Pasta’s 10 Commandments

Any pasta is easy to make if you know what you’re doing. Here’s what you need to know to consistently get it right.

1. If you want the best pasta, buy dry pasta imported from Italy, made from semolina flour, extruded through bronze dies, and dried slowly. The semolina flour gives the pasta a gold color; the bronze-die extrusion yields a rough and porous surface that holds the sauce; the slow drying retains the durum wheat’s wheaty aroma and earthy flavor.
2. Pair thin pasta like angel hair, spaghettini, and vermicelli with light sauces like Aglio e Olio, Al Burro, Al Limone, Pomodoro, and Alle Vongole. Thick pasta like bucatini, fettuccine, and spaghetti must be balanced with creamy sauces like Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara, or hearty sauces like Bolognese and Marinara.
3. Boil your pasta in generously salted, vigorously boiling water. As it rehydrates and cooks, the pasta will absorb some of the salty water, coming out seasoned perfectly on the inside.
4. Use a tall pot to keep the foamy, starch-filled water from boiling over. In Italy, these pots are called “pasta pentola” or “pentola per pasta,” and they come with an insert that slides in and lifts out to make draining pasta of any type easier.
5. Slightly undercook your pasta. In Italy, pasta is cooked “al dente,” meaning to the tooth. Pasta is considered al dente when it’s no longer white and crunchy on the inside but still firm to the bite on the outside. It’s that state of doneness when the pasta resists the bite and sticks to the teeth rather than breaking apart on the fork and being mushy.
6. Knowing how to sauce your pasta is just as important as knowing how to boil it. Toss your pasta with the sauce in the saucepan you made your sauce in. An advanced technique is to transfer the pasta to the saucepan 1–2 minutes before it’s cooked to al dente, along with a ladle of pasta water, and to finish cooking the strands with the sauce.
7. The missing ingredient in most pasta recipes is pasta water. Salty, starchy, and with substantial thickening power, pasta water can turn grated cheese into sauce (Pasta Cacio e Pepe), make cream out of egg yolks (Pasta Carbonara), and ameliorate the mouthfeel of any tomato- and/or meat-based sauce.
8. To add depth of flavor to any tomato- and/or meat-based sauce, incorporate minced anchovies. The anchovies will dissolve and disappear into the sauce, an impart an umami taste with little-to-no fishiness. This technique works wonders on hearty sauces with ground meat.
9. Pasta should be sauced, served, and eaten immediately — and not left to dry out or turn mushy in the water. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 3–4 days, in the freezer for 6–9 months.
10. Revive leftover pasta by saving some of the pasta water and adding a splash into the pan when reheating.

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