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It would seem that it could be easier than boiling noodles or horns for a side dish. But we may not even guess how much tastier pasta can be if done correctly!
“I love pasta, even though they say they will ruin me,” Andrei Makarevich sang in Old Songs about the Main. He described the delights of this simple, in general, dish so that he wanted to get up and immediately cook himself a portion of spaghetti. After all, there is little wisdom: firstly, you need not to wash the pasta, and secondly, put it in boiling salted water. It is, of course, so, but even on this simple path, we often make mistakes. And we turn a potential masterpiece into an ordinary meal.
1. Wrong size
Washing a large pot is always more troublesome than a small one. Therefore, many ignore the fact that pasta must be cooked in a fairly large amount of water – a liter per 100 grams. That is, if you are cooking for three, you need 240 grams of pasta (a normal serving is 80 grams per person) and two and a half liters of water. Therefore, do not try to save money on the pan, otherwise the pasta will stick together and cook unevenly.
2. Wrong time
If the package says: “cook for 7 minutes”, then that is exactly how much you need to cook them. Chefs say that in Russia, people have a taste for pasta spoiled by low-quality products, which they had to eat for quite a long time. We are accustomed to boiled horns and noodles until they are completely soft. The taste of real pasta only suffers from this. In addition, al dente pasta is much less harmful to the figure.
3. I don’t appreciate water
Where do you put water after boiling pasta? You must be pouring it into the sink. And the cooks consider this a huge mistake: brackish starch water is an ideal base for the sauce. Thanks to her, the sauce turns out to be velvety and with a richer taste. And this is not the only reason not to pour out the water – you can find others HERE.
By the way, adding vegetable oil to the water before cooking is also a mistake. If there is enough water and the pasta is of good quality, it won’t stick together anyway. The oil will only spoil the pasta and sauce combination.
4. Rinse the paste
From this habit of Russian housewives, Italians invariably faint. After all, this is how we wash off the starch from the surface of the pasta, which hopelessly spoils their taste. By the way, this is also a legacy from the Soviet past: then the pasta was washed so that it would not turn into a sticky pudding immediately after cooking. And durum wheat pasta doesn’t behave like that.
5. Sauce on top
They say that the sum does not change from the change of the places of the terms. In the case of making pasta, this is fundamentally a false statement. It is correct not to pour the pasta on top with the sauce, but wait a couple of minutes until they “rest” a little, then put it in a pan with the sauce, stir and let it brew for another two or three minutes.
6. Not that plate
Serving pasta on a flat plate is a mockery of yourself. The pasta should be eaten from a preheated soup bowl. This is both more convenient and tastier – a deep plate keeps heat better, which means that the sauce and cheese will not freeze while you are enjoying your lunch.
7. Leftovers are sweet
What to do with half-eaten pasta? It is impossible to heat it – it will turn out to be completely different. Better to make a casserole with cheese, herbs and vegetables. Well, if you have forgotten about pasta, and they are hopelessly deteriorated, do not try to throw them down the toilet, because not everything can be flushed down the drain. The pasta in the pipes will inevitably swell, there is a risk that you will have to tinker with the blockage.