Spaghetti was probably one of your first meals. But that doesn’t mean you can cook it or other types of pasta correctly. You may have created edible noodles by putting a jar on top of them. But to make perfect pasta it takes more than just throwing dried noodles in a pot of boiling water. You’re likely making mistakes when you cook a pot of pasta.
Have you ever thought about how much water sarma recept you need, when you should add the pasta and how often to stir the pot? There are correct and wrong answers to many culinary questions.
We asked chefs to reveal the top mistakes made when making pasta. They also shared easy ways to make sure you have the perfect al dente recipe every time. While you are learning how to make pasta perfectly, be sure to check out our 40 Worst Pasta Sauces–Ranked!
1. Make a mistake: You are not drinking enough water
It is important to know how much water you use for your pasta. Francesca Montillo is an Italian chef instructor and author of The Five-Ingredient Italian Cookbook.
Montillo suggests that you need to boil four quarts of water to make a pound of pasta.
If you have an 8-quart stockpot (which is usually the largest in a home’s kitchen), you will need to fill it halfway if you are adding a pound of dried pasta.
2. Make a mistake: Too soon adding your pasta to the pot
Do you know the expression “A watchful pot never boils”? A pot that isn’t boiling pasta will not be good.
Montillo says, “No matter what you do, don’t add pasta to coldwater.” This increases the cooking time and results in a less granular texture. It’s a blatant sin in the eyes all Italian grandmas.
Montillo says that you need to wait until the water boils. Next, add the pasta.
3. Make a mistake: Add oil to your water
Olive oil can be added to pasta water to prevent it from boiling over, or to prevent pasta from sticking together. However, this is a serious sin in Italian cooking.
Montillo states that home cooks should not, and I do mean never, add oil or butter to pasta water.
Why? She explains that oil can make it difficult for sauce to stick to pasta.
Montillo suggests a solution: Cook your pasta in enough water, and then add it to the pot when it has boiled with large bubbles.
Instead of focusing on the oil, try the salt.
Here are more tips for pasta: The Best-Ever Way To Keep Pasta From Sticking Together
4. Make a mistake: You are not salting enough.
This is one rare instance when you shouldn’t be too generous with the salt shaker. This is because salt adds flavor to the pasta.
You can fix it by adding the salt to the boiling water, but not before you add the pasta. Please note that you will need to add quite a bit of salt.
Firoz Thanawalla (chef and owner of Chef’s Satchel, a kitchen supplies store) says that the best way to find the right amount of salt for pasta water is to taste it. It may seem excessive, but it will pay off.
5. Make a mistake: Waiting too long for your pasta to be stirred
While you probably know that pasta should be stirred to prevent it sticking to your hands, chances are that you don’t stir it enough.
Delallo, an Italian food manufacturer, says pasta sticks better at the beginning of cooking, before the starches are added to the water.
How to fix it: Delallo experts recommend that you stir your pasta after two minutes.
For pasta leftovers, here’s the Single Best Way to Reheat Pasta That You Have Never Tried.