The Right (And Wrong) Way To Cook Pasta, According To Italian Cooks

On the surface, cooking pasta ranks pretty low in terms of difficulty. If you can boil water, you can do it, right? But theres a difference between getting the job done and actually perfecting it and its a difference you can taste. 

As with other foods, cooking technique matters greatly when it comes to pasta-making. Knowing the best pasta shape and sauce pairings , how long to cook the pasta and even when exactly to add the pasta to the water on the stove all play a role in how well the dish turns out. Never thought about that latter point? Yep, it matters.

Maybe youre the type of person who puts the pasta in right after you put the pot on the stove. That way, you can busy yourself with other things for 10 minutes until its time to check it. Or maybe you patiently wait until the water boils to add the pasta because, somewhere, you picked up on thats how it should be done. Its a small part of the pasta-making process, but Italian chefs say it matters. 

Before you add the pasta to the pot, dont forget salt.

Youve likely heard that its important to add salt to the water  in your pot it should taste like the ocean. Lina Nicolai, a Naples native who is now the chef at Il Piatto in Washington, D.C., explained that this not only gives the pasta flavor, but it also flavors the liquid gold (or pasta water) , which you should use to finish off your pasta sauce. 

You can really tell the difference when salt is not added. The pasta tastes really bland even if the accompanying sauce is flavorful, added Gennaro Contaldo , the author of Gennaros Cucina: Hearty Money-Saving Meals From an Italian Kitchen .

I add salt when the water just begins to boil. This way, it will dissolve quickly, Contaldo said. Make sure you wait until the salt has completely dissolved before adding the pasta.

Heres when to add pasta to the pot.

If you want to make your pasta like an Italian chef, use hot water from the tap, not cold. Francesco Mazzei , the chef patron of three restaurants (Radici, Fiume and Sartoria, all located in London) and the author of Mezzogiorno: Southern Italian Cooking , recommends starting with hot water because it will reach the boiling point faster and is more energy efficient. But while that may save you time, it wont affect the end result of how your pasta will taste. (And before you do so, consider the Environmental Protection Agencys warnings about the safety of hot tap water in older homes .)

Now that you have your hot water in a pot on the stove, whats next? Can you add the pasta? Not so fast. Patrick Money of Pazza Market & Cucina  says the key is to wait until the water is boiling to drop the pasta into the pot. If you dont wait until the water is boiling, the pasta will absorb too much water and become mushy, he said. Nicolai agrees, saying that adding pasta to water before its boiling can make the pasta gummy.

Not only can adding pasta to the water before its boiling make it gummy, but Contaldo says it can make the pasta stick together, too. He adds that stirring the pasta while its cooking will help prevent this.

While the water should absolutely be boiling before you add in the pasta, the chefs say that it doesnt matter how long the water is boiling before you do it; most add the pasta as soon as the water starts boiling, but if the water is boiling for several minutes before you do it, thats OK, too.  

To recap: When making pasta, fill your pot with hot water, wait for it to boil, add your salt, wait for it to dissolve and then add your pasta. According to all five Italian chefs, this is the correct step-by-step process. And dont forget to save that pasta water to integrate into your sauce.

Once you have this process down, there are all sorts of ways you can level up your pasta game. But you have to have the basics down first and now you do.  

If you want to cook great pasta, you absolutely need a proper pasta pot. Heres a roundup of the best.

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This story was previously published at an earlier date.