When prepared improperly pasta gets sloppy and starchy. Perfectly cooked it simply tastes better. Al Dente, Italian for Just Right (not under cooked as very often presumed) calls for the pasta to be a bit firm.
It’s best to measure pasta in a ratio of 4 cups, and that’s 1 quart, of water to 3 oz . of pasta and a big flat wide pot works best.
1. Top up the pot with the correct volume of water for the amount of pasta you want to cook and include about 1/8 of a tea spoon of sea salt per cup of water. In addition include a little drizzle of olive oil to the water, to reduce sticking.
2. Bring the water to a quick boil.
3. Add in the pasta and let the water return to the boil but turn down the high heat slightly if needed to keep the nice rolling boil.
4. After 8 minutes has transpired it is time to test the pasta. get a fork and with care taste a piece. The pasta should be firm but easy to bite through and it should taste cooked as you would expect. If it is not ready keep testing each and every minute until it is ready.
5. Drain the pasta without delay. if to be used now in a warm meal serve without delay, for cold meals drain and pour cool water through it and refrigerate for a few hours.
As you can tell it really is no problem to prepare great pasta however the key minutes of trying are exactly where everything can go wrong. Once over done there is not much you can do about it.
You should certainly check out our spaghetti sauce recipe to go with your fantastic cooked pasta on our fantastic frugal living blog.
