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I add olive oil to the boiling noodles in water (not a lot), sometimes, because Ive heard/read that it keeps the noodles from sticking together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dport185
Someone thought it was odd to add olive oil to the pasta... Not off whatsoever. In fact, it's what you're supposed to do!
Not if you want your sauce actually stick to your pasta. Otherwise you have "naked" pasta surrounded by sauce that won't cover it properly. The gravy will slide from the oily pasta. Same for the pasta salad covered with dressing/sauce.
Here it's explained why: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...%20than%20good.
If you are cooking pasta for future reason , you can toss it in butter to prevent sticking together. The butter will be a part of your sauce later on. It will improve the taste.
Oil won't.
I rinse pasta when I intend to put it in a soup. Especially clear ones like chicken. Otherwise it will get cloudy from the starch.
I would add oil to to cooking ONLY when I intend to make pasta salad with oil based dressing, though.
Otherwise - NEVER.
Good quality pasta won't stick together anyway.
BTW: Adding olive oil to boiling pasta water actually prevents the water from boiling over, it's not meant to keep noodles from sticking together.
Back on topic:
Try to unclog your drain and remove whatever is clogging it, then in the future - just run hot, clear water (from your faucet) every time after you drain the noodles. Enough to rinse the noodle water from your pipes.
Okay so in the last two houses I've lived whenever I have drained pasta water, it has always clogged the sink...every time. I became so frustrated I finally just started boiling noodles in my pasta sauce while it cooks, which is actually fine, the noodles thicken the sauce. But I would like the option.
So does anyone have any advice on what to do with it? Should I add dishwashing soap to the sauce before dumping it in the sink? Run hot water while dumping. Flush it down the toilet? Use much less water boiling it? Others seem to have no problems dumping their water down the sink. It is such an annoying problem.
Thanks in advance.
Could it be you are adding too much water at once to an already slow draining sink?
Try dumping the same volume of water you normally use to cook your pasta, to test whether it is something in your pasta water or just the large volume of water alone, that is overwhelming your drainage system.
Thats my theory. I just think it's so weird that so most people do it without issues. My guess is the issue is mainly the starchy water somehow.
Try this test:
Fill your pasta pot with plain water. Dump it in the sink.
Does it back up? Then the drain is partially clogged, and the large volume of water is too much for it. Try the plunger suggestion above, or other unclogging technique.
Does it go through quickly? How weird! I got nothin for you.
Someone thought it was odd to add olive oil to the pasta... Not off whatsoever. In fact, it's what you're supposed to do!
But yea like other people mentioned, clearly the pasta is going down too.....
Actually, that is an old thing to do. And what it does is coats the pasta in oil and doesn’t allow it to absorb any of the sauce. So you should stop doing that.
Amusingly enough, we used to do that to prevent boil over. It doesn’t work for that either, and on gas stove it does some amazing things.
I’ve actually caught water on fire twice doing that. Oil floats on top of the water, the pasta boils over, it leaves a trail of starch down to the flames of the gas stove, the flame catches the starch, the flame crawls up the pan pops over onto the oil and viola! Water on fire.
You can imagine the jokes about my cooking. And they’re all pretty well deserved.
adding oil to pasta water while cooking pasta is not what your supposed to do. I have never seen anyone in my family do this.
what I do to keep pasta from sticking is keep mixing it frequently for the 9 minutes or so it takes to cook. The pasta does not stick. Most Italians me included will agree about no oil in the pasta cooking water. As other said call a plumber I think there is a bigger issue with your drain than the pasta water
Adding a bit of olive oil to your pasta water is, indeed, a bit strange.
Why would you want to add dishwashing soap to your sauce and why are you dumping your pasta sauce in the sink?
No ice cubes needed. You can rinse your cooked pasta with cold water to stop the cooking process.
BTW: do you own a colander?
I think, until you know how to cook pasta and sauce, your best bet is to follow the recipe, exactly.
I've added oil to pasta while cooking for 50 years, mostly to stop it from boiling over. My wife insists on adding a bunch of dried Italian spices, saying that all of the best restaurants do this. I don't believe that.
We have a single chamber sink, so everything goes through the disposer. We do turn on the cold water, as the plumber that installed the disposer said it would reduce the thermal shock on the moving parts.
Could it be you are adding too much water at once to an already slow draining sink?
Try dumping the same volume of water you normally use to cook your pasta, to test whether it is something in your pasta water or just the large volume of water alone, that is overwhelming your drainage system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by steiconi
Try this test:
Fill your pasta pot with plain water. Dump it in the sink.
Does it back up? Then the drain is partially clogged, and the large volume of water is too much for it. Try the plunger suggestion above, or other unclogging technique.
Does it go through quickly? How weird! I got nothin for you.
OP said few hours later, not at the time when she dump the water into the sink.
Someone thought it was odd to add olive oil to the pasta... Not off whatsoever. In fact, it's what you're supposed to do!
But yea like other people mentioned, clearly the pasta is going down too.....
No it's not what you're supposed to do. It's unnecessary and a total waste of oil. Pasta doesn't stick if you stir it once in a while, especially right after adding it to the rapidly boiling water. Also the oil coats the pasta, and then it can't absorb the sauce, so your sauce just runs off the pasta. I don't know why so many people have this very wrong idea.
The only thing you need to add to the water is a serious amount of salt to flavor the pasta as it cooks.
The drain is probably almost clogged a bit of a ways down the pipe, and when you pour the huge amount of water in, it just backs up above the clog. If you pour just a small amount of water down, it disappears, but it's probably just down in the pipe on top of the clog. Time for some Drano, or a plumber.
Not if you want your sauce actually stick to your pasta. Otherwise you have "naked" pasta surrounded by sauce that won't cover it properly. The gravy will slide from the oily pasta. Same for the pasta salad covered with dressing/sauce.
Here it's explained why: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...%20than%20good.
If you are cooking pasta for future reason , you can toss it in butter to prevent sticking together. The butter will be a part of your sauce later on. It will improve the taste.
Oil won't.
I rinse pasta when I intend to put it in a soup. Especially clear ones like chicken. Otherwise it will get cloudy from the starch.
I would add oil to to cooking ONLY when I intend to make pasta salad with oil based dressing, though.
Otherwise - NEVER.
Good quality pasta won't stick together anyway.
BTW: Adding olive oil to boiling pasta water actually prevents the water from boiling over, it's not meant to keep noodles from sticking together.
Back on topic:
Try to unclog your drain and remove whatever is clogging it, then in the future - just run hot, clear water (from your faucet) every time after you drain the noodles. Enough to rinse the noodle water from your pipes.
Such great advice deserves to be repeated! (I hadn't thought of the soup noodle thing - thank you for the tip!)
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