Boiled pasta is the basis of an enormous variety of pasta dishes. In most of them, the pasta is usually cooked in the same manner, regardless of the sauce and other ingredients that will be added to it. Notable exceptions are soups, gnocchi, and baked dishes like lasagna and manicotti, which are not covered here. Pasta is a type of food made from flour, water, and sometimes eggs, which is mixed, kneaded and formed into various shapes, and boiled prior to consumption. ... For the computer protocol, see SAUCE In cooking, a sauce is a liquid served on or used in the preparation of food. ... Soup is a savoury liquid food that is made by boiling ingredients, such as meat, vegetables and beans in stock or hot water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth. ... Gnocchi (pronounced NYOKI; [] or []) is the Italian word for dumpling, literally meaning lumps. They can be made of potato and semolina (durum wheat) or flour, ricotta cheese (with or without spinach), or semolina. ... Lasagne Lasagna, also lasagne, is both a form of pasta in sheets (often rippled in North America, though seldom so in Italy) and also a dish, sometimes named Lasagne al forno (meaning Lasagne in the oven) made with alternate layers of pasta, cheese, and ragu (a meat sauce). ... Manicotti is the name for a large, tubular form of pasta, generally 3-4 inches in length and one inch in diameter. ...

The six key "secrets" for cooking a good pasta are:

1. Clear your sink
2. Cook in salted water
3. Add the pasta only after the water is boiling
4. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking
5. Do not undercook or overcook
6. Drain and serve promptly.

One must also be aware that some sauces or other accessories may take longer to prepare than the pasta itself.

Clear the sink

When your pasta is cooked you will need to drain it immediately. Otherwise it will become soft and soggy. Find the colander. Be prepared.

Salted water

On the average, for every 200 grams of pasta, one should use 2 liters of cold water and 1 tablespoon of salt. The salt should be added to the water to flavor the pasta. (Although some people believe salt is added because it raises the boiling point of water, thereby cooking the pasta faster, this is not true. The amount of salt being added raises the boiling point of the pasta only a fraction of a degree. The salt is purely for flavor). In addition, some people also add a few drops of vegetable oil to the water, in order to reduce foaming and the risk of spillovers. The gram or gramme, symbol g, is a unit of mass. ... The litre (spelled litre in Commonwealth English and liter in American English) is a unit of capacity. ... Water (from the Old English word wæter; c. ... This tablespoon has a capacity of about 1 tbsp. ... Edible salt is mostly sodium chloride (NaCl) Edible salt is a mineral, one of the few rocks humans eat. ... Vegetable oil or vegoil is fat extracted from plant sources, known as oil plants. ...

The pan should be large enough for the water level to be one or two inches below the rim. It must also be wide enough to hold the uncooked pasta entirely submerged in the water; long pasta like spaghetti may have to be broken in half to fit a smaller pan (best not to, however). cast-iron iron enamel stainless steel The cooking pan is a type of food preparation utensil commonly found in the kitchen which includes many more specific cooking vessels such as saucepans and frying pans (or fry pans). ... Spaghetti in a bowl. ...

When to add the pasta

The water should be brought to a boil, stirring. Once the water is vigorously boiling, the pasta should be thrown in, all at once. The cooking time should be measured from this moment. Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to a temperature such that its vapor pressure is above that of the surroundings. ...

When the cold pasta is added to the water, the latter usually stops boiling for a few moments. The stove's heat should be adjusted so that the water resumes boiling promptly, and stays boiling moderately while the pasta is cooking. The pasta should be kept entirely submerged at all times. That means immediately stirring and bending long pasta into the water. Don’t be afraid of spaghetti snapping under this treatment: they hardly ever do.

(Failure to follow these rules will result in pasta that is partly overcooked and/or partly undercooked.)

Stirring

Stir now and again while the pasta is cooking. Otherwise bits of pasta may stick together, or to the bottom of the pan, and cook unevenly.

Cooking time

Cooking time varies depending on the kind of pasta; usually it is given on the box. Typical times for dry pasta range from 5 minutes for thin spaghettini to 12 minutes or more for some thick varieties. Fresh, egg-based pasta (pasta all'uovo) takes very little time to cook - hardly a minute after the water has returned to a boil; filled pasta like tortellini needs only a few minutes. This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. ... A carton of free-range chicken eggs Ostrich egg Bird eggs are a common food source. ... Tortellini in broth Tortellini is a ring-shaped pasta, they are typically stuffed with a mix of meat (veal, chicken, pork variants such as sausage, Prosciutto crudo and mortadella) and parmesan cheese although other stuffings are popular in the Po Valley. ...

The recommended time needs to be increased when cooking pasta at great altitudes, since water will boil at a lower temperature. Also, the cooking time may depend on the brand as well as on the kind of pasta.

The cooking time can be adjusted to vary the firmness of the pasta. The suggested time will usually produce a chewy pasta al dente, favored by connoisseurs but somewhat heavy to digest; a slightly longer time produces softer pasta, which may be more adequate for children. However, care must be taken to not overcook to the point where the pasta turns into a paste.

Testing the pasta

Beginners should probably play it safe and stick to the time given on the packaging. Experienced cooks test whether the pasta is ready by "fishing" a sample piece out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and chewing on it. The pasta is ready when it has lost the "flour" taste of uncooked pasta and has become moist and flexible throughout its thickness, but is still firm enough to need chewing.

Drain and serve

When the pasta is cooked, it should be drained promptly with a strainer or colander, and placed immediately on a large, pre-heated plate, together with the sauce and other accompaniments. Mix pasta and sauce thoroughly at the table before serving. The pasta should be eaten hot within a few minutes, unless the recipe says differently. In chemistry and common usage, a filter is device (usually a membrane or layer) that is designed to block certain objects or substances whilst letting others through. ... A typical metal colander A colander (sometimes spelt collander) is a type of sieve used in cooking for separating liquids and solids. ...

Storing cooked pasta

When preparing a large portion that cannot be served immediately—e.g., for a buffet-style meal—it is advisable to cool off the pasta a bit, immediately after draining it. Otherwise the heat still remaining in the pasta may cause it to overcook and stick to itself. This can be done by rinsing the pasta quickly in cold water, or spreading it out on a wide bowl or tray, or tossing it up into the air a few times with the colander.

For the same reason, it is better to allow the pasta get cold, and re-heat it before serving, than trying to keep it hot for an expended period. In this case, it should be drained a bit earlier than the optimum point; each portion can be reheated by placing it in a strainer and plunging it for a few seconds into salted boiling water.

See also

• Pasta
• Couscous