added later to slip.
Salt The Water At The Right Time
The water in which you will cook the pasta must not be salted until it comes to a boil. Some may think that adding salt before the water boils makes no difference. In reality, it doesn’t.
The addition of salt causes a temporary interruption of the boiling and is necessary to cook correctly and give the right flavor to the pasta.
If you add the salt before the boiling point, the salt will evaporate, while if you add it too long after the boiling point, it will not have the time necessary to flavor the water or the pasta. The result, in both cases, will be a not very tasty pasta. The rule is that the optimal amount is 7 grams of salt per 100 grams of pasta.
Throw The Pasta Together
To be cooked evenly, the pasta must be thrown into the pot at once. This will allow avoiding uneven cooking. Also, remember to stir it from time to time during cooking to prevent it from sticking.
What If You Put Too Much Salt In The Water?
If you accidentally put too much salt in the pasta cooking water, don’t worry. There is a remedy for this too. Put a saucepan of water (without salting it) on the stove and bring it to a boil. Then, throw some of the water out of the pot with a spoon, and add the unsalted water little by little. This way, you can fix your mistake as the pasta cooks.
Always Better To Taste The Pasta
Cooking instructions are given on each package of pasta. We advise you to follow them, but also to taste the pasta to understand for yourself if it is cooked to the right point or not. Then consider that the pasta, once drained, continues to cook even while seasoning it. So please pay attention to the cooking time to avoid overcooking for your taste. Furthermore, it is true that fresh pasta cooks faster than dry pasta and that some types of pasta are cooked when they come to the surface, such as ravioli or gnocchi, but it is always better to taste these types of pasta.
This is because a lot depends on the flour that could make them float earlier than their real cooking point. Even if a high-quality dry pasta kept cooking much longer than fresh pasta and compared to a cheap dry pasta, there is a limit to everything, which is why it is better not to relax too much in the kitchen.
Drain The Pasta Properly
The pasta should be drained but not passed underwater. Otherwise, it will lose its flavor, especially the starch.
Season The Pasta Immediately
Once the pasta has been drained, immediately add it to the sauce to allow the elements to blend in the best possible way and to flavor evenly. If the recipe does not include creaming or other procedures that require it, add the grated cheese directly to the serving dish. This way, it will be a tasty addition to the flavor of the word, without covering it.
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