13 Italian Pasta Cooking Hacks Everyone Should Know

Having lived in Italy for 18 years, I have picked up many, many tips and tricks for cooking pasta. When I first arrived, I had the assumption that many foreigners have, that all pasta is the same, just in different shapes, which I soon found to be very wrong. As a food writer, I have interviewed countless chefs and my culinary curiosity always leads me to pester friends, colleagues, and nonnas about what the best recipe is, the best way to cook pasta, and the significance of each particular shape.

While many Italians will tell you there is only one way to do things in the kitchen, I have learned that it varies from region to region, from locality to locality, and even from house to house. Italians take their pasta very seriously and over the years, I have picked up some tips and tricks for how to cook it. It may seem like a very straight forward thing to do, but Italian cuisine is all about simplicity and therefore, seemingly small details can make a big difference. 

Italian nonnas will salt the pasta water with fistfuls of Sicilian sea salt, like, a ridiculously high amount of salt. I've seen nonnas jump up from the table in shock because they remember they haven't added salt to the water or notice the difference if the pasta water hasn't been adequately salted when tasting the cooked pasta. Salt enhances the flavor of everything, that's why we use it, so cooking the pasta in the water will naturally enhance the flavor of the pasta itself. Italian cuisine is generally very simple. Think about the most iconic pasta dishes and they probably have no more than four different ingredients. The food is based on the freshness and quality of ingredients, so Italians think of the pasta as a flavorful ingredient in itself. In Italy, it's not unusual to eat plain pasta with a knob of butter on a busy weekday evening.

There is more to salted water than flavor though, there is a scientific explanation for why you should do it. Harold McGee writes in "On Food and Cooking" that adding salt to the water improves the flavor of the pasta but also limits starch gelation, making the pasta less sticky and allowing it to retain more of its original properties. Italians use sea salt, large granules to salt the water for the pasta. Fine salt is generally to be added to food after cooking to enhance flavor. Use a lot of salt.

Why are there so many types of pasta? Because each pasta has a specific use to match with specific ingredients from region to region. In Italian cooking, the shape of the pasta is something that has developed over time to complement the natural ingredients that come from the territory. In the south, longer thinner pastas like linguine and spaghetti are common to complement the prevalence of fish and seafood in the cuisine. Penne and rigatoni is associated with the middle of Italy, like Emilia-Romagna, where beef is a prime ingredient. In the north, the buckwheat pasta pizzoccheri is found because of the high-altitude cultivation and complements buttery and cheesy dishes.

Every region has its own varieties of pasta and after a few years, I gave up my incessant questioning as to why. Mostly it has to do with texture in the mouth and how the pasta interacts with the sauce as the crucial factors. And there are so many regional varieties, as many as up to 400 – la chitarra from Abruzzo, malloreddus from Sardina, fettucine from Rome, all of them delicious and all of them with a unique function.

The bigger the pot the better. Use a big pot filled with water. Even if you're only cooking a small amount of pasta, use the biggest pot you have. If you have ever tried to boil an entire packet of pasta in a small pot, with the pasta peaking up out of the surfaces of the water, you will know that the result is a sticky mass of pasta that is cooked unevenly and clings together. Cooking a large pot with plenty of water and stirring regularly means the pasta stays separate and cooks evenly.

It takes longer to bring to the water boil, but the higher volume of water has a bigger thermal mass — it holds more heat, which means it returns to the boil once you add the pasta, faster. The pasta cooks faster and therefore retains its structure, flavor, and nutrients better.

We are used to dumping the pasta and water out into a colander under a cloud of steam and not giving a thought to all that precious, nutritious pasta water that just goes down the drain. You should keep your pasta water, at least one cup of it and it's best ladled out into a cup before you drain the pasta. The foam on the surface of the water is the stuff you want to keep. The reason? Pasta water is full of starch so Italians usually add a ladle of pasta water before adding the pasta to the sauce.

Meat-based sauces are often cooked low and slow and can become quite dense and so adding a ladle of pasta water to the sauce loosens it, making it thinner but allowing it to cling to the pasta better. Sauces that are based on cheese like parmigiano or pecorino need a ladle of pasta water added to them to create an emulsion and allow it to attach to the pasta. The pasta water also gives the sauce a silkier texture. There are also health benefits associated with pasta water. Starchy pasta water is a source of potassium. This mineral not only helps with muscle strength but contributes to healthy blood pressure levels and can boost heart health.

The best pasta you can eat is the pasta you make yourself. Dried, store-bought pasta is fine, but making pasta is actually very easy to do, all you need is good flour and fresh eggs. Fresh pasta tastes so much better than the dried version, it contains no additives and with only two ingredients, you know exactly what you are consuming. The best thing about making your own pasta, however, is the time spent doing it, either on your own or in company, it makes the final meal so much more satisfying and enhances the whole experience. 

Take about 20 oz of Tipo 00 flour (the finest ground flour in the U.S., it is often categorized according to use) and six large eggs. Tip the flour onto a clean surface and make a well in the middle. You'll want to crack the eggs into the flour well and mix them around with your fingers before combining it and kneading the dough.

Pasta dough needs to rest, so wrap it and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes so the flour in the dough can hydrate and properly absorb the proteins in the eggs. Your pasta is then ready to roll out and cut into whatever shape you want.

The simplicity of a good tomato sauce with a perfectly cooked pasta is Italy's favorite dish. It may be surprising but if you ask any Italian what the perfect pasta dish is, more often than not the answer will be "pasta alla pomodoro." There are very few ingredients in this dish but when done correctly it is delicious and immensely satisfying. By eating simple Italian food with few ingredients we are able to appreciate the innate flavor of the tomatoes and the pasta. This is Italian cuisine at its very best — simple and to be enjoyed with a glass of wine and good company. Making it isn't difficult either.

Add a good glug of extra virgin olive oil to a pan and turn to medium heat. Add a clove of garlic to the oil and swirl it around to infuse it with flavor, but remove the clove before it colors. Take the canned tomatoes, they should be whole tomatoes which are better because pulped tomatoes are a mix of tomatoes from different trees and fields. Pour them into a sieve and retain the juice. Use your hands to squish the tomatoes into a pulp and add to the oil, Cook them to caramelize the natural sugars in the tomatoes and then add the juice. Reduce to a low heat and simmer before serving with al dente spaghetti.

Italians eat their pasta "al dente" which means it has more "bite" -– al dente means "to the tooth." It means that the consistency of the pasta should be firm. To obtain the right "al dente" consistency the pasta should be cooked according to the packet instructions but taking two to three minutes off the recommended cooking time.

Take a large pot of water and put it on a high heat. Just before the water boils, salt the water, Salt should not be added when the water is cold as the salt can interact with the steel and cause staining. Add the full packet of pasta when the water is boiling and reduce the heat slightly.

The most important rule about cooking pasta, is that it should never be left alone. You can of course attend to other tasks in the kitchen, but don't leave the room. There is a myth that the pasta is ready if you throw it at the wall and if it sticks, it's ready. It's not true. The only way to understand if the pasta is ready is to taste it. Removing a piece of the pasta with a wooden spoon and blowing on it before biting it is the only real way to know. If you watch the very edges of the pasta, they will turn white just before they are ready, but even then, different forms, ingredients, and brands have different qualities.

It is acceptable to rinse your pasta when serving it cold as a pasta salad but otherwise, you should never run your pasta under a faucet. Rinsing the pasta removes the pasta's starch and therefore plays havoc with the pasta's ability to attract the sauce to it. I'm not sure where the idea that you should rinse your pasta came from, but it may have something to do with how pasta is sometimes blanched in restaurants in advance of service. Blanching is cooking the pasta for two to three minutes before rinsing. This not something that Italian chefs do, and unless you're in a rush to cool down the pasta, just don't.

Moreover, rinsing pasta makes it slimy, sticky and washes way nutrients and flavor, so it is best avoided. The best practice is to remove the pasta, drain, and serve immediately. If for some reason, the pasta is ready before you are ready to eat, you can turn the heat off and allow the pasta to continue cooking in the water, but you should check it constantly.

Very little in Italian cooking gets thrown away. Italian food is from a "cucina povera," or "the poor kitchen." It is peasant food for everyday people, and therefore it makes use of every last scrap of leftover food. Good chefs don't let food go to waste. Tortellini, for example was developed as a way to use up any scraps of meat or vegetables that may have been left over.

Italian cooking is full of recipes and ideas for leftover pasta and probably the most popular is a pasta frittata. Simply sauté the leftover pasta in a little olive oil, pour the beaten eggs over and a good handful of grated Parmigiano Cover and cook on medium heat before flipping the frittata to cook the other side. 

Another idea is to chop up leftover pasta and add it to a minestrone, or you can simply fry the pasta well in butter and serve with Parmigiano and salt. "Pasta al forno," or a pasta bake is another useful way to use up leftover pasta, mix it with bechamel, Parmigiano, and whatever else is left in the fridge and bake in the oven until golden and crunchy.

While pasta is almost always cooked in boiling water there is one exception to this method — "Pasta all'assassina." Also known as "assassin's pasta," it's reputed to have originated in the city center of Bari, Puglia where it was invented in 1967 by Foggian chef Enzo Francavilla. It is a pasta dish that breaks the rules and as much as Italians might be shocked at a foreigner who cooks pasta in sauce and not in water (there is always room for exceptions in Italy). This is a completely different way to enjoy spaghetti, as it has a different consistency and a richer flavor due to the carrying of the noodles. Try it and you will appreciate how seemingly subtle differences in cooking pasta can transform the experience. It's the essence of Italian cuisine.

To make "spaghetti all'assassina," prepare tomato broth by adding a tin of tomato paste to a medium-sized pot of boiling water, then turn off the heat. Choose a deep pan, large enough for your spaghetti to lay flat in without breaking and add about half a cup of olive oil. Heat the oil on medium and add two cloves of garlic and red chili flakes and cook until fragrant. Remove the garlic and add the spaghetti and cook for another five or six minutes. Then add a can of tomatoes and allow to cook a few more minutes before adding the tomato broth bit by bit.  

We've all seen the memes of Italians being offended by breaking spaghetti but there are very good reasons for not doing it. Apart from losing your Italian friends, breaking the pasta changes the consistency of the finished dish. Spaghetti as a pasta, works because it makes a big, tangled mess, creating many little pockets for the sauce to accumulate. 

Spaghetti is an icon of Italian food so you shouldn't mess with it. The twirling of the fork and the method for eating it is fundamental to the whole pasta experience, in fact, it's one of the most Italian things you can do, so treat it with respect.

Put your spaghetti into boiling water. Splay the pasta out in a fan and use a wooden spoon to gently push the pasta into the water. When the lower ends of the pasta soften, you will be able to easily submerge the pasta in the boiling water. Cook until "al dente," drain and add to the sauce.

There is a myth that a drop of olive oil in the water stops the pasta from sticking together. This is not true, the oil does nothing as it simply floats on the surface of the water. Oily pasta will also stop the sauce from clinging to the pasta. 

By following the pasta hacks pointed out above there will never be any need to add anything to the water other than salt. All pasta really needs when cooking, is your close attention. Italians say that food is better cooked "con amore," with love, and that means with attention to detail and pleasure in what you are doing in the kitchen. 

Some people suggest that a drizzle of olive oil on the cooked pasta will keep it from sticking together, but this is frowned upon in Italy. The best way to avoid pasta from sticking together is to serve it immediately when it's ready. This usually means getting organized and often calling and shouting to the rest of the family well in advance so that they are all sitting in place when you take the pasta off the heat and drain it. 

Look for pasta that has been made in Italy. It may be more expensive, but it is worth it. Italians use different, older varieties of wheat for their flour that are less modified and therefore contain more gluten, fiber, and nutrients. It's just a better pasta to cook with, so making the extra effort to choose the pasta with care, as you would any other ingredient is more than worth it.

The best artisan store-bought Italian pastas are bronze cut rather than with industrial Teflon, which imparts the pasta a rougher texture to hold the sauce. It is then dried at lower temperatures for a longer time so the pasta retains more of the innate rough texture and nutty flavor of the durum wheat. 

Natural Italian pastas tends to have a paler yellow color than other store-bought versions as they don't contain coloring or flavoring. Pasta is a globally-loved food and while Italy is the biggest producer of pasta, Spain and Germany also export a lot of it. However, as we all know, pasta was invented in Italy and not in China as some say, so of course the best pasta is always made in Italy.