You have been cooking pasta wrong your whole life

Making pasta is simple, as long as you follow rules.  There are no stricter rules in Italy than this. Actually, there are relatively few rules in Italy besides these. But that is another topic.

Sit up straight. Pay attention.

Pasta Laws:

1) Use a lot of water. The pasta needs room to swim around and release its starch. Have you ever had pasta clump together? The amount of water is one of your problems. The water must also come back up to a boiling temperature when you add the pasta. The more water you have, the less the pasta is going to bring down the temperature.

2)  Salt water liberally. This does not mean a pinch. This means dump it in. The pasta water should taste more like seawater than anything else.

3) Do not add oil to the water.  The oil will do nothing to help the pasta not stick, it will just float on top of the water. In fact, when oil gets on the pasta after draining, it prevents sauce from sticking.

4) Do not break the pasta. Just add it, swirl it around the sides of the pot, and push it down in a minute. Why not break it? Because Italian grandmothers will beat you with their rolling pins if you do. I wish I was joking.

5) Do not over cook pasta. The box says 7-8 minutes so just set the timer right? Wrong. Go a little lower, around 5-6, then try the pasta. Then you can judge if it needs more time. It should still have a little give to it when you bite down, but not be crunchy. this is called al dente. Remember, the pasta will cook a bit more when added to a hot sauce.

6) Pasta water is precious. The starchy water you have when you drain the pasta should not go down the drain. Before you drain the pasta; take a mug and scoop some water out. Add it to the sauce.

7)Finish the pasta in the sauce that you just added pasta water too. The pasta has to soak up some of the sauce. The goal with pasta is to literally flavor the pasta itself, not have all the flavor in the sauce. Add  parmigaino reggiano cheese at the end to help the sauce emulsify.

8)Practice, Practice! It may take a little trial and error to get right, but the results are worth it. Buy some pasta, canned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and parmigiano and get to it!

I almost forgot!

Pasta Amendment #1- Parmesan from a green plastic bottle (you know exactly what I’m talking about) is not Parmesan. Buy a wedge of the good stuff.