My first attempt at cooking fresh pasta.
Discussion
..didn't go down well.
First of all i presumed the smallest pan would be big enough.. but as the pasta on the top was floating out of the pan, i realised it wasn't
I then tried a medium sized one then onto the biggest one - that seemed to fit - but by now half arsed cooking time was already 10 mins when the box says 2-3 mins
Then i forgot to turn it off as i was washing the pots, and long story short the pasta came out all soggy and damn right minging.
Any tips for next time?
Admitably i do not cook for myself a lot, sometimes pasta but never fresh one!
Dan
First of all i presumed the smallest pan would be big enough.. but as the pasta on the top was floating out of the pan, i realised it wasn't
I then tried a medium sized one then onto the biggest one - that seemed to fit - but by now half arsed cooking time was already 10 mins when the box says 2-3 mins
Then i forgot to turn it off as i was washing the pots, and long story short the pasta came out all soggy and damn right minging.
Any tips for next time?
Admitably i do not cook for myself a lot, sometimes pasta but never fresh one!
Dan
if you fill it to the brim, and then put something in it (the pasta), it will overflow.
physics
In all seriousness, always use the biggest pan you have. The more the pasta can seperate and move around, the better and more evenly it will cook.
Three-quarter fill the pan. Add a teaspoon or two of salt to the water.
Bring it to the boil. A lid will speed this up. If you are in a hurry, use a couple of kettles. But its better not to if you have the time.
then follow the packed instructions on the pasta, breaking it up with a fork or pasta scooper.
When its 30 seconds before the end of the packet instructions, take it off the heat and taste it - it should have a little bit of bite left in the pasta, but not taste uncooked.
Drain the pasta into a seive leaving a small amount of the cooking water in the pan (about three tablespoons?). Put the pasta back in the pan and off the heat, add your sauce (pesto is easiest if you are lazy!) and stir it through. Serve with parmesan cheese.
physics
In all seriousness, always use the biggest pan you have. The more the pasta can seperate and move around, the better and more evenly it will cook.
Three-quarter fill the pan. Add a teaspoon or two of salt to the water.
Bring it to the boil. A lid will speed this up. If you are in a hurry, use a couple of kettles. But its better not to if you have the time.
then follow the packed instructions on the pasta, breaking it up with a fork or pasta scooper.
When its 30 seconds before the end of the packet instructions, take it off the heat and taste it - it should have a little bit of bite left in the pasta, but not taste uncooked.
Drain the pasta into a seive leaving a small amount of the cooking water in the pan (about three tablespoons?). Put the pasta back in the pan and off the heat, add your sauce (pesto is easiest if you are lazy!) and stir it through. Serve with parmesan cheese.
Edited by Wadeski on Wednesday 18th August 20:25
Take the biggest pot you have, filled 3/4 of the way to the top, with a splash of olive oil. When the water is bubbling away nicely, add a teaspoon of salt and immediately the pasta. The addition of the pasta cools the water down, but the addition of salt lowers the boiling point.
Turn down the heat down to a rolling boil to keep the pasta moving, tasting a piece every few minutes. Once it stops tasting raw but still has a bit of bite, it's ready. (It will continue cooking once drained.) Drain in a colander, toss the sauce with the pasta in the pasta pan and serve at once on a warmed plate.
Turn down the heat down to a rolling boil to keep the pasta moving, tasting a piece every few minutes. Once it stops tasting raw but still has a bit of bite, it's ready. (It will continue cooking once drained.) Drain in a colander, toss the sauce with the pasta in the pasta pan and serve at once on a warmed plate.
Maybe I should have phrased it better: the addition of salt seems to increase the 'violence' of the boiling (what you want). To the uneducated eye it could appear the boiling point had been lowered, which is clearly not the case.
I stick with my olive oil tip though - and yes - student kitchens. Take the cheapest nastiest spaghetti available, boil it in the smallest pot you can find, then try to eat it...
One of my flatmates would put Thousand Island dressing on his.
I stick with my olive oil tip though - and yes - student kitchens. Take the cheapest nastiest spaghetti available, boil it in the smallest pot you can find, then try to eat it...
One of my flatmates would put Thousand Island dressing on his.
I was thinking of the vigorous bubbling when you put the salt in as I wrote that. I think that basically the salt grains provide nucleation points for bubbles of gaseous water to form at, so when you dump the salt in you get a burst of bubbles forming.
The salt dissolving in the water actually releases energy, such that processes which take the water away from the sodium and chloride ions will subsequently require energy. Basically it takes energy to "un dissolve" the salt. This is why freezing points are lowered (solid water can't dissolve salt) and boiling points raised (gaseous water can't dissolve salt).
The salt dissolving in the water actually releases energy, such that processes which take the water away from the sodium and chloride ions will subsequently require energy. Basically it takes energy to "un dissolve" the salt. This is why freezing points are lowered (solid water can't dissolve salt) and boiling points raised (gaseous water can't dissolve salt).
i don't think the oil does anything: oil is not very soluble in water... it just sits on the top. If it's dissolved in the water it's not going to lubricate the pasta and stop it from sticking together. If its just suspended in the water then floats at the top and doesn't lubricate the pasta either.
Heston did a test on the oil-in-pasta water thing, adding progressively more from a single drop and testing the results.
To make any meaningful difference to pasta sticking together or cooking quality, i seem to remember it needed to be approx 50% oil to 50% water, by which point the pasta was horrible to eat.
To make any meaningful difference to pasta sticking together or cooking quality, i seem to remember it needed to be approx 50% oil to 50% water, by which point the pasta was horrible to eat.
DangerousMike said:
i don't think the oil does anything: oil is not very soluble in water... it just sits on the top. If it's dissolved in the water it's not going to lubricate the pasta and stop it from sticking together. If its just suspended in the water then floats at the top and doesn't lubricate the pasta either.
Mixing the oily water with the pasta rather than leaving the two separate seems to work quite well.DangerousMike said:
you need to do a blind trial, I bet it wouldn't be possible to tell the difference.
The best way is to add the oil after you've drained the pasta!
Why? I've been cooking pasta with and without oil for 28 years. Please note I am talking about adding oil to dried pasta not fresh, clearly fresh pasta and oil would not work, however with dried pasta it seems to stick easily, so boiling water, bit of salt, one tablespoon of oil (olive or whatever is to hand), drop in your dried pasta shapes, stir (mixing oily water with dried pasta), bingo!The best way is to add the oil after you've drained the pasta!
Edited by DangerousMike on Wednesday 18th August 23:16
This is not about taste, clearly the oil adds nothing to that, but controllinng the starch froth and enabling less stickiness.
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