Pro Cooking Tips #4 Perfect Pasta!

Hey Everyone! EL The Cook removes those knots from your pasta today!

Pasta is definitely one of the most diverse dishes in terms of types (over 1300 varieties) and preparation methods (almost countless!)

Pasta is the quintessential Italian dish, we all love! 

It can be gorgeous, rich, creamy meal or quick fix dinner when you return exhausted from work!

Sometimes, however, we under or overcook this wonderful ingredient. This makes the dish distasteful or gluggy!

Here are a few tips to keep that pasta perfect!

The Issue:

• A bowl of hot pasta misses the mark catastrophically! They come out of the pot sticking together or, worst of all, knotted up in gummy clumps.
•  The problem is pot space: They need room to release starch and cook evenly. 
• Pasta absorbs nearly double its dry weight in water. If they don't boil in enough water, sticking happens. 
• Adding some oil to the pot isn't an ideal deterrent to sticking; it makes the noodles too slippery for sauce to stick!

The Solution: 

• Use plenty of water, about 5 quarts per pound of dry pasta. 
• Give the pot a stir as soon as you add the pasta to help keep the noodles separated when they plunge in. Boil vigorously until al dente. 
• Drain the pasta (never rinse), and do as chefs do: Finish the last bit of cooking in the pan in which you've made your sauce. 
• The pasta absorbs more flavor this way, and everything just marries together nicely. Add a little reserved pasta cooking water if the sauce becomes dry.

Happy Cooking!