Most instructions on pasta packages will instruct you to boil water, add salt to taste and cook between 9 to 11 minutes. This is a good rule of thumb. You want to have perfectly cooked pasta, not mushy or sticky. 9 to 11 minutes is a good guideline to achieve pasta which is called al dente.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain pasta immediately.
o I use a large colander to drain the pasta. Stir the pasta around and toss to rid any excess water. This will also unstick any pasta that may have clumped together. I like the pasta to retain moisture and prevent dryness. This will allow the sauce to stick easier later.
o Pasta should not be rinsed after cooking. Pasta contains natural starches that act as a glue thereby allowing the sauce to coat the pasta evenly and firmly. No extra help is needed. Everything is done in a natural way.
o A couple of tablespoons of the cooking water can be used to turn down the sauce before it is served.
o Italian pasta cooking will sometimes undercook pasta for a reason. Undercooked pasta is transferred to a pan with the prepared sauce, and then cooked with the sauce. This will allow it to blend with the sauce and thereby release natural and quite wonderful flavors. This cooking time will also serve to cook the pasta for a few extra minutes.
Your pasta needs the sauce to coat instantly.
o People tend to forget that once you drain your pasta, it naturally still is in the cooking mode. This is why you want to add the pasta to the sauce right away. This is not the time to leave your pasta and go do something else. Get that sauce on the pasta as quickly as you can. Therefore, the sauce should be added quickly. Naturally serve your pasta hot. No one likes lukewarm pasta that does not retain the sauce. That is a recipe for disaster. Put the sauce on right away and keep it hot!
o One mistake that home cooks often make is using too much sauce. You do not have to drown the pasta in sauce. Use enough sauce to get a nice coating and a good consistency working. Drown your pasta and you drown the flavor. I use just enough sauce to coat the pasta. You can always freeze leftover sauce or use the sauce for something else.
o Pasta with a wonderful sauce begs for some sort of cheese topping. Parmigiano-Reggiano is a very popular choice. Cooking pasta is not as hard as it may seem. Once you prepare a few pasta meals, you will begin to cook pasta with regularity. Enjoy and prosper!
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