Hey everyone, and welcome back to another “HOW TO” article. Today, we’re going to show you how to boil pasta.
Now, as simple as this does sound, we have a lot of tips and tricks to share with you to make this even easier than you may think. So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and get started.
Types of Pasta
There are many different types of pasta: elbow macaroni, rigatoni, and thin spaghetti, as well as many other types. But today, we will be cooking thin spaghetti.
The Most Important Tip: Cold Water
The very first tip is to use cold water. You want cold water because warm or hot water can go through your pipes, pick up sediment, heat up the pipe, break down sediments, and introduce bad-tasting elements into the pot. Cold water will not. Also, you want to fill your pot with more than enough water to cover the pasta so when it boils, it won’t boil below the pasta.
Heating the Pot
Go ahead and put your pot on the stove and start to heat it up to a boiling point.
Salting the Water
Our second tip is salting. Salting adds flavor. It also raises the boiling point temperature a little bit. Some people say that it helps boil faster. However, we’ve seen mixed results on this, so we’re on the fence. Once it comes to a boil, slowly add your pasta.
Adding Oil
The next tip is oil. We like to add oil to the pasta to keep it from sticking. Some say not to add oil because it will keep the sauce from sticking to the pasta, but that’s up to you.
Cooking Long-Strand Pasta: Our spaghetti!
How to cook spaghetti or long-strand pasta. It’s a little bit different than shorter pasta. You want to put it in and let it sit for about half a minute to a minute so it warms up. Then, slowly turn it in until it’s fully submerged and continue the process.
Boiling and Resting
Once your pasta is fully submerged, bring it back up to a boil, then turn it off. When your pasta is boiling, put the lid back on, turn off the heat, and let it sit for seven minutes.
Draining the Pasta
At the seven-minute mark, when you’re satisfied with the texture, drain the pasta. Take the pot off the heat and pour the contents into a strainer. Our tip is to shake the strainer a little to get the water out, then place the strainer back inside the pot. This allows you to work with the pasta while the water continues to drain.
Customizing Your Pasta
We didn’t add any sauce to this demonstration since we focused on the pasta itself, but at this stage, you can add sauce, butter, or any other ingredients. The pasta is nice and perfectly cooked—about seven minutes. You can customize it further with butter or other toppings.
Thank you so much for joining us! Remember, each type of pasta is a little different. Angel hair pasta is very light and delicate, while thicker pastas like rigatoni require careful timing.
