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The right way to sauce pasta (2016)
- zer00eyz 3y agoSerious eats does amazing writing and research. Always a great reference and I go back often. If your going to follow the pasta directions, then make some cookies for desert: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip...
- batiudrami 3y agoThis is pretty standard cooking stuff, I thought. At least in Australia I haven’t seen pasta sauce served on top of pasta in a restaurant for decades.
- ryanbrunner 3y agoUtilizing pasta water is something that Italians have been doing for ages but until recently wasn't a common feature of American pasta recipes. I'm sure restaurants were doing it, but your average mass market cookbook only started mentioning it in the last 5-10 years or so.
- Jenk 3y agoSurely the correct-correct response is "however the eater likes it" Example, my kids. If it isn't separate they won't touch it.
- ahmedfromtunis 3y agoAs a kid, I thought that that was the proper way to serve pasta, thanks to Big Pasta indoctrination via tv shows and ads. I'm happy to announce that I'm now saved and that I've been enjoying my pasta as it was supposed to be enjoyed: pre-sauced!
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- zooweemama 3y agoI'm Italian and I fully subscribe to everything written in this article. Thanks for sharing!
- ahmedfromtunis 3y agoHappy to learn that I'm not the only one who hates the volcano pasta thing. For some reason people think it's fancy and sophisticated, but it's nonsense. Sauce is an integral part of the dish and not some optional garnish. The two components of the dish must be properly fused together for optimal experience!
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- helsinkiandrew 3y agoIt seems to be pasta day today on HN. So I heartily recommend Spaghetti all’Assassina - eschew the boiling step altogether and cook the pasta directly in the pan with the sauce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_all'assassina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_all'assassina
- xattt 3y agoI have made this and a non-stick pan is essential. Otherwise, you have a very annoying mess to clean. The relevant Cook’s Illustrated/ATK recipe: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/5746-killer-spaghetti https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/article...
- throw_pm23 3y agoUnfortunately the materials coating the non-stick pans are well-established carcinogens. Cast iron stuff is a good alternative and needs only a bit more care.
- gomox 3y agoYou can't cook tomato sauces for any significant time in cast iron unless your intention is to remove all the seasoning of the pan. So for the proposed recipe, cast iron doesn't really cut it.
- throw_pm23 3y agoYes, for that type of thing you can use stainless steel pans/pots.
- xattt 3y agoMy first take was stainless steel…
- rokkitmensch 3y ago
- zabzonk 3y agocall me mad, but i like the sauce both dumped on top, or mixed in the pan. i do like controlling the cheese myself though. and the pepper - can't stand those waiters coming round with giant phallic grinders!
- InCityDreams 3y agoNever figured grinders as particularly 'phallic', but beauty, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder.
- zabzonk 3y agotake it from me, in London at least they really are!
- jillesvangurp 3y agoNot bad advice. Another good tip is to use the right pasta for the right sauce. As any Italian would explain, Spaghetti Bolognese is not actually a thing at least not what you think it is. You wouldn't use spaghetti for a meat sauce but a bit more chunky kind of pasta like tagliatelle or papardelle. You'd use spaghetti for a fish pasta; which is what you risk getting in Bologna if you are ordering a spaghetti bolognese. Basically, they'd serve you a tuna & tomato sauce. Nothing wrong with that of course. But if you want their famous meat sauce, order pasta alla ragu. Very different experience. Italian food done right is pretty yummy and not that hard to master for a home cook. Half the success is using good ingredients. The other half is mastering some simple techniques. Pasta especially is not that hard and doing it right makes a huge difference.
- nicbou 3y agoThe last line is so true. Italian cooking is a really good way to measure your progress as a cook, because you can use the exact same ingredients and get a completely different result with better skills. The simple recipes are a great testbed for the techniques you are picking up.
- mmasu 3y agoAnthony Bourdain said: “Encapsulate the essential Italian philosophy of cooking here: Get a very few excellent ingredients, then proceed to not fuck them up.”
- babarock 3y agoThe main reason for tagliatelle/pappardelle is to get "fresh" pasta. "Pasta Fresca" or "Pasta all'uovo" is made of different ingredients than spaghetti. It's usually soft wheat and eggs versus hard wheat (durum wheat, semolina) and water. I agree that finding the right pairing of pasta and sauce does make a difference, but I would also say not to overthink it. Most italians will use whatever's available in the pantry, even if it's sub-optimal.
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- justsomehnguy 3y agoAh shit, here we go again. > which translates to around 1 or 2 tablespoons of kosher salt per quart or liter. Yes. > You also don't need a huge amount of water—just enough to be able to keep the pasta moving That's highly depends on the pasta itself. There are some cheap local brands what greatly benefit from having way more water (1L for each 100g of dry weight) than usually needed for a proper one. Sure, if you want some soggy mess what you need to rinse, because otherwise it would cook itself to a single slob in just seconds after draining in a colander - it is all up to you. > Pasta water gets added throughout the process in order to adjust consistency. Don't be afraid of it! Can't agree enough. There is no one true recipe what would always work. > Pasta don't wait around for nobody Yep! Amusingly just an hour ago I did a variation of 'pasta with sauce' what would be heart-attack inducing to anyone snobby enough about Italian cuisine: two big onions, chopped, steamed, fried, a bit of soy sauce, leftovers from a veg salad, harissa, tomato paste. I can do 'a proper' one, but I can do 'not a proper' one too. And I can be just lazy enough today.
- isilofi 3y ago> Amusingly just an hour ago I did a variation of 'pasta with sauce' what would be heart-attack inducing to anyone snobby enough about Italian cuisine: two big onions, chopped, steamed, fried, a bit of soy sauce, leftovers from a veg salad, harissa, tomato paste. Just declare it as "Indian", "Phillipino" or something other south-Asian and it will be fine. There is a huge variety of cuisines there and there are less self-proclaimed experts on them in the western world.
- jgord 3y agops. make sure you get bronze-nozzle extruded pasta, not teflon extruded .. [ if you get dried pasta ] It creates a nice rough micro-texture on the pasta surface when extruded, which helps it cook easier, and hold more sauce. Swear, not making this up ..
- williamdclt 3y agoTbh I’m still skeptical about the difference in sauce holding, but bronze die pasta are usual higher quality and worth it if only for that
- screye 3y agoMore importantly, they seem to release more starch and lead to nicer sauces.
- lproven 3y agoToday I learned that Americans cook pasta with the sauce. Just when I thought I could not be more appalled after how Americans make tea. >_<
- klez 3y agoIf you're referring to the article they say to finish cooking in the sauce, which is not bad advice at all.
- sourcecodeplz 3y agoMy basic pasta recipes: - olive oil & salt + pepper - olive oil & cheese - olive oil & garlic + tomato sauce - olive oil & onions + salami
- n0on3 3y agoAs an italian who is told he's pretty good at cooking, some of this is on point but a few things sound "wrong" to me (I use quotes because there's really no objective way to do this literally right or wrong, I'm just comparing with my experience / what I perceive "we learn from grandmas"): - Put the pasta into the pan with the sauce (which I guess is the main point of the article which starts off with "italian" restaurants putting sauce on top of the pasta in the plate): defintely yes, but... - Add pasta water: it depends on which sauce you prepared and how you prepared it (and the type of pasta... not just shape, but fresh -vs- dry, and what it's made of). When one uses "pasta water", it's usually in the making of the sauce, not before putting the pasta in the sauce pan; sometimes cooking water is added to the sauce if it "shrinked" too much or the ingredients are not of amongst those which attach to the pasta well, but these are their own cases. All that "adding water and stirring" to get to the "perfect texture" might appear to make sense, but I'm pretty sure it will take too much time and it will mess your pasta consistency because it will get overcooked. Sure you can under-cook the pasta alone a bit to compensate, but what's the point in that? What I'm trying to say is that this trial and error thing might make sense for someone who does it for the first time, but after a while you figure out how the sauce ought to be in the first place, you put the past in, jump it (as in, move the pan to make the pasta "jump" in it so it doesn't attach to the pan) to the right consistency and everything gets where it needs to be pretty easy without all that fuss. At least this is what I do and what I see others that seem to really know how to cook (based on the results) do. - The bit about using cooking water (that's another way we call the "pasta water") to adjust the consistency which turned bad because of the cheese thickening and liquids evaporating... well, unless we are talking about sauces which have significant cheese quantities in it (e.g., the "cheese and pepper", or "4 cheeses pasta") and have a different process on their own (as does the mentioned "carbonara", which I guarantee you'll screw up if you follow this process because you'll cook the egg too much), cheese usually goes on top of the pasta in the plate as a garnish. For some sauces (e.g., the "amatriciana"), you're even supposed to make the plates (with pasta already mixed with sauce) get a bit less hot before putting in the cheese, to avoid it melting too much. Putting cheese in the pan for a non-cheese based sauce and make it melt and then thick is sort of a cardinal sin (you can add all the "pasta water" you want, you'll never get it back to where you need it to be and it will mess up your dish) - Add fat: what? Just, no. Olive oil is of very common use, but you don't add it "to the sauce" for texture, for most sauces you use it as the base for the sauce. Butter? Unless we are talking about a butter-based sauce (e.g., butter & sage), which are not that many or very common anyway in regions but the northern ones, nope. Not like that. Some add olive oil as a garnish, but again really depends on which sauce you are using, and it ain't that common
- benterix 3y agoThis is almost a religious matter among my Italian colleagues and I see a few blasphemies on this video already. The recipe I was taught on the hills of Tuscany 30 year ago is so perfect and simple I'll never prepare pasta in a different way. * First slice garlic and put it a pot together with excellent quality olive oil * Fry it until garlic becomes slightly yellow but nor brown, and in the meantime in a separate pot boil pasta * Add tomato sauce to oil/garlic and boil them together * When the pasta is ready, add it to the mix It's absolutely delicious in spite of its simplicity.
- babarock 3y agoSome suggestions, take it or leave it: - delay the boiling of the pasta until after you added the tomato sauce to the pan. Tomatoes enjoy spending a bit more time on the stove, it makes a difference. - when adding the pasta to the mix, add a bit of the pasta-water (the water in which the pasta cooked). It acts as a very powerful emulsifier and will make the sauce stick better.
- benterix 3y agoThanks, I'll try and see how much difference it makes.
- Hikikomori 3y agoWhat's your tomato sauce? I do something similar but add pepper flakes with the garlic, use canned tomatoes and finish with some butter.
- benterix 3y agoWell, everybody around there bought the same thing, it was 100% tomatoes without any salt or basil etc. added in. The advantage of using it over fresh tomatoes is that where I live now the fresh ones tend to lose flavor in colder months.
- mariusor 3y agoCooking the garlic from the start makes it lose all its flavour, unless you use a tonne. Using tomato sauce is a very small convenience (maybe 40minutes worth, which mostly is waiting) vs making the sauce from scratch from fresh tomatoes. The main issue with making sauce from scratch is getting rid of the skins, and in order to do that you can blanch the tomatoes: get 1Kg of fresh tomatoes, score them in a cross from side to side and place them in a pot (stem down), pour boiling water on them until they're fully covered. Wait until the water cools down, then peal the tomatoes and dice them in cubes. Place the cubes in a pan and cook with a lid for about 10-15m, then crush them with a potato masher. You now have tasty tomato sauce from scratch.
- babarock 3y ago> Your other option is to purposely undercook the pasta by a few minutes before adding it to the sauce to let it finish. This is super important. I don't know why the article presents it as optional. It is a vital step for success in my experience.
- Niksko 3y agoThe degree to which you undercook is really about how scared you are of overcooking. The phrase I've heard used is that removing pasta from boiling water and putting it in the sauce is like "pasta bullet time". It slows the cooking enough that you now have lots of extra time to play with. So it's not that you need to pull the pasta very early. You just can, for greater insurance. But pulling it just shy of al dente and then finishing it in the sauce over a few minutes will result in an al dente pasta. If your sauce needs lots of reducing, you're making a huge batch with an undersized burner, or anything else that would greatly prolong the cooking time, then yes, you'll need to pull the pasta earlier.
- babarock 3y agoAgreed. I pull it out undercooked so I have time to add enough pasta water in the pan and let it reduce. If it's already al dente by the time it's added to the pan, then I find I have to rush through the mixing.
- brunooliv 3y agoThis is awesome! A question for Italians in the audience though: is using butter as a fat something that’s commonly done? Being Portuguese and fond of Mediterranean cuisine, I always saw butter as a fat as being a more American thing but maybe that’s just the wrong perception and it’s totally fine if you use a dab of butter? PS: I do it myself, reason being that usually I’ll use extra virgin olive oil while preparing a sauce and I like to add butter to save on the oil, which can be quite expensive.
- andrew_mason1 3y agoYes. For a long time, butter and cheese were the _only_ toppings for pasta. If you're interested, I'd really recommend reading The Discovery of Pasta by Luca Cesari, which traces the development of a few well-known pasta dishes through historical documents, cookbooks, etc.
- klez 3y agoDepends where in Italy and what you're doing. In the north where I'm originally from we used to use butter more. In the south oil is king. But that's just "historically". Nowadays there's been a big push towards olive oil in the whole country.
- frostburg 3y agoNot commonly in my (Tuscan) experience but there is regional variation, in some areas (mountains, some northern areas) it's used; the French use a lot of it. I would avoid using it as a partial substitute of olive oil, however. Use butter if the recipe calls for it.
- babarock 3y agoThe answer is... complicated: - Using butter for pasta is something that is typically reserved for people with upset stomach (understand diarrhea). It's not scientific at all, but just something that is commonly done. - Fettucine Alfredo[1] is a real italian dish invented in Rome. It's made with butter and cheese. It was originally popular in the touristy areas, targeting foreigners, but over time I notice it slowly appearing in "real" restaurants. - "Pasta Fresca" (tagliatelle, raviolis, tortellinis, etc) is often served with butter-based sauces (like a lot of the traditional northern cuisine). A simplistic way to think about it is that butter is a rich luxurious ingredient used in the North, whereas the South is more likely to use Olive oil. Note that other fats can be used, it's not just olive oil: - Carbonara / Alla Gricia will use the animal fat from the _guanciale_ (the cured pig meat) and avoid using any oil or butter - Cacio e pepe will use neither and use the cheese itself as fat for the sauce. It's a simple pasta, but it's difficult to get right, since parmesan/pecorino are diffcult to emulsify. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_Alfredo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettuccine_Alfredo
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- bradleyjg 3y agoI like good food, so I’ve started to follow recipes on sites like this one. However the thing that no one talks about is that cooking “properly” takes a huge amount of time cumulatively for a single person or even a small nuclear family. A blogger will talk about a quick little dish. First of all it is going to take you longer because you haven’t spent the last decade chopping onions. Second, even as written this “quick dish” is 15 to make, 15 minutes to eat, and another 10 minutes of cleanup. That’s 40 minutes per meal for a total of 2 hours a day. Uber eats is just 5 minutes to order and clean up plus 15 minutes to eat, for a total of 1 hour a day. That doesn’t even get into the extra time shopping for high quality and sometimes obscure ingredients, learning these recipes in the first place, and so on. And again that’s assuming only quick little dishes. So best case scenario net one hour a day every day to eat high quality home cooked meals. That’s 6% of your waking life that’s not available for work, exercise, dating, playing with your kids, calling your parents, reading a book, etc, etc, etc. Like so many things in our atomized world, the math has gotten worse as we’ve discarded large, extended families. If that cooking time is divided among several people, feeds even more, and is often taken as an opportunity to teach and bond, then things start to look a lot different.
- babarock 3y agoYou get better at it the more you do it, and naturally with experience you'll notice it takes less and less time. That being said, I agree with you, it does take a lot of time. To me, the switch occurred when I stopped considering this time "wasted" and instead consider it fulfilling. I actively look for the time I'll spend cooking each day, I believe it's a good use of my time and I don't try to rush through it.
- kqr 3y ago> To me, the switch occurred when I stopped considering this time "wasted" and instead consider it fulfilling. This is how it works for me also. We involved our children from a very early age, so they can also perform basic tasks like watch a pan or cut soft things into pieces (with only a little supervision), which frees up even more time.
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- geertj 3y agoMuch of this is overengineered. My entire wife's family is from Sicily, and I lived there for 5 years. The important step is to add the pasta to the sauce skillet after the pasta is al dente, and cook it for another minute or so while turning it. This is called "mantecare" in Italian. If you want, you can add a few lines of oil after you turn off the fire ("al crudo" i.e. "raw"). I have never seen anyone do the other steps.
- someotherperson 3y agoAdding pasta water to thicken the sauce and tossing so that the water and oil forms an emulsification is important unless you want oily, watery pasta. The only step I see worth skipping is adding more fat, that one makes no sense and just suggests there wasn't enough fat used when making the sauce in the first place. I guess ultimately it really depends on the sauce that is being prepared.
- zooweemama 3y agoMy mother is Sicilian and she always keeps some of the pasta water aside to add if the sauce ended up too dry.
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- YeGoblynQueenne 3y agoI guess some people don't touch their food without a complete physico-chemical analysis, at the molecular level. For myself, I would not be able to tell the difference between pasta (cooked by myself) with the sauce added before or after. I suspect this is true for many of those "the right way to <cook something>" advice. The article even says they have "done the tests to prove" that pasta is better when mixed (and cooked) with the sauce before serving but clicking through to that link the "test" is one guy trying three different pasta dishes. That's one down, a few more billion sets of taste buds to go.
- spiderxxxx 3y agoeh, that dirties too many dishes. Get the pasta cooked in salted water, drain it, put the pot that you cooked the pasta in on the turned off stove, add a few spoons of sauce from the jar in the fridge. The sauce will warm up from the residual heat of the pan. Add in pasta and stir it around. Your pasta is cooled from the sauce and the sauce is warmed from the pasta. Serve. Works fine with pesto and tomato sauce.
- TomK32 3y agoI'm German, what do I know about pasta, but reading that article and just a single step is dedicated to the pasta: What a disappointment. The sauce is where you create the taste, and you can be creative in that step. I prefer adding pasta water before adding the noodles, give it a minute and then add the noodles. One Youtuber to recommend in all sorts of food exploration is Alex aka @FrenchGuyCooking. Be it making your own fresh noodles or dry noodle, discovering Umamni, sourdough bread or Ramen, he has made all the mistakes so you don't have to.