PASTA BASICS

COOKING PASTA SEEMS SIMPLE—AFTER ALL, who can't boil water—but there are a number of fine points that can make the difference between decent pasta dishes and great ones. Over the course of several years of writing and cooking about pasta, we have developed the following list of tips.

BUY AMERICAN, IF YOU LIKE. While many sources tout the superiority of Italian pasta, our taste tests have shown this to be a myth. American brands of spaghetti scored just as well as Italian brands, and Ronzoni, which is made by Hershey Foods, topped the rankings. While Italian brands offer a greater variety of shapes—such as ear-like orecchiette or bow tie—shaped farfalle—the quality differences that once existed between domestic and Italian pasta have disappeared.

FLAVORED PASTA LOOKS BETTER THAN IT TASTES. Saffron, beet, and tomato pasta may look great, but the flavor is quite subtle. Even spinach pasta has only the mildest spinach flavor, and it's hard to detect once the noodles have been sauced. Buy flavored pastas if you like, but don't spend extra money thinking they will taste better than plain wheat pasta.

USE DRIED PASTA FOR MOST RECIPES. Fresh pasta, either made at home or at a local pasta shop, is our first choice for lasagne or ravioli. It's also wonderful when cut into fettuccine and then tossed with a cream sauce (the eggs in fresh pasta work well with dairy sauces in general). However, for most uses, dried pasta, which contains just flour and water, is the best choice. Dried pasta has a sturdier texture better suited to many sauces, especially those with vegetables or other large chunks. Dried pasta is also much more convenient than fresh because it has an almost unlimited shelf-life. If you do use fresh pasta, don't buy packages from the refrigerator case in the supermarket. These brands are soft and mushy and have none of the delicacy and subtle egg flavor of fresh pasta made at home or in a pasta shop.

USE ENOUGH WATER. While the brand of pasta may not make much difference, how you cook the pasta does. First and foremost, start with enough water (at least four quarts for a pound of pasta). Cooking pasta in enough water is the single most important factor in preventing sticking. Pasta swells as it rehydrates and if there is not enough room, the result is a sticky mess.

FORGET THE OIL. Some cookbooks suggest adding oil to the cooking water to keep the pasta from sticking together. We have found that abundant water will do this job. Oil will make the pasta slick and therefore less receptive to the sauce and should not be added to the cooking water. However, we do recommend using olive oil in pasta sauces. for a discussion of buying olive oil.

USE PLENTY OF SALT. Pasta cooked without salt is bland, no matter how salty the sauce is. Add at least 1 tablespoon once the water comes to a boil, remembering that most of the salt goes down the drain with the cooking water.

TASTE TO COOK PASTA RIGHT. There are no tricks to tell when pasta is al dente, or cooked "to the tooth." (We tried throwing strands against the ceiling or refrigerator and couldn't tell when that pasta was done, but did we end up with a messy kitchen.) When properly cooked, pasta should be resilient but not chewy. Cooking times on packages or in other cookbooks are often inaccurate because each stove works differently, so tasting pasta is a must. Keep in mind that the pasta will soften a bit further once drained.

DRAIN, DON'T SHAKE. Nothing is worse than a soggy, watery bowl of pasta. However, there is no need to shake the pasta bone-dry either. A little pasta water dripping from the noodles helps thin and spread the sauce. In fact, in many recipes we suggest reserving a little of the cooking water and using it as needed with oil-based sauces that may not moisten the pasta quite enough.

ADD DRAINED PASTA TO SAUCE. For the best flavor and coverage, we like to add the drained pasta right to the pan with the sauce and then toss over low heat for a minute or so. This method promotes the most even coverage and also allows the pasta to actually absorb some of the sauce. Because the pasta will continue to cook in the sauce, undercook it slightly so the strands are not soft by the time they get to the table.

RESERVE SOME OIL. For an added flavor boost, we found it helpful in our testing to save a little of the olive oil for tossing with the drained pasta and sauce. This tip is especially useful when making a simple tomato sauce. The flavor of the oil is released on contact with the hot pasta and the oil helps spread the sauce over the noodles.

DON'T GO OVERBOARD WITH SAUCE. Italians are usually quite restrained in their use of sauces, especially because they generally eat pasta as a first course. We prefer to use slightly more sauce, but not the excessive amount common in many American restaurants. If your pasta is dry, you are not using enough sauce. If you finish the pasta and there is still sauce in the bowl, you are using too much.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT SHAPE. In Italy there is a fine art to matching pasta shapes and sauces. However, we find that there is only one important consideration—the texture of the sauce. A very chunky sauce is better with shells or rigatoni than spaghetti because the former shapes can trap and hold pieces of the sauce, while large chunks of vegetables, for instance, would just sit on top of long, thin strands. The idea is to eat the sauce and pasta in the same mouthful. The headnote to each recipe makes some suggestions about the appropriate pasta shape. See also figures 1 and 2.

SERVING SIZES. Every sauce recipe in this book is designed to coat one pound of pasta. For the most part, one pound of pasta will serve four as a main course. Of course, if the sauce is particularly rich, if there are kids at the table, or if there are a lot of other foods being served, you may be able to get five or six servings. As a first course in the Italian style, a pound of pasta will yield six to eight servings.

USE CHEESE AS YOU LIKE. While grated cheese is a ubiquitous accompaniment to pasta in this country, not so in Italy. Italians would never serve cheese with seafood and often omit it with oil-based vegetable sauces. Of course, you can do as you like. We find that grated cheese works best when the sauce is fairly liquid, made with either cream or tomatoes. Otherwise, the cheese may stick to the pasta and make it seem dry.