Ingredients

　　

Step 1

Although spaghetti is a perennial favorite, there are lots of different noodle shapes and many different grain varieties that merit equal attention. Whichever you choose, proper cooking and saucing make all the difference. Here are a few bits of advice to follow for a really great plate of pasta.

　　

Step 2

Water plays an important role in cooking and dressing pasta. Cook pasta in a large quantity of salted boiling water. As it cooks it absorbs the water and it will stick together if the noodles are crowded too tightly. Bring the water to a rolling boil before adding the noodles; this helps keep them moving instead of settling to the bottom of the pan. Stir them once or twice in the beginning to keep them from sticking to one another or to the pan. Salting the water seasons the noodles before they are sauced, making for a tastier dish. It is not necessary to put oil in the water. Doing so may help keep the noodles from sticking (which they won’t anyway if there is enough boiling water in the pot), but the oily coating they receive while cooking prevents the sauce from adhering to the noodles in the bowl. And unless you are making a pasta salad, don’t rinse the noodles after they are cooked: this takes away all the outer starch, which adds texture and flavor to the sauce.

　　

Step 3

Cook the pasta al dente: there should be no white core left in it but it should be still firm to the bite. Taste a noodle now and then to gauge the doneness; the white core is very apparent in a bitten piece of undercooked pasta. Dry egg noodles will cook fairly quickly (5 to 6 minutes) while more rustic noodles will take a lot longer (10 to 13 minutes). When the pasta is cooked, drain it right away to keep it from cooking further. Always save a little of the cooking water before draining; it can come in very handy when saucing the pasta.

　　

Step 4

There are a few different strategies for combining pasta with sauce. One is to put the drained pasta directly into the sauce and toss. (It is a good idea to season the noodles directly with a bit of salt before tossing them; this is especially true when a very simple sauce is being used.) Another is to toss the noodles with oil or butter and cheese and a little sauce, plate them, and then top with more sauce—a good way to serve pasta with meat sauce. Yet another is to drain the pasta when it is a touch underdone and finish cooking it in the sauce for a few minutes. This only works with sauces that are juicy, as the pasta will continue to absorb liquid as it cooks. The pasta water that was saved before draining the noodles is very helpful for loosening thick sauces or stodgy noodles; it is full of flavor and texture from the salt and starch of the noodles and makes for a much lighter dish than adding more oil, butter, or sauce.

　　

Step 5

Different noodles are better suited for certain sauces. Large chunky noodles go well with chunky sauces, egg noodles are good with buttery sauces or meat ragùs, and thin long noodles are complemented by simple tomato-based sauces as well as olive oil sauces like the one that follows.

　　The Art of Simple Food