What am I to do with just a little pot!? I wait until the water is boiling and gradually squeeze all those thin boners in there? Actually that’s what I do and just add butter and salt, but not for a meal.
Pro-tip: don’t add butter (or any oil for that matter) to the cooking water. It just makes your pasta slippery making it hard for your sauce to stick to it.
If you add a little of the pasta water to your sauce (let it cook about halfway so it’s starchy then mix like a quarter cup in with your sauce, assuming it is a sauce that can handle it) the sauce sticks to the pasta better
Normally, you cook the pasta to add something to it. Tomato? Pesto? Some ragù? You “dress” your pasta with some condiment. That’s what I mean, with “sauce”.
I was kidding, but often “sauce” for me is minimal. As a kid it was salt, and then I learned I could add butter. A challenged child was I. I have moved on, but spaghetti with just salt and butter, and hot sauce and green chilies and some meat and whatever else but never a traditional red or white sauce, it hits and I like it. This has gone far afield from what I said originally.
“Burro e salvia” (butter and sage) is a common pasta dressing in Italy. And it’s incredibly good. But then again, the butter comes after the pasta is boiled for the reason I mentioned. If you are using butter, try adding it to the pasta when you serve it (obviously, still hot), you’ll see the flavor is much better than when you add it to the water (and you need to use less butter with the pasta because it won’t remain in the water).
Yeah when you’re cooking in an unknown kitchen and there’s literally nothing but pasta and some salad dressing, or wing sauce, or some salt packets, you’re doing okay
What am I to do with just a little pot!? I wait until the water is boiling and gradually squeeze all those thin boners in there? Actually that’s what I do and just add butter and salt, but not for a meal.
Pro-tip: don’t add butter (or any oil for that matter) to the cooking water. It just makes your pasta slippery making it hard for your sauce to stick to it.
If you add a little of the pasta water to your sauce (let it cook about halfway so it’s starchy then mix like a quarter cup in with your sauce, assuming it is a sauce that can handle it) the sauce sticks to the pasta better
Agreed. Not sure what you mean by sauce, though
Normally, you cook the pasta to add something to it. Tomato? Pesto? Some ragù? You “dress” your pasta with some condiment. That’s what I mean, with “sauce”.
I was kidding, but often “sauce” for me is minimal. As a kid it was salt, and then I learned I could add butter. A challenged child was I. I have moved on, but spaghetti with just salt and butter, and hot sauce and green chilies and some meat and whatever else but never a traditional red or white sauce, it hits and I like it. This has gone far afield from what I said originally.
“Burro e salvia” (butter and sage) is a common pasta dressing in Italy. And it’s incredibly good. But then again, the butter comes after the pasta is boiled for the reason I mentioned. If you are using butter, try adding it to the pasta when you serve it (obviously, still hot), you’ll see the flavor is much better than when you add it to the water (and you need to use less butter with the pasta because it won’t remain in the water).
I promise, I don’t put butter in the pasta water
Sometimes pasta with just salt and oil/butter hits the spot. It’s simple, but pasta’s good enough to hold its own even without supporting ingredients.
Alternatively, sometimes I just use Italian salad dressing. (The dressing being Italian is coincidental, but hey if it works, it works.)
Yeah when you’re cooking in an unknown kitchen and there’s literally nothing but pasta and some salad dressing, or wing sauce, or some salt packets, you’re doing okay
Pretty much. Put them in, wait a couple of seconds and then push.
choose other pasta than spaghetti?
Sometimes, there’s just some pasta. Cook it and survive. Other times, guests appear and demand something nourishing. But it’s always spaghettis