How to Make Perfect Pasta Every Time

Issue #16

My husband Marco, like many Italians, tends to be brutally honest, so I hold it as a point of pride when he tells his friends that his American wife cooks pasta like an Italian. Truth be told, I’ve always loved pasta and have been cooking it for friends and family for as long as I can remember. While I didn’t get many complaints in the past, I’ve definitely leveled up my pasta-cooking skills since moving to Rome. 

Lately, on my social media feeds I keep seeing videos of people putting a whole package of uncooked pasta into a casserole dish, dumping a jar of sauce or cream on top, and putting it directly into the oven. I’m here to tell you—nay, beg you—please don’t do this. 

According to La Cucina Italiana, “Pasta is composed of starch and gluten. These two components react differently on the chemical level: Gluten absorbs the starch granules, while the starch absorbs water and swells until dispersed in the cooking water if boiled for long enough — meaning that if you cook pasta for too long, the starch will release into the cooking water — resulting in a loss of nutrients.”

It goes without saying that in Italy, we eat our pasta al dente (literally “to the tooth”), which is believed to be better for digestion. For an Italian, there’s nothing worse than overcooked, under-salted pasta. For a large pot of boiling water to be properly salted, you need to add a whole spoonful of salt when the water starts boiling and the pot should be about three-quarters full in order to have the correct water to salt ratio and so the pasta has enough water to move around in.

The real trick that I’ve learned, though, is quite simple. Prepare the sauce first, while you wait for the water to boil. When you put the pasta into the pot, set a timer for the amount of time listed on the package minus three minutes. When it goes off, transfer the pasta to the pan with the sauce for the final three minutes, adding some of the starchy cooking water to the pan and stirring everything around with a wooden spoon so the pasta absorbs the sauce while it finishes cooking over high heat. I actually swirl the pan around over the burner so everything is moving while the pasta and the sauce are cooking together.

You can save yourself some frustration by using a spaghetti spoon or a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta from the pot to the pan instead of draining the pasta into a colander. That way, you still have plenty of cooking water that you can ladle into the pan little by little, as needed. You want the sauce to be just the right consistency—not too dry and not too liquidy. 

Ideally, at this point you should toss the pasta like professional chefs do. It may seem difficult, but I promise it’s a skill that can be learned. When I did a cooking lesson at Forte Village Resort’s Gourmet Cooking Academy in Sardinia last September, the executive chef Simone Tognetti explained that the correct motion doesn’t involve lifting the pan up but rather briskly pulling your arm backwards while holding the pan aloft. Use both hands if you need to—the important thing is that the pasta and the sauce marry. If you’re using parmigiano reggiano or another cheese, it’s a good idea to add it at this point and toss it in with the sauce so it starts to melt. You can always add more at the very end.

Spaghetti al pomodoro

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 6-10 fresh tomatoes, depending on their size

• 2 garlic cloves

• A handful of fresh basil leaves

• 1-2 pinches peperoncino (optional)

• Tomato concentrate

• 200 grams (about 7 oz) spaghetti

• Parmigiano reggiano

• Olive oil

Directions:

Put a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Boil the tomatoes in the pot for a couple of minutes, then transfer them to a colander in the sink, run cold water over them, and peel them. If you’re in a pinch, you can use canned tomatoes instead, but using good quality fresh tomatoes really does make a difference. 

In the meantime, peel and smash a couple of garlic cloves and heat them in a pan with some olive oil over medium heat. Crush the tomatoes up into the pan and add the basil and the peperoncino if using. Add a spoonful of salt to the boiling water and ladle some water into the pan with the tomato sauce. Squeeze in some tomato concentrate and stir it all together with a wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put the spaghetti into the pot to boil, setting a timer for the cooking time minus three minutes. Meanwhile, let the sauce continue to cook, adjusting the heat and adding more water and tomato concentrate as needed. 

Before transferring the spaghetti to the pan, remove the garlic cloves and, if using whole peperoncino, remove those too. When the timer goes off, transfer the spaghetti to the pan using a spaghetti spoon. Reset your timer for three minutes and continue to cook the spaghetti in the sauce over high heat, ladling more of the cooking water as needed and tossing the pasta. Add grated parmigiano reggiano and serve.

Good tomato sauce is to Italian cooking what the mother sauces are to French cooking—a base that forms the foundation for a number of other recipes—so it’s important to use quality ingredients and master the technique, which will be more or less the same when making sauces like puttanesca, arrabbiata, amatriciana, and norma.

Further Reading

• This article in La Cucina Italiana discusses the merits of cooking pasta al dente.

• I watch a lot of cooking videos on YouTube—my favorite chef to watch is Max Mariola, who has his own YouTube channel with tons of videos showing you how to make traditional dishes. The videos are in Italian, but have English subtitles. Plus, you will almost certainly benefit from watching his pasta-tossing technique.

• This foodie guide to pasta in Italy Magazine explains the shapes and origins of pasta as well as the difference between dried and fresh pasta.