Cooking pasta

Cooking pasta is as easy as boiling water, but does require care.

1. You should figure 1 quart of water per quarter pound of pasta (1 liter of water per 100 grams of pasta), and expand this to 6 quarts for a pound. If you don't use enough water the pasta will be gummy, so don't stint.

2. Bring the water to a rolling boil, salt it with 2-3 teaspoons of kosher salt per quart of water. Don't skimp on the salt or the pasta will be unpleasantly bland -- it helps to keep in mind that Neapolitans, who are masters at cooking pasta, used to use sea water back when it was safe to do so.

3. Add the pasta, stirring gently to separate the pieces and keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

The pasta package will probably say how long the pasta should cook for, but don't trust it. A couple of minutes before it is supposed to be done, fish out a piece and break it open; in the center you will see a whitish area of uncooked pasta that is poetically known as the anima, or soul of the pasta. Ladle a couple of ladles of hot water into the serving bowl, swirl them about to warm it, discard them, and continue cooking the pasta until the anima barely fades. At this point drain the pasta, giving it one or two good shakes to remove most of the water (it will continue to absorb water for a minute or two), transfer it to the bowl, stir the sauce into it and serve.

As a variation, if the sauce is fairly liquid, say for penne rosé, warm it in a skillet as the pasta cooks, and when the pasta is just shy of being done drain it and transfer while it's still dripping it to the skillet. Turn the heat to high and toss the pasta as you would an omelet; as it finishes cooking it will absorb the sauce and taste much better. On restaurant menus pasta cooked this way is called strascicata or saltata in padella. There are hudreds of pasta recipes on this site; click on the pasta sauces and recipes link on the navigation bar to the left to reach them.

Source: www.italianfood.about.com

See also: steak, sate, sushi