Cooking pasta

Why

In the first minutes of boiling, starch is released from the surface of the pasta and it turns sticky; plenty of rapidly boiling water and a stir at that point stop it clumping, and the water doesn't cool down as much when the pasta goes in. Salt only gets into pasta while it cooks, which is why the water is salted generously, roughly 10 g per litre; that amount has a negligible effect on the boiling point, and oil in the water is pointless because it floats on top and doesn't prevent sticking. The cooking water is full of dissolved starch that thickens the sauce and helps its fat combine with water into a smooth emulsion that clings to the pasta. That is why pasta isn't rinsed after draining – you would wash off the starch the sauce holds on to and cool the pasta down; the only exception is pasta for a cold salad.

How to do it

• Allow roughly a litre of water per 100 g of pasta and add about 10 g of salt per litre once it boils.
• Drop the pasta into rapidly boiling water and stir now and then for the first two minutes.
• Don't add oil to the water; it won't stop sticking.
• Cook a minute or two less than the packet says and keep tasting.
• Before draining, scoop out a mugful of the cooking water.
• Don't rinse the pasta; transfer it straight into the sauce and finish cooking it there with a little of the cooking water.

If it goes wrong

Loosen pasta that has stuck together in the sauce with a little hot cooking water, or dip it briefly in boiling water and stir. Overcooked pasta won't firm up again – bake it or add it to a soup, and next time start tasting earlier. Under-salted pasta can only be rescued by a well-seasoned sauce.