Hi, this is the third lesson to learn all that is important to know about pasta.
Yesterday we told you the correct rules for cooking pasta.
Now the question is: is it possible to remedy mistakes in cooking pasta? or, in other words, what are the most common mistakes in cooking pasta?

Well, we think the most useful way is to show you the mistakes through some images.

First mistake: there isn't enough water here!

Remember the rule: 1 litre of water per 100 g (3 1/2 oz) of pasta.  Another little detail: the water is too foamy! It  may not be good-quality pasta!

Not much water. Pasta is not stirred. Two great mistakes!

What a trouble! Who’s forgotten to stir the pasta? Besides there isn’t enough water. It’s almost impossible to remedy these mistakes. If you add water you can have sticky pasta. Impossible to separate spaghetti if you have not stir them just after adding into the boiling water.

The pan is too little!

Remember to use always large pans to cook pasta. Impossible in these conditions to have a tasty pasta dish!

Is it ok to cut spaghetti before cooking them?

Cutting  spaghetti or not?  This is the  problem! Some Italians think it is a mistake to halve spaghetti as you can see in the photo. Others tell it’s possible for it would be very difficult to eat them if too long. Everyone makes the  right thing for himself.

Another mistake: the right amount of salt. You can remedy to these mistakes.
If  you have added  too much salt, add a potato to the boiling water: this will absorb the salt. If you have not added enough salt, add more salt to the sauce.

If you want to look at all our entries about Italian recipes read this page.

Greeting from Italy

Carlo & Loretta

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 2:30 pm and is filed under The art of Italian cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.