9x chefs’ tips for the best, simplest pasta
We could pasta forever and secretly find it incredibly amusing that there are so many different opinions about exactly how much water and salt to use, whether or not to add oil, and so on. Some of these tips, which really do come from chefs, are bound to spark quite a debate. But there’s no doubt about some of them, honestly! (Said everyone who has ever cooked pasta..)
Pasta marinara, the original version with red sauce, is one of the simplest dishes there is, but even this is a welcome subject for debate. Still, these are the tips we think you can use to take your plate of pasta from meh to bellisimo!
Make the sauce yourself
It may sound obvious, but first things first: put that jar of ready-made supermarket sauce back on the shelf. For the most basic version, you only need four ingredients: garlic, olive oil, basil and two cans of peeled (plum) tomatoes. All chefs swear by canned tomatoes of the San Marzano variety. It isn’t the cheapest can, but you might be able to spare the extra euro and a half, since you won’t have to spend much on anything else. Give six peeled garlic cloves a whack with something hard, warm them in some olive oil, add the cans of tomatoes and let everything simmer for at least fifteen minutes. Add the basil leaves only at the end. Do all this in a deep frying pan or sauté pan, because your pasta will be going in shortly.
Use a potato masher
An immersion blender is verboten, but you can break up the tomatoes by chopping them with the edge of a wooden spatula, squeezing them with your hands (before they go into the pan, of course) or using a potato masher. This also keeps your sauce nice and thick.
Water fun
We’ll keep insisting on this one too: use plenty of water – enough that a large pot is just short of boiling over. If you use too little water or a pot that’s too small, the pasta will clump together.
Leave out the oil
There is a time, place and proper use for olive oil, and pasta water isn’t one of them. Remember: if you cook the pasta properly in enough water, oil is completely unnecessary at this stage. Save your good oil for something else.
Salt generously
Unlike oil, you should add plenty of salt to the boiling water. It brings out the flavor of the pasta (which you add to the pot only after salting the water). As we often say: don’t be afraid of salt – when properly measured, it often makes things taste more like themselves. Bread without salt: flat and boring. Bread with salt: bread ‘as it should be’.
A touch of sugar
You can also add a very small pinch of sugar to the tomato sauce. This balances what might otherwise become an acidic sauce, because tomato acidity is no joke.
Width and depth
That frying pan or sauté pan you made the sauce in was nice and roomy, with a high rim, right? Good, because the al dente pasta is going in there now. Take the pasta out of the water about three minutes before the cooking time indicated on the package (I do this with my favorite kitchen tongs) and transfer it to the pan with the sauce. Cook them together for another two minutes, continuing to toss everything back and forth. Every strand should be coated in sauce.
Your liquid gold
You’ll never forget that pasta water is worth its weight in gold, right? Adding a cup of it to the sauce pan with the pasta you just added will also help fully bring the sauce and pasta together.
Finishing touch
If you can’t resist the urge to add something extra to the pan now, let it be a small knob of butter. Once it’s on your plate, you can drizzle over some of your best olive oil and add a generous grating of Parmesan to your homemade triumph, and blissful pasta happiness will be yours.
Read also:
- Perfect tomato sauce every time
- Passata, pelati and secchi: everything about preserved tomatoes
- Tips for the best, easiest pasta salad
