How to prepare 10 tips from Donato de Santis for cooking pasta

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While there are those who believe that cooking pasta is made alone, it is not enough to throw a couple of ravioli in a pot of boiling water and wait for the magic to happen. The difference between eating a few tagliatelle noodles with little to little taste and a good plate of pasta is in the preparation. In this article, Donato de Santis brings us the 10 maxims that made him the iconic Argentinean chef.

Try not to break the spaghetti trying to cover them with the cooking water for cooking pasta. The size of the package is already pre-designed as a standard measure.

cooking pasta

Use plenty of water, at least 7-8 times the weight of the pasta to be cooked: 1kg of pasta = 7-8l of water. In this way, the water returns to boil more quickly it will be better cooking pasta.

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Salt the water at the time of maximum boiling (10 grams of salt per liter of water) and then submerge the pasta. The water will stop boiling, due to the temperature difference, when introducing the pasta. Raise the heat to the maximum to restart the boil or put the lid a few minutes. Once this happens, remove it.

Spaghetti should not be put in the water in a single bundle; they should be opened as a fan so that they do not stick together. The short pasta is poured in the form of rain to prevent it from clumping in the bottom, the fresh or tied pasta must be separated quickly with a wooden spoon or a skewer to avoid sticking together.

The only way to verify when the pasta is cooked is to test it. There are different empirical methods, but they are not efficient. The famous tile test is an unfounded myth. Try throwing a spaghetti at any time during cooking pasta. It will hit at 2, 3 and 5 minutes. This is due to the large amount of starch that long the pasta to be in contact with water. The only test is our palate!

Avoid using the pasta drainer built into the spaghetti pot (use it only in other pasta formats, especially short ones) and use the sacaspaghetti which is a plastic, wood or metal utensil that has a soothing and that allows the Transfer the spaghetti directly to the pan or source with the seasoning, conserving part of the cooking water.

For an excellent preparation of pasta, it is essential to do the operation on an expressway, that is, just before sitting at the table. The dishes should be served to steam. Therefore, it is always better than our guests wait and not wait for our cooking pasta.

Never add cold water to the drained pasta. If necessary, while seasoning, use the cooking water.

The size of the pot where boiling the water for cooking pasta is very important. It is preferable to use a pot with a fairly wide diameter and not very high format. This makes it possible for the water to reach its fusion state quickly. In the event that the shape of the pot was higher than wide, the surface of the water would be farther from the source of heat and the boiling time would be longer.

Using oil during cooking is only advisable in very wide pasta cuts such as pappardelle or lasagne because they tend to float on the surface. If we use enough water there is no problem that the paste sticks. Remember that by specific weight the oil floats on the water, so the paste that is in the bottom of the pot receives no benefit. Formerly used to put the oil in the pot of water to facilitate runoff and not cooking, since the pasta was cooked in large quantities and for many people at once. The oil then lubricated the pasta while it was removed and then seasoned with the sauce chosen to avoid sticking in the wait to be seasoned.