6 Tips for Cooking Tasty Pasta
A delicious plate of pasta can be the perfect meal when you’re looking to fill up and fuel your body after a hard day’s work or when you’re craving a fun treat that doesn’t break the calorie bank. However, many people find that pasta dishes don’t always live up to their expectations because the pasta itself just isn’t flavorful enough. In order to make sure your pasta dishes are as tasty as possible, follow these six tips for cooking tasty pasta from scratch. You may even surprise yourself with how simple it really is!
1) Quality matters
The best pasta is dried, not fresh. In general, try to stick with a reputable brand that you can find in grocery stores (like De Cecco or Barilla). Fresh noodles aren’t necessarily bad, but they tend to be a bit stickier and more difficult to cook al dente. If you must use fresh noodles, go with thinner varieties that are less likely to overcook and fall apart during cooking. Once cooked, toss them in oil and make an oil bath for them by spooning hot olive oil on top of them. This will keep them from sticking together until they reach your plate. Make sure that all of your ingredients are as fresh as possible too!
2) Use salt, but not too much
When you’re cooking pasta, it’s best to add a little salt to your water before boiling. Salt inhibits starch formation and helps speed up protein absorption—the result is a better-textured final product. But don’t go overboard; too much salt can make your dish taste overly salty or give it an unappetizing texture. And when cooking in a sauce, you may want to hold off on adding extra salt until after you’ve added the pasta because it can draw out too much liquid from your sauce, causing it to become thick and unappealing. It's easier than you think: How many times have we been told that fresh herbs add flavor to our food?
3) Cut the pasta correctly
Different types of pasta have different amounts of time they need to cook. It’s important to know what you’re working with before starting a recipe so that you don’t end up overcooking your meal and having to start over. For example, if you are cooking spaghetti squash, follow your recipe carefully and make sure it says al dente. Al dente (which means to the tooth in Italian) means that when you bite into a piece of pasta, there is still a slight resistance between your teeth because it is not completely cooked through yet. If done correctly, al dente pasta has a pleasant chewiness to it and isn't mushy or over-cooked.
4) Avoid overcooking it
One of the most common mistakes that novice pasta cooks make is to overcook their noodles. Overcooked pasta can end up chewy and starchy, which really defeats part of its appeal. To ensure your pasta is properly cooked, remove it from water as soon as it's al dente (still a little firm), or when you bite into it and feel a slight resistance before it gives way. When removing your noodles from boiling water, be sure to use a large pot so there's room to stir them around in once they're finished cooking. Be careful not to overfill your pot; if too much water comes in contact with your cooked pasta, it will dilute your sauce and make it watered down.
5) Don’t add oil
You might think it adds flavor, but olive oil isn’t an essential ingredient when cooking pasta. It only makes your dish heavier and increases calories. Plus, too much fat slows down digestion and impacts how food is metabolized. To minimize oil intake in your diet, use as little as possible—or none at all—when preparing pasta dishes. Choose whole-grain noodles: Whole-grain pastas are a great option for those looking to add more dietary fiber and nutrients to their daily meals. Research shows that people who eat more whole grains like wheat have lower cholesterol levels than those who avoid them completely.
6) Fresh ingredients matter
Getting out of a pasta rut doesn’t require spending money on an Italian vacation or a culinary school education—it just requires you to experiment with your existing ingredients. A little extra seasoning, some different sauces and herbs, and experimenting with other shapes of pasta can take simple spaghetti from routine to extraordinary. Additionally, make sure you aren’t over-cooking it. Most pastas are best when slightly undercooked so they don’t get mushy when sauce is added later. Before serving fresh pasta dish in a restaurant or at home, use your tongue (not teeth) to test whether it has achieved its optimal texture—slightly chewy with just a tiny bit of bite left in it.
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