Pasta Cooking Tips

Here are some basics about cooking pasta!

Dried or Fresh The Difference Between

A normal portion of pasta at our house is really big, about 175 grams of dried pasta. Being American-Italian big portions of pasta are normal and would horrify most people with a normal appetite. I weigh 60 kilo or about 125 pounds. Pretty light weight but with pasta I can eat like a very big and hungry truck driver.

At our house pasta is not something that we have as a first course; it is almost always the main course. I very rarely, if ever throw away left over pasta, that would be some kind of sin.

If I am not paying attention or forget to put on the timer for some reason and it becomes over cooked, I simply strain it and toss it in the garbage and begin again. No matter what!

Because of this general rule about over cooked pasta which is sacrosanct, I never order pasta in Sweden as a "dagensrätt" or "pasta of the day", it is for the most part barbaric what lunch restaurants, (actually what most restaurants), can do to pasta. Pasta for me is like potatoes to a Swede, I eat it about 5 times a week and when traveling if I don't have it after a couple of weeks I begin to get withdrawal symptoms. Yes, I am very fussy about my pasta!

So needless to tell you anymore - I am addicted and can't live without the stuff. Below I give general instructions for dried and fresh pasta. It’s not difficult and the rules are super easy, just pay attention to what your doing and have your sauce or all the ingredients ready when the pasta is and you should be having better pasta.

Remember that pasta keeps cooking even after it comes off the stove, it’s hot and your about to add the hot sauce and by the time you get it to the table you have soggy pasta.

Many people, even some famous people say that when you take it off the stove to strain it and run cold water over it to stop the cooking. I ask you - is your stove so fantastic that it can bring a half kilo of cold pasta back up to temperature so quickly that it does not become complete rubish? Are all these people out of their minds?

It can take a bit of practice, cook it until it is just a bit less cooked than you want. Return it to the pot or serving dish, sauce it and go straight to the table. This is why I always recommend that you have your sauce or ingredients ready when or before the pasta is cooked when ever possible.

Portions

The weights are the same for dried and fresh pasta

50 to 60 grams or 2 to 2 1/2 ounces per person as an appetizer.
110 grams or 4 ounces per person as a main course.
150-175 grams or 5 to 6 ounces if its the only thing your having for dinner.

Difference Between Fresh and Dried Pasta

For the most part quality dried imported Italian pasta that you buy is made with water and semolina flour unless the package is marked "egg pasta". If it is, it is always marked egg pasta because they can charge more for it. Dried pasta is more sturdy and can hold it's own with the heavier sauces such as tomato sauces, meat sauces, strong flavored cheese sauces.

Fresh pasta is always made with egg and flour a pinch of salt and nothing more. It has a much more delicate taste and bite. Stuffed pasta like ravioli, tortellini, or flat pastas like fettuccine, pappardelle (very wide flat pasta), are really suitable for lighter sauces such as pesto, pasta with garlic, oil and cheese, butter and sage and light creamy sauces.

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The pasta pot: You do need to have a lot of water to boil pasta. So the investment of a big cheap pot is worth it. Nothing fancy just a big pot, I have a 9 liter stainless steel pot I bought at IKEA (super cheap) that works great. It also comes in handy for stocks, soups and the occasional fresh lobster or two. It is a must have in a decently equipped kitchen.

Dried pasta

The water:You do need 4 liters of water to 1/2 kilo, of dried pasta or 4 quarts water to 1 pound of dried pasta. It is the same for fresh pasta. Pasta requires lots of water for boiling because if there is not enough water and room in the pot and it's really tight the water becomes too full of starch and both the water and the pasta gets gummy and can never really cook properly.

The salt: 1 1/2 heaping msk. or 1 1/2 heaping tbls. of salt for every 4 liters or 4 quarts of water. The salt can be added at the beginning or after it comes to the boil, in real life it doesn't really matter except that it is in the pot before the pasta. Salt enhances the flavor of the pasta. Easy to find out if I am telling the truth, just cook your pasta without salt and see what I mean.

The Heat: On my stove I always have it turned to the highest number, (#6 on mine). You want the water to come back to the boil as quickly as you can.

When is it cooked? A big bone of contention is, what does "Al Dente" mean. It means "firm to the bite". So you are really looking for something that is cooked but still has some resistance to it, (no I don't mean hard). If you're used to soggy over cooked pasta it can be difficult to force yourself to eat it another way but it is far better cooked properly and far better for your digestion.

Firstly read the package instructions for the cooking time. Different shapes and sizes have different cooking time. Penne from one company may take more time then that from another. Set a cooking timer for two minutes less than the package recommends, this way there is no way that the pasta can be over cooked.

When the water comes to a boil toss in the amount of pasta you want to cook. Set the timer for two minutes less than the package recommends and when it goes off begin by taking one bit of pasta from the pot and tasting it. There is no other way. If it is still too hard let it cook for a little longer 60 seconds???? perhaps and taste again until it has got the right bite.

Stirring: You should always stir pasta just after the water comes back to the boil to avoid it's sticking together and once or twice during the cooking to be sure it has not stuck to the bottom of the pot or itself.

I remember my father could take a bit of pasta from the water and say, not yet and then 30 seconds later be running for the strainer yelling its done. He was really fussy about his pasta!

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Fresh Pasta

When I say fresh pasta I mean the type that you make yourself. I have tried most brands of what is called fresh pasta from the market here in Stockholm and its all garbage! Not only is the pasta inferior to what you can make but the stuffings are ridiculous. You might as well settle for dried in a package and concentrate on preparing a terrific sauce for it.

Have your sauce or all your ingredients ready.

The water: The salt and water rule is the same for fresh pasta as it is for dried. You need 4 liters to 1/2 kilo of pasta or 4 quarts to 1 pound of pasta.

The salt: 1 1/2 heaping msk. or 1 1/2 heaping tbls. of salt for every 4 liters or 4 quarts of water.

The fact of the matter is that fresh pasta cooks a lot faster than dried, most people are surprised by just how fast that can be. Plain flat pasta can take as little as 30 to 40 seconds after the water comes back to the boil. Stuffed pasta can take a little longer about 2 minutes. A lot of this depends on how much pasta you’re cooking and how thin you rolled it for the type of pasta you’re using. It is difficult to say exactly how long for each type of pasta you might be cooking.

Stirring: You should always stir pasta just after the water comes back to the boil to avoid it sticking together and once or twice during the cooking to be sure it has not stuck to the bottom of the pot or itself. Be particularly gentle with stuffed (filled) pastas!

The Heat: On my stove I always have it turned to the highest number, #6 on mine. You want the water to come back to the boil as fast as you can. I find that if I make home made pasta and have a lot of it foam will appear on top of the boiling water, so if you have invested in that big pasta pot you promised yourself, you should have enough room in it to avoid it boiling over.

The best way of dealing with fresh pasta is toss it in the pot of boiling water, when it comes back to the boil and floats up to the surface taste it. Remember that it is still cooking even after you have it off the stove. So sauce it and get it to the table as fast as possible. This is even more important with fresh pasta!

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copyright bill rubino