How do I cook pasta properly?

Most home pasta is cooked correctly and finished incorrectly. Draining pasta and spooning sauce on top gives you two separate things on a plate. Finishing the pasta in the pan with the sauce and some of its own starchy water emulsifies them into one — and it takes an extra 60 seconds.

What you'll need

• Large pan
• Colander or tongs
• Salt
• Timer
• Mug for reserving cooking water

Step by step

1. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil — roughly 1 litre per 100g of pasta.Enough water that adding the pasta doesn't drop the temperature much and the pieces have room to move.
2. Salt the water generously once boiling — about 7–10g per litre.This is the only chance to season the pasta itself. It should taste noticeably salty.
3. Add the pasta and stir for the first 30 seconds.That's when it's stickiest. After that it won't clump.
4. Set a timer for one to two minutes less than the packet says.The pasta finishes cooking in the sauce, so it needs to come out slightly underdone.
5. Before draining, scoop out a mugful of the cooking water.Everyone forgets this. Put the mug in the sink next to the colander as a reminder.
6. Drain — but don't rinse.Rinsing washes off the surface starch that helps sauce cling. Only rinse for a cold pasta salad.
7. Add the pasta to the sauce in its pan over low heat with a splash of the cooking water.Toss for 30–60 seconds. The starch and fat emulsify and the sauce turns glossy and clings.
8. Add more cooking water a splash at a time until the sauce coats without pooling.It'll look slightly loose in the pan and be right on the plate.

Tips

• Reserve more cooking water than you think you need. It costs nothing and you can't get it back once the pan is empty.
• Taste the pasta rather than trusting the packet. Packet times are a guide and vary with pan, water volume and altitude.
• Don't add oil to the water — it coats the pasta and stops sauce sticking, which is the opposite of what you want.
• Match the shape to the sauce: thin sauces suit long strands, chunky sauces suit shapes with hollows and ridges that catch them.

Common mistakes

• Not salting the water — The pasta itself stays bland, and no amount of sauce fixes that.
• Rinsing after draining — Washes away the starch that makes sauce cling.
• Forgetting the cooking water — It's the single biggest improvement available, and it's free.
• Cooking to the full packet time — It then overcooks while finishing in the sauce.

Questions people ask