Step-by-Step Instructions From Experts
If you can boil water, you can make perfect pasta. Lorenzo Boni, executive chef at Barilla America, spoke to Lifescript at America Cooks With Chefs’ cooking challenge and gives step-by-step instructions…
You boil some water, add salt and a box of pasta, then set the timer.
Perfect pasta, right?
Almost.
There’s a little more to it. Here’s how to get it right every time.
Use 1 gallon of water per pound of dry pasta. Plenty of boiling water helps the pasta rehydrate, Boni says.
Be sure to use a large pot, adds Christie Morrison, a test cook at America’s Test Kitchen and associate editor for Cook’s Country magazine. Otherwise the water will cool too much when you add the pasta. Your pasta may clump together or become mushy while the water returns to a boil.
Perfect pasta tip #2: Don’t add oil
Don’t add oil to the water. “It’s a waste. It’s adding calories and it’s not going to do anything,” Boni says.
Oil doesn’t keep pasta from sticking together, Morrison says. The real way to stop pasta from sticking is to cook it in enough water, she continues.
Perfect pasta tip #3: Add salt
If you like, add salt to taste, Boni suggests.
Too much salt is not heart-healthy, Morrison says. But no salt in your pasta water will leave you with less-than-great-tasting pasta.
Salt brings out the flavor in food, and seasoning your pasta while it cooks is better than seasoning it later, she says.
Perfect pasta tip #4: Undercook your pasta
“Cook it to the recommended cook time,” Boni says. “I like to keep it slightly under because I like to finish my pasta in the skillet for a minute or two,” Boni says.
To separate your strands of pasta, Morrison recommends using a pasta fork.
“Wooden spoons tend to be clunky and don’t separate the individual strands of pasta from each other,” she says.
Perfect pasta tip #5: Taste the pasta
Don’t judge pasta readiness by time alone. Taste the pasta.
“When you get the pasta out to taste it, I recommend to bite into it. Al dente means to the tooth in Italian. So basically [the pasta] has to have a little bit of a firmer texture inside,” Boni says.
Perfect pasta tip #6: Look for the white dot
So the pasta tastes fine. How else can you check for readiness?
Look at it. “You should see a little white dot in the middle of the pasta” after you bite into it, Boni says.
Perfect pasta tip #7: Finish the pasta in a skillet
Now you’re ready to finish the pasta. Some people prefer to add sauce over the pasta. Not Boni. After taking the pasta out of the water, he finishes cooking it in the skillet, so as to “marry the pasta and the sauce together,” he says.
Source: http://cc.cc/3wa1
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