Any Pasta Tips? (restaurant, skillet, Italian, spaghetti)

[Dockside]

My favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant makes absolutely perfect spaghetti. Each strand is perfect, firm, and doesn't stick. Even the next day it's perfect.

I boil up pasta and it turns into a glutenous, sticky mess. I have to keep rinsing it with hot water just to get it from the colander into a bowl.

How does my restaurant do it? They won't say. Anyone have good pasta tips?

[toosie]

Using dried pasta I like Barilla brand. Plenty of water in the pot at a rapid boil - plenty of salt in the water. Cook according to their directions for al dente. I don't rinse mine - just pour and serve - or mix with sauce in pan.

[Spraynard Kruger]

I second that when it comes to dried pasta, Barilla is tough to beat.

Make sure and cook your pasta in a large vessel and with lots of salted water. The water should taste like seawater. Give your pasta a stir once or twice. Don't overcook it. As soon as you drain it into a colander, drizzle some olive oil over the pasta. This will help keep the starches from sticking. Some swear by adding oil to the water, but from a scientific point of view, it's worthless because the oil stays at the top and then drains with the pasta water.

If you like linguine like I do, I add the cooked pasta right in a heavy bottomed skillet with sauce. The al-denté pasta finishes cooking in the sauce and absorbs the flavors. If it's a little dry, I add some of the starchy water to the sauce. This works with all sorts of sauces, from béchamel based cheese, clam or red sauce.

[jtur88]

That's funny. I buy the cheapest spaghetti I can find, my biggest cooking pot is too small, and I never have a problem with it. I always throw a dash of oil in the cooking water, so it doesn't foam over, and I stir it often to keep it from sticking to the bottom of my cheap cookware. I don't know how long it cooks, I just keep testing it. Mine is never sticky, starchy or gluteny. I just throw it in a plastic collander and give it a quick rinse with tapwater. They say it should be rinsed with cold water, to stop the cooking process when it is still al dente, but I've never noticed the difference.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by Dockside

How does my restaurant do it? They won't say. Anyone have good pasta tips?

They make their own pasta, which is really, really easy to do and fresh pasta cooks in about 5 minutes.

[elnina]

I do mine the exactly way jtur88 does his. Is perfect every time.
I do shock my pasta with a short rinse in cold water - for the little firmness, I guess...

[Debsi]

You are not supposed to rinse pasta at all unless you plan to serve it cold as a pasta salad - it's VERY important to rinse in that case or your salad will be gummy.

I use a large pot, plenty of salted water at a rolling boil, give the pasta a stir after I put it in, then another stir when the water returns to a boil. As soon as the water returns to a boil I hit the start button the timer. I use the minutes per package instructions for al dente pasta. I too enjoy barilla, but now I am using that pasta that doesn't spike your blood sugar because the carbs aren't digestible (Dreamfields) and it is just as good as Barilla.