how to cook pasta<\/strong><\/a> properly? \u00a0Are those spaghetti as hot as they should be?\u00a0 And are they perfectly al dente?\u00a0 Do they meet all the requirements of a dish of spaghetti, worthy of the name association?<\/p>\nIn countries outside of Italy, all too often, the answer is a resounding, \u201cno.\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that what we frequently see is an anemic, overcooked glob of sticky noodles served as a side dish to just about anything.\u00a0 We need to raise pasta awareness. \u00a0We shouldn’t take the matter so lightly. \u00a0So if we really want to know how to cook pasta properly, let\u2019s start from scratch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"cooking](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Spaghetti1-400x300.jpg\" "\\"Spaghetti1\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\nWrong<\/p>\n
![\"pasta](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Spaghetti2BBQ.jpeg\" "\\"Spaghetti2BBQ\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\nVERY wrong. Someone thought they were being clever by making it with BBQ sauce. There is a special place in hell for such blasphemers.<\/p>\n
Want to know more?<\/h3>\n
Check out my other site devoted to REAL authentic regional Italian cuisine. <\/p>\n
Now for the cooking. These are things that any native-born Italian totally takes for granted from the cradle to the grave.\u00a0 But for the rest of us, it might be useful to peek behind the curtain and see what the wizard is up to\u2026<\/p>\n
\n- Put the water to boil and use plenty of salt<\/span>.\u00a0 Note that the salt should be generous; and coarse sea salt is preferred for this purpose. \u00a0It has a better flavor\u00a0than table salt\u00a0<\/span>and is easier to dose.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to use a big pot, with a lot of water, so do not assume that all the salt you add will be absorbed by the pasta.\u00a0 Most of it will just remain in the water and consequently discarded. \u00a0A tablespoon of sale grosso in 2.5 to 3 liters (about 3 quarts) of water is about right.<\/li>\n
- Add the pasta<\/span>.\u00a0 Stir at least every couple of minutes. You don\u2019t want the pasta to attaccarsi, to stick together.\u00a0 For certain shapes that have a tendency to do so (orecchiette, fusilli), you might want to stir more frequently. \u00a0Do not abandon your pasta!\u00a0 Let it know you care.\u00a0 Stir with tender love and don\u2019t traumatize it in the process. \u00a0Adding oil to avoid sticking is a topic that\u2019s been hotly debated.\u00a0 If it is true that this procedure might help prevent some sticking, it is also true that making your pasta oily might cause your sauce to slip off afterward.\u00a0 If you stir properly, you won\u2019t need to add oil.<\/li>\n
- Let it cook<\/span>.\u00a0 Now, how long do we cook our pasta?\u00a0 You want to avoid overcooking at all costs\u2014it is the worst and yet most common mistake.\u00a0 No Italian would ever eat overcooked pasta.\u00a0 If you follow the instructions on the package, you\u2019ll want to reduce to cooking time by a couple of minutes. \u00a0Not because they fib about the actual cooking time.\u00a0 But because you need those couple of minutes to make the pasta \u201cjump.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Make it jump!<\/span>\u00a0 When your pasta is ready (a minute or two undercooked) you are going to drain it, but not<\/em> the way you think, with a drainer (colander). \u00a0 No, that is only used for very large quantities or for some very particular kinds of sauces.\u00a0 If you\u2019re just cooking for yourself and your partner\/family, all you\u2019ll need is a big kitchen spoon with holes, or in the case of spaghetti, a prendispaghetti (literally, spaghetti taker).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"how](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/prendi-spaghetti-e1633289674436.jpg\" "\\"prendispaghetti\\"")
<\/span><\/p>\nUn prendispaghetti<\/p>\n
We are taking it for granted that you had your sauce ready all along, well before<\/span> you started cooking the pasta.\u00a0 (It\u2019s beyond any rational concept of Italian logic that you can cook your pasta, and then abandon it while you make the sauce. \u00a0So, you have your sauce ready.) \u00a0OK. your pasta is two minutes undercooked and you\u2019re draining it with the proper tool. \u00a0In fact, you\u2019re not draining too much, because a little water will be absorbed during the jumping.<\/p>\nAs you transfer your pasta to the saucepan, turn the fire on again. \u00a0You are actually going to complete the cooking process, for a couple of minutes, by making the pasta jump (tossing it) with its sauce. \u00a0 If you\u2019re not an expert, you can just stir carefully. \u00a0And adding a little of the salty water (the one where you cooked the pasta) if the sauce seems to thicken too much is a great tip.\u00a0 Pasta will absorb liquid, so you might actually need a little extra.\u00a0 In Italy, there is no such thing as cooking a plain dish of pasta then putting the sauce on top.\u00a0 No. \u00a0You stir, you jump. \u00a0Every single rigatone must first flirt, then embrace, and finally consummate the relationship with its portion of sauce.<\/p>\n
\n- Serve immediately!<\/span>\u00a0 Now you have cooked your pasta to perfection.\u00a0 Serve immediately, as you don\u2019t want to spoil it all by making another 10 minutes conversation with your guests. \u00a0Your table must be already set. \u00a0Your kids\u2019 hands washed. \u00a0When pasta is ready, everybody sits down and eats. \u00a0(Italians aren\u2019t typically too concerned about being on time for most things, but the pasta course is a notable exception when their sense of punctuality surpasses that of a Swiss watchmaker.)<\/li>\n
- Are your plates warm?<\/span>\u00a0 What if you have thick, beautiful, ceramic plates that are cold? \u00a0Do you want to risk dropping the temperature of your perfectly cooked pasta? No, of course not.\u00a0 (This is the little-known 4th<\/sup> law of thermodynamics, proposed by Galileo a full two centuries before Carnot, et al) Italians keep their plates warm. There are various techniques: put them in warm water while you\u2019re cooking, or else keep them around the stove. \u00a0Whatever you do, just don\u2019t let them get cold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"perfectly](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/spaghetti3.jpg\" "\\"Spaghetti")
<\/span><\/p>\nPerfectly cooked pasta<\/p>\n
Is that all we need to know about how to cook pasta?\u00a0 \u00a0Well, that\u2019s the basics, but of course there are subtle nuances in cooking pasta that are as mysterious as witchcraft and they can\u2019t be so easily explained.\u00a0 It requires practice.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, I\u2019ve begun writing the final chapters of my next book, \u201cEat Like an Italian<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d under the watchful eye of my Sicilian wife.\u00a0 She has been a great inspiration in this endeavor.\u00a0 Indeed, I must confess that she wrote the bulk of this blog post\u2014I merely edited it to increase the ratio of sarcasm to common sense.\u00a0 You see what I mean?\u00a0 We stranieri are always messing around with simple things that are better left alone.<\/p>\nP.S. One last bit of advice.\u00a0 I shouldn’t have to say this, but experience has taught me that it\u2019s necessary to point it out:\u00a0 Don\u2019t reheat pasta leftovers from the day before. \u00a0Wasting food is a sin, but eating day-old pasta is a mortal<\/em> sin. \u00a0Please\u2014think of the children!<\/p>\nWant to know more?<\/h3>\n
Check out my other site devoted to REAL authentic regional Italian cuisine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pasta. \u00a0Nothing says \u201cItalian food\u201d quite like it. \u00a0We can\u2019t envision an Italian table, restaurant, or family dinner without picturing a heaping dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce, right?\u00a0 Fair enough. But let\u2019s examine our picture a little more closely. \u00a0Are you sure that you know how to cook pasta properly? \u00a0Are those spaghetti as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[230,61,155,28,154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}