Talk:Boiled pasta
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[edit] Rinsing the pasta
Questions for the Italian cooks: When I cook pasta, I always rinse the pasta with cold water after straining it. The purpose is to stop the heat so that I can ensure the pasta would not continue to cook itself after removing from the fire. The outcome is a more predictable consistency each time. The cold pasta is heated up again just before serving. Is such practice common in Italian cooking? It is for Chinese. Since Chinese and Italian cuisine are both famous for their endless choices of pasta, they both should have their tips and tricks passed down through generations.
I rinse pasta after it's done cooking too, but I always thought it was to rinse off the extra oil and salt. My family is Italian in a way (my step-great-grandfather was Italian). I think it's probably a custom that was originated by both cultures. Dreamyshade
- Yes, cold water stops cooking, so pasta would not loose any more consistency. But this has to be a very quick operation, or you will eat a cold pasta, and cold pasta is not able to capture sauce (so you practically would eat pasta and sauce separately). Because of this, this operation might be useful if you have to put hot sauces on it; otherwise it is better to have pasta served within 3-4 minutes, or if you need more time to serve it, boiling one minute less than suggested (see box).
I don't rinse my pasta (slightly undercooking it to compensate for the continued cooking). Not rinsing it leaves any residual starch on the pasta which will both thicken the sauce a little and help it stick. But then, I am not Italian.
[edit] When to add the salt
I've always added the salt when the water boils, because salt raises the boiling point of water so it takes longer to boil otherwise. But that's just me being impatient.
- Actually, it makes no significant difference whether you add the salt at the beginning or at the end. The heat energy input needed to go from (cold water) + (cold salt) to (boiling salty water) is the same either way.
- In truth, salt at the end may be slower, just so slightly. Heat flow from stove to pan is greater when the pan is cold. So putting all the mass (water+salt) on the stove from the beginning increases the heat flow and thus gets faster to the final state, even though the temperature is lower for most of the time.
Jorge Stolfi 04:31, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)- There's not enough salt to significantly affect the boiling point or make any difference in "time to boiling", no matter when you add it. It's for flavor. -- Nunh-huh 05:51, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- To be precise the boiling point of salted water is higher than plain water. This because <<a solute [the salt] dissolved into a solvente [the water] increases the boiling point of the latter>>.In any case, as said before, the different is so insignificant if we consider the ordinary ammount of salt used to cook pasta that it's just a matter of habit. Well, with regards to habits I must say that the 99.99% of people I know in Italy (including me) are used to add salt just after the water has started boiling. In my opinion the sentence <<The salt should be added when the water is still cold>> is not true as explained and could be changed in something like <<The salt could be added when the water is still cold or just after it starts boiling>> --gico
[edit] Missing VFD notice?
After editing this page I found out that it was listed in Talk:List of recipes/Delete as a candidate for deletion. Shouldn't the article have been flagged with a VfD notice, or with a note on this talk page?
Jorge Stolfi 05:22, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Deleted material
Trying to rewrite the page i encyclopedic style, I had to delete this sentence:
- =Serving suggestions= For well-cooked pasta, simple sauces such butter and Parmigiano Reggiano, or some oil, parsley or basil and fresh garlic, may well be as tasty as more sophisticated preparations.
Jorge Stolfi 05:45, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Putting oil in the water
It seems to be common practice to put a little olive oil in the pan of water when cooking (as you can see in this picture wich is used in the Spaghetti article), to me this seems like a big waste of time, it just flots on the top it doesn't touch the pasta! The article does not mention this, I wonder were this silly idea came from, I assume the Italians don't do it?--JK the unwise 11:53, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
I don’t think it’s an entirely silly idea: the useful thing that happens is that the oil disperses in the boiling water and adheres to the pasta, lubricating it and making the penne (or whatever) less likely to stick to each other. But you are probably right in assuming that Italians don’t do it. At any rate it was an Italian who stopped me doing it and taught me instead to stir now and again. I guess I should add that advice to the article. --Ian Spackman 01:52, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] A couple of extra secrets added
- The most important lesson I ever learnt on cooking the pasta was to begin by clearing the sink and putting a colander in it: it’s all to easy to leave it till last and end up with the stuff overcooked and soggy.
- Stir now and again.
Plus one or two other minor modifications.
Ian Spackman 04:24, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
