Why write a whole email on how to make pasta? Because I get at least one email a week from someone asking why their pasta is either soggy, gummy, or crunchy.
Clearly this simple food is not so simple. Pasta is made from grains, and grains are notoriously picky when it comes to getting the perfect texture. So, how do you make pasta so that it’s perfectly textured every single time?
Since I wrote a whole damn book on cooking with pasta (and cheese) I thought it might be useful to spell out how to make pasta that’s perfect every time, so even if you’re cooking with the cheap stuff you’ll have the best possible eating experience. I still argue that the best pasta is that which you make yourself, but for now, here are a few tips to get the most out of dried pasta.
Note: This tutorial appears very long, but most of what I’ve written below is explanation. Or, you can get the super simple one-page Perfect Pasta Cheat Sheet right here. No additional signup required, just click and the PDF will appear.
How to make pasta, perfectly
Step 1:
The first step on how to make pasta is pretty basic — boil some water. This might seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of people get tripped up on this step and it’s downhill from there.
You want the pot of water to be large enough that the noodles can float and bob freely, bumping into each other as infrequently as possible to prevent sticking. If you cook your pasta in too little water, the noodles will stick together into a gummy, half-cooked mess.
The minimum amount of water you want to boil your pasta in is one quart, and that’s the amount you’ll need for just two servings of noodles. Large quantities of pasta will require an even bigger pot. Don’t be afraid to bust out the stockpot if you’re feeding a large group.
–>The standard water : pasta ratio is 1 quart of water for every 1/4 pound (4 ounces) of pasta.
Step 1.5:
DO NOT add oil to the water. Half of my family adds oil to their cooking water because they believe it prevents the noodles from sticking together, but it’s just not true. When you add oil to water, it floats on the surface. That’s it.
Any oil that does grab the pasta will do nothing but slick it up. You actually want some sticky starch on the surface of your pasta so that sauce clings to the noodles. When learning how to make pasta, oil is a big fat no-no.
Step 2:
Salt the water. Salted water is very important when preparing pasta. It does a lot to bring out the flavor in both the noodles and your overall dish. After you’ve tasted pasta cooked in well-salted water, noodles cooked in plain water will taste bland, bland, bland. When learning how to make pasta perfectly, this is a really important (but often ignored) tip.
How much salt do you add? “Enough to taste like the sea” is what old Italian grandmas like to say. Don’t worry—not all of that salt will absorb into your noodles. Don’t worry—not all of that salt will absorb into your noodles. If you’d like a guideline as to how much salt to use, try this:
–>The standard salt : water ratio is at least 1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water.
Step 3:
Add the noodles to the water. This is another place people royally screw up! You need to stir the noodles constantly for about 30 seconds just after adding them to the water, and make sure to stir frequently to prevent sticking.
Test the pasta partway through cooking. This is another point of confusion for a lot of people learning how to make pasta perfectly: how long should you cook your pasta? You want to cook your noodles all the way to al dente.
“Al dente” means that the noodles are cooked just enough so that they’re firm but not hard or crunchy. You should be able to bite through them without any grit inside the noodle, but they should maintain a firm yet soft structure — never crunchy, soggy, or gummy.
If you’re going to be baking your noodles, such as in a macaroni and cheese casserole, you might consider pulling the noodles from the water a minute earlier, while they’re just a little bit firmer at the core. This will allow the noodles to absorb the liquid in your casserole without getting soggy.
Step 3.5:
DO NOT rinse the pasta. You’ll wash away all those gorgeously sticky starches that come in handy for keeping your sauce where it belongs: on the noodles. Rinsing can also make your pasta soggy while diluting the overall flavor of your dish. Rinsing may be necessary in some recipes to get the intended result, but if the recipe doesn’t call for it, avoid the temptation.
NOTE!! Many people rinse their noodles to keep them from sticking while they complete the rest of the dish. Here’s an important rule of thumb: finish your sauce before you finish your noodles. Sauce is much more patient, waiting politely for its next assignment, while noodles give attitude and clump up like they’re consciously giving you the middle finger.
Step 4:
Sauce the pasta. When learning how to make pasta, a lot of folks serve their pasta in a big pile with a huge spoonful of their cooked sauce plopped in the middle of it. While there’s nothing wrong with this, per se, there is a better way. Since your pasta should be cooked to just al dente, you might have noticed that it still has a tiny bit more cooking to do. By finishing your pasta off with a few minutes’ worth of cooking in the sauce, your noodles will absorb a good deal more flavor than if you’d finished them off in boiling water and stirred the sauce in at the last minute.
Cooking the pasta in the sauce is arguably the most important step in creating your dish, and it’s most effectively performed when your sauce has been prepared in a large, wide saucepan with a lot of surface area, which will allow more sauce to come in contact with the noodles.
Different sauces will require variations of this method, but for your standard homemade cooked sauce, the following steps should do the trick:
- When draining your pasta, reserve 1 cup of the starchy pasta water.
- Add 1/4 cup of this cooking water to your sauce, which should be quite hot. Stir well.
- Add the pasta to the sauce, and set over medium heat. Cook the pasta until the sauce has reduced enough to coat the noodles. This should literally take 2 minutes.
- If the sauce is reduced and the pasta still needs a bit more cooking, add in a little more of the starchy water. Only add 1 tablespoon at a time, otherwise your beautiful sauce will become a beautiful soup.
- When the noodles are done, turn off the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of butter. Stir just until the butter is melted. Serve immediately.
Note: When cooking noodles in a sauce, don’t go crazy stirring the whole thing constantly with your spoon, lest you mash your noodles into porridge. Another reason a wide shallow saucepan works well: to keep the noodles from burning, you can simply flip the pan with your wrist, which, if done right, should effectively rotate the noodles and keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan without creaming them with your spoon. (Thank you, Ming Tsai, for the video tutorial!)
Now that you’ve read all this way, click to grab the free printable Perfect Pasta Checklist. No additional signup required.
The How to Make Pasta Challenge
With a little practice, learning how to make pasta with even the cheapest dry noodles can garner a respectable eating experience and act as a worthwhile base for your awesome sauce. I’d still argue that artisan-made dry pasta will be far more impressive, especially to those who have trained their palates to recognize quality foods, but make the best of what you’ve got.
Here’s “a how to make pasta” challenge: Go out and buy a box of the cheapest pasta you can find, and a box of some high-quality artisan-made pasta, such as Baia, Cipriani, or Rustichella d’Abruzzo. Cook them separately to their respective instructions and serve them with the same sauce, side by side. Do you notice a difference in the two pastas? How do they differ in flavor, texture, and body? Which do you prefer? Leave your findings in the comments here.
How to Make Pasta, Perfectly, Every Single Time
Ingredients
- Your pasta sauce made ahead of time
- 1 quart water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 pound pasta (4 ounces by weight)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Gently heat the sauce in a saucepan. Turn the heat to very low and cover to keep warm.
- Bring water to a boil in a covered pot.
- Once the water is boiling, stir in the salt. Once the salt is dissolved, stir in the pasta.
- DO NOT ADD OIL.
- Stir constantly for 1 minute, then once a minute until the pasta is done.
- Test the pasta after 5 minutes of cooking. Is it still a little crunchy? Then cook it a little longer. Test a noodle every 1 minute until the pasta is done. You'll know it's done when the pasta is firm but not hard or crunchy. You should be able to bite through a noodle without any grit inside, but they should maintain a firm yet soft structure — never crunchy, squishy, or gummy.
- Dip a cup into the pasta pot and reserve 1 cup of the cooking water. Strain the pasta through a strainer. DO NOT RINSE THE PASTA. If you need to let the pasta sit in the strainer, give it a good bounce once a minute to keep the noodles from sticking together.
- Pour 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water into your sauce and stir well. Immediately add the strained pasta to your sauce and gently stir to coat the noodles. Turn the heat up to medium and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the extra water is evaporated, stirring the noodles gently. Do no stir the noodles vigorously or you'll smash them. Test a noodle to see if it's done. If you need to add a little more water to the sauce to help the noodles cook completely, add only one tablespoon at a time... or your sauce will become soup.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter, stirring until melted completely. Serve pasta while hot and fresh! Top with grated Parmesan.
Notes
Nutrition
This content was originally posted on FearlessFresh.com.