How do you cook pasta? You buy some dried pasta from your local grocery store, you have some water in a pot—now what? Universally, people will say to boil the water and then put the pasta in until it is al dente (a.k.a. boiling it as long as it says to on the box). Some say to put salt into the water, some say to pour olive oil on top, some both. But here at Erubite, we believe you should know why things are done, not just how they are done so that you have some flexibility in the way you do things around the kitchen.
First of all—olive oil in the boiling pot of water: This. Does. Nothing! Due to the hydrophobic (hydro—water; phobic—fearing) nature of oils, olive oil will not dissolve in water (it is possible to homogenize these ordinarily-immiscible (not capable of combining into a homogenous solution) liquids by way of severe agitation, but that is for a future post on emulsification). Not only that, but olive oil is not as dense as water, so it floats on the surface and is one of the first things to go down the drain when straining the pasta. I.e., the oil will never come in contact with the pasta! To prevent the pasta from sticking, strain the pasta, shock it in cold water to prevent it from cooking any further (or not, the difference is not always very noticeable)
Salt: Yes, it does raise the boiling point of the water, thus reducing the time to cook the pasta, but honestly, we are in the realm of seconds (the concentrations at which you will boil your pasta only raise the boiling point a few degrees). The reason we recommend using salt while you cook your pasta, is that it permeates the pasta and thus seasons it as it boils.
Water: Certainly some of you have filled a pot with water, put it on the stove, and then unheedingly dumped the pasta in the water before it begins boiling, n’est-ce pas? Congratulations! You did nothing wrong! Eventually the water will boil, and the pasta will cook. In fact, you can even bring the water to a boil for a minute, cover it, and shut off the heat. Of course, now the timing is off, but here is what you look for in a perfect al dente pasta:
If cooking a long, round noodle, such as angel hair or spaghetti, take one out of the water and bite it. An al dente piece of pasta will have a pin-prick sized white spot in the center*. This white spot is a slightly-dehydrated core of pasta dough that will provide that slight snap to the pasta. Alternatively, take both ends of the noodle-in-question and pull—if the pasta is truly al dente, you will hear and feel that light “snap” as you pull it apart. Flatter pastas should be treated similarly, biting at the thickest portion of the noodle. The white “spot,” however, will be a white “line.” Be sure that is is very thin before straining. Not everyone, though, enjoys the firmness of a traditional al dente (most of us don’t), so feel free to cook it for a bit longer. This leads to the next bit about pasta that has been championed across this vast internet: shocking pasta.
Shocking refers to submerging hot, cooked items into (often icy) cold water. The idea is to halt the further cooking that occurs because the food item is still hot. Once you have strained your perfectly al dente pasta, it will continue to cook, meaning that that core of dehydrated pasta dough will continue to absorb water from the better-hydrated dough, and will no longer possess that characteristic “snap.” To prevent this travesty (oh the horror!), simply dump the strained pasta into a bowl of icy water, or if that is too much work, run cold tap water through the pasta, mixing it around to ensure the cold water has a chance to cool all of the pasta.
*Homemade pasta will have a dot, but the color difference between it an its surroundings will be less pronounced as fresh pasta is more hydrated than dried pasta.
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