Tips For Preparing Perfect Pasta

Some believe pasta came from China, others believe it originated in Italy. Both would agree, however, that it is a versatile and tasty food. Today, I am going to give some tips on to make pasta preparation easier and more successful.

For starters, when figuring out how much pasta is needed to serve a given number of people remember 1 cup or 8 oz of dry pasta= about 4 cups cooked. Further, always add salt to the boiling water before cooking. This enhances the flavor and eliminates the need to add salt to your pasta dish when it is served. Do not add oil to the cooking water. This only makes the pasta slippery and keeps the sauce from sticking.

The next consideration is cooking time. Packaged dried pasta takes around 15 minutes to cook while homemade pasta take only around 10 minutes to cook. Either way, it is ready when it reaches the al dente state of being thoroughly cooked yet still offering some resistance to the bite.

Finally, comes the draining phase of pasta preparation. This is where the right cookware can be very helpful. A pasta pot with either holes in lid that you can turn it over to pour out the water or an insert that you can pull out and leave the hot water behind make draining simpler and reduce your chances of being scalded. Once drained only rinse the pasta if you are going to serve it in a cold dish or not serving it immediately after cooking. Rinsing pasta with cold water stops the cooking process and will make pasta slippery and unable to hold the sauce when served in a hot dish.

I hope these tips will make your next pasta cooking experience a better one.

Tracy Simpson lives in Durham North Carolina with 2 dogs, 4 cats, and 2 parents. She has been cooking since she was ten years old and is the proud owner of a cookware website http://www.cookingutensilsandkitchenwarerus.sitecreatorplus.com where she sells many kitchen goods including pasta pots and pasta makers.