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Pasta Cooking Time

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Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#111

Post by simondotau »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #66
tirant wrote: post #20

Another advice for cooking pasta: The water does not need to be boiling the whole time. You can boil the pasta just 2 minutes, turn off the stove, close the lid and leave the pasta in the water for the rest of the time until reaching the desired cooking time, plus around one more minute. The result will be the same and you would have saved round 80% of the energy.

I don't do this, but I'm impatient so I start with scalding hot tap water. Not sure if there is any energy saving (or waste) there, since it takes at least 30 sec for hot tap water to reach max temp.

The potential for energy saving is if your hot water service is significantly more energy efficient than your stove top. The most extreme would be if you had a heat pump hot water service and a gas flame stove top.

Also important for efficiency and speed is to use the least amount of water possible.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#113

Post by JumpCrisscross »

notindexed wrote: post #6

You do not cook pasta by cooking time. “La pasta vuole compagnia” Pasta needs company! Never leave it alone, keep stiring once in a while and keep testing them. Best to drain it before you think it's "good" or al dente cause paste keeps cooking after beeing drained due to the heat and moisture/vapor. Also, most good pasta dishes get their final cooking in a large pan in the sauce with some cooking water. So usually y…

> You do not cook pasta by cooking time

I learned this the hard way moving to an altitude where water boils around 200°F. Just threw out the timers and started obsessively tasting. Flip side is I make fresh pasta more often because the active work of kneading and shaping is more interesting than standing around eating uncooked pasta.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#114

Post by seszett »

Quarrel wrote: post #49
kshahkshah wrote: post #10

The cooking time is proportional to the thickness. General advice on pasta: * a quality dry pasta (dececco e.g) will have ~14 grams of protein per 100 grams dry weight, this is really essential * bronze die cut will help soak up more sauces * you do not need the full volume of water the box says, but start your timer once the water has returned to a boil * once it has gotten to a boil, keep it boiling, but it doesn't…

> * if you're finishing in a sauce, take the pasta out a minute before it is done. ie, 2-3 minutes before the box time, possibly more, depending on what finishing means for your case. > * do not put oil in your cooking water, it will NOT help it not stick. It will not hurt, and may help. Oil will stop the super starchy water, if you followed the reduce the water volume step as suggested, from boiling over - as it wil…

> or they just have no idea how salty the sea is

Well sea saltiness levels vary wildly, and although the Mediterranean is much too salty, I'd say salty like the North Sea seems about right to me.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#115

Post by orev »

zparky wrote: post #57
orev wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * do not put oil in your cooking water, it will NOT help it not stick. Using oil has never been about preventing it from sticking, despite so many people repeating this myth. Anyone can plainly see that the oil floats on top of the water and never touches the pasta. The only purpose of the oil is to prevent foaming so it doesn’t boil over.

Wait does that work?

Yes, generally. The mistake most people make with a boiling pot of water is they start the heat on high, and when the water gets to a boil they keep it on high. You really need to turn it down to medium or lower to just maintain the boil. If it stays on high, the violent agitation breaks down the pasta and releases a lot of starch.

If you turn the heat down to a reasonable level, then yes, the oil will do a lot to help prevent boil over.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#116

Post by RogerL »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #108
cestith wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is your water and how high above sea level do you live?

How does water hardness affect it? Mine is on the harder end, I've been wondering if that is giving me trouble.

Hard water will boil at a higher temperature, but it's only a degree or two.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#117

Post by oulipo2 »

rs186 wrote: post #85
oulipo2 wrote: post #27

Also something I discovered recently: making home-made pasta is REALLY EASY, and quite delicious. For basic ravioli you need about 30min from going from raw ingredients (a bit of flour, one or two eggs, some salt) to a ravioli

How much time for cleanup? I did this once or twice and decided I was not that into pasta to justify making my own.

Not that bad, once you learn how to do it, it's mostly just a big mixing bowl to clean up (where you make the dough) and the counter top where you rolled it flat

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#118

Post by RogerL »

Quarrel wrote: post #49
kshahkshah wrote: post #10

The cooking time is proportional to the thickness. General advice on pasta: * a quality dry pasta (dececco e.g) will have ~14 grams of protein per 100 grams dry weight, this is really essential * bronze die cut will help soak up more sauces * you do not need the full volume of water the box says, but start your timer once the water has returned to a boil * once it has gotten to a boil, keep it boiling, but it doesn't…

> * if you're finishing in a sauce, take the pasta out a minute before it is done. ie, 2-3 minutes before the box time, possibly more, depending on what finishing means for your case. > * do not put oil in your cooking water, it will NOT help it not stick. It will not hurt, and may help. Oil will stop the super starchy water, if you followed the reduce the water volume step as suggested, from boiling over - as it wil…

The oil can coat the pasta, reducing the ability of the sauce to penetrate the pasta when you cook them together.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#119

Post by sandworm101 »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #106

I'm not sure if anyone else runs into this, but I feel cursed by bad pasta. Every time I boil it, I inevitably get pasta that is under-cooked in the center while mushy on the outside. I've had some times where I've had to boil it for several minutes more than recommended just to get the inside to cook fully. And even a few minutes in, the pasta seems to split apart into pieces. I've tried 'quieter' more simmer-y boil…

My 2c: try using much more water. When you throw the pasta in, i bet the boiling stops cold for a while. Try cooking only one or two pieces at a time. If you see better results with the smaller batch, you were not using enough water.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#120

Post by Arch-TK »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #90

I don't tend to look at the clock for pasta. I just eyeball it and sample it. You can sort of see the pasta turning whiter from the outside in. Especially with my regular goto brands, I can see when it is done. I fish some out with a fork to verify usually when it's getting close. And I generally mix it with some sauce and it might sit in there for some minutes. So the cooking process actually continues after you rem…

With long pasta it's not hard, with a tiny bit of experience and attention, to learn how it physically behaves when it's either done or close to it. It's about as easy to learn (experientially) how much it changes minute by minute at that point.

I will stir it to see how it behaves, as soon as I catch it behaving like pasta which is may be al dente I will sample it, if it's still a bit too hard, I can more or less tell if it's going to be one or two minutes. I'm aiming for almost-too-hard al dente to compensate for any further cooking.

Stop even a bit early if you'll be finishing the pasta in the sauce.

I think attempting to formalise cooking techniques is a funny sort of thing... The people trying to do it are clearly into cooking, but if you really enjoy cooking, you're probably better off learning these things intuitively and spending your time learning other skills to expand your general cooking ability.

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