It may seem obvious, but this is one that a lot of us get wrong sometimes.We think we’re going to end up with our favourite recipes from that blogger's drool worthy Instagram but what we end up with is a bowl of hot mush. Well, never again! Read to learn how to get your pasta right every, single time.
Step 1: Find your biggest pot.
Use a big pot with at least a litre of water. Do not reduce the amount of water or use a smaller pot just because you’re making less pasta or you’re hungry and think this will help cook it faster
Step 2: Salt is your best friend!
Salt the water, and we don’t mean just 1 or 2 tablespoons. We mean heavily. They don’t say salty like the sea for nothing! Don’t be shy, heap it in till it’s salty enough. This will help your pasta become a lot more flavourful.
Step 3: Boil, boil, boil!
Nothing less than boiling water will do! Don’t just dump your pasta into cold water out of sheer hunger - the pasta reduces the heat of the water itself, and will then take much longer to cook and will turn out mushy in the end. Make sure you have boiling water and you cook that pasta on a rolling boil. If it’s not bubbling before it goes in, you’re doing it wrong.
Step 4: Say goodbye to oil!
Let’s just bust this myth right now. A lot of people add a swig of olive oil to stop the pasta from sticking, but we’re here to tell you that you can avoid that all together, and maybe in fact you should. The sticking problem can be easily solved with a good stir! Yep, it’s that simple. Just make sure you give your pasta a few good stirs every minute or so and there you have it - unstuck pasta. The oil on the other hand when added to the water and absorbed by pasta can make it difficult for the pasta to catch the sauce lessening it’s overall flavour.
Step 5: READ THE BOX
All pasta cooks differently, it varies from the ingredients, to the shape, to whether it was freshly made. Even if you have cooked pasta a million times before, it’s always better to read the cooking instructions on the side of the box before you start. If the box provides a range, start checking your pasta a minute before it hits the bottom of the range and cook as per taste from there. We can’t say this enough, when it comes to cooking pasta, trust the box and not word of mouth.
Step 6: Drain, don’t rinse!
When draining your pasta, don’t rinse it afterwards with cold water. This actually ends up washing away all the delicious healthy starches from the pasta. Instead drain it (saving a cup of pasta water for your sauce) and set it aside.
Well that’s all folks, hope you learned something or could at least confirm that you knew how to cook pasta all along. Don’t forget to try this with our Edamame Noodle & Single Ingredient Pasta ranges! And as ever never forget to READ THE BOX.
If you do try any of the above steps and make the perfect pasta, don’t forget to tag us with your creation @pinkharvestfarms.
