During the last few weeks, I have brought you several recipes for different types of pasta. And there are two questions about how to cook pasta that has been repeated ad nauseam in the mail and by private message:
- How do I keep the pasta from sticking?
- How to make it so that it does not stay stiff as soon as it cools.
The reality is that I have vast experience in cooking pasta. Not only do I come from an Italian family and I lived in Italy for a year, but I also studied at the university while living outside the family home, so, as you can imagine, for several years I ate so much pasta.
Jokes aside, cooking gluten-free pasta well has its trick but it’s easily affordable. There are only a few key points to keep in mind.
And you will wonder why I want to tell you all this now. Well, these tips will be useful for the proposal that I have prepared and that I tell you at the end of this post. But I anticipate you now: it has a prize.
How to cook pasta without gluten
- The quality of the pasta is essential. Choose a good pasta and you will have half the work done.
- The pasta should be boiled in plenty of water. If the water is not enough, this is when it will stick.
- If the pot is tall, so much the better. This will allow the boiling water to rotate the pasta throughout the pot, instead of sitting still.
- In the water, you can not put oil. I know, we have all done it at some point in our lives, convinced that this would help them not to stick, but it is a mistake since a film is created all over the surface of the pasta and it no longer cooks correctly. Yes, you can add salt, a clove of garlic and bay leaves to bring joy to the matter.
- Stir gently with a spatula from time to time. This is essential, especially at the beginning, to help the pasta distribute well when putting it in the pot. The rest, if you do it every two minutes, approximately, goes well. Although it depends a lot on point 3.
- Respect the times indicated by the manufacturer. It is surprising, but in gluten-free pasta, my experience is that the manufacturer’s recommendations are very nailed.
- Do not add the pasta from the pot to the drainer directly with the water and everything. This causes the pasta to become smeared with the starch that has been released into the water, which makes it stick and, uh, harden. Instead, remove the long pasta from the water with the help of a serrated spoon, and the thick pasta with the help of a slotted spoon.
- Do not rinse the pasta, which is sacrilege!
- Each type of pasta has a type of accompaniment associated with it.
- The general recommendation is that you use thick pasta for the thickest, creamiest sauces and with small pieces that are mixed with the sauce.
- Long pasta such as spaghetti and noodles work best with more homogeneous sauces that, if they have bits, are completely distinguishable from the rest of the sauce.
- A filled pasta will generally require a more or less elaborate sauce depending on the filling. If it is a very soft filling, you will need a contrasting sauce. On the contrary, if the filling is very tasty, the best is a mild and neutral sauce that goes with it without competing with the filling.
- Add the garnish right away so the pasta doesn’t get cold and mix well with the sauce.
- If you are going to consume the cold pasta, I insist: do not rinse it. On the contrary, prepare an inverted water bath, which is the same as a normal water bath but with very cold water and ice. In this way, the pasta will cool more quickly. And now, add a splash of oil once cooked and stir well.
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