Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How to Cook Pasta

Yesterday, we learned how to boil water.  Tonight, we will make spaghetti noodles.

First things first. Flip the back of your package of spaghetti over. You will find instructions for cooking.  Many times this will come in the form of a chart. Find the cooking time to cook the noodles to "al dente" or very firm. It doesn't matter if you like your noodles to be mushy.  Don't cook them to mushy, they will get mushier in the sauce. 
First, find a decent sized pot - at least 3 quarts.  Fill it 3/4 up with water.  Add a teaspoon or so of salt.  Boil the water.

When the water is boiling very fast, dump in the noodles.  IMMEDIATELY stir them with a fork, until they are all in the water.  When the water comes back to a boil, turn on the timer to the cooking time the package says.  Remember, you are cooking to the "al dente" stage.   Every few minutes, stir the pasta.  When your timer goes off, get a fork and taste a noodle.  If you can chew it and it is firm, without any hard spots, it is done.  Turn your timer off and take the pan off the heat. 

Grab a colander - a bowl with holes all over it.  Put it in the sink.  Pour your pasta into the colandar, water and all.  The water will drain away and you will be left with a colandar full of steaming hot pasta.

If you were not going to pour sauce on it, you could pour the pasta into a bowl, add butter and parmesan cheese, and voila - yummy time!

Tomorrow we will talk about the sauce.


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