How to cook pasta
Pasta should be cooked until it is “al dente,” which is an Italian term meaning that it should be neither too soft nor too hard. The result of your cooking should be firm-to-bite pasta.
To cook al dente pasta, follow the steps:
- Depending on how much pasta you are making, fill a pot—small, large, or even a Dutch oven—with lots of water. To cook long pasta, like spaghetti, you should ideally use a deep pot. One useful ratio to keep in mind is: for every 100g of dried pasta, add 1L of water.
- After bringing the water to a boil, add the salt. It will take longer for the water to boil if you add salt before it does. One tablespoon of salt can be added to four cups of water. Don’t be scared to use a lot of salt because the pasta will absorb the flavor rather than the sodium.
- Add the pasta once the water reaches a full boil. To prevent the pasta from sticking, stir it after two minutes.
- Check to see if the pasta is al dente about 4 minutes before the pasta cook time.
- Remove the pasta from the heat source and place it in a colander to drain. Since the starch helps the sauce stick to the pasta, don’t rinse it. When utilizing pasta in a chilled recipe, such as a chilled pasta salad, make sure to rinse it first since this will halt the cooking process.
Types of pasta and their cooking time
It’s hard to know how long to cook pasta for, with so many varieties available at the grocery store, including farfalle, angel hair, spaghetti, macaroni, and tagliatelle. Because of the shape of the pasta, not all of it cooks at once. It usually takes longer to make shorter, thicker pasta than standard thin spaghetti strands.
Although wheat is the traditional ingredient for pasta, you can now find pasta made with other ingredients, like chickpeas, lentils, organic beans, corn, and rice, which also affects how long it cooks.
These are the general cooking times for pasta, depending on type:
- Angel hair pasta: 5 minutes
- Farfalle (bowties): 10-12 minutes
- Penne: 12-14 minutes
- Rotini: 8-10 minutes
- Spaghetti: 8-10 minutes
- Macaroni: 8-10 minutes
- Conchiglie (shells): 9-15 minutes, depending on size
- Fettucine: 8-13 minutes
- Pappardelle: 7-10 minutes
- Gluten-free pasta: Approx. 6- 8 minutes
- Tortelli and ravioli: 3 to 5 minutes
How long to cook pasta in a steamer
You can even cook pasta in a steamer. Simply pour one inch of water over the pasta and steam it for eight to twelve minutes, depending on the kind of pasta. Drain, and your pasta is ready.
