How not to screw up your pasta (+ pasta salad dressing recipe)

by Guest Writer vlossy

1. Buy normal looking pasta. If you end up buying some multigrain kind of pasta and it tastes funny, then most likely, it's not your fault. Kudos for trying to be healthy, but just get the regular stuff.

2. Buy pasta you like. Don’t get angel hair if you don't like angel hair. Personally, I like food that I can chew, so I go with penne or linguini

The Pot

1. Make sure it's big enough (if you threw your pasta in there dry, and it fills up halfway, not a good sign. I’d say it should fill up less than a quarter of the pot, but ask Rachel and Tammy for more advice). Btw, it’s just water first.

2. Add water and make sure it's enough.

I never know how many actual cups of pasta I’m making, so I never know how many cups of water I need. I usually fill the pot a little more than halfway. If you don't have enough water, you can always add more later. If you have too much water, you can always take some out. The only problem is you'd have to keep watching your pot to make sure no disasters happen.

Water does not have to be filtered unless there's some real bad stuff in the water (as in, it's unregulated or something)

You’re not drinking the water, so it should be fine. Plus you're boiling it.

Tip: start with hot water from faucet. Makes heating it up faster bc there's already some kinetic energy in there!

3. Takes maybe 15 minutes at most to boil half a decent sized saucepan of water? Less if water starts hot. No need to turn on burner to full heat. You can start it there, then lower it as you get closer to boiling. Don’t cook your pasta at full heat bc chances are, your water’s gonna boil over. If it does boil over, immediately add cold water, then use a cup (preferably ceramic mug with a handle. Don’t use glass stuff) to pour some water out so it doesn’t overflow again, and turn the heat down so it’s not bubbling like crazy.

Adding pasta

1. If you're using long noodle pastas, I’d advise breaking it in half before sticking it in. It’s easier to manage (otherwise you end up trying to stuff it into the pot) and much easier to serve (you won't have to stand up out of your chair to see the end of your noodle). Just take a bunch (see step 2 for serving size), hold it with both your hands a few inches from the middle, and snap! (no need to judo chop, but you may use your knee for dramatic effect as long as you don't mind scattering pasta over your floor).

2. Serving size for long noodle pastas

Take a bunch of pasta, and make a ring with your thumb and index finger around it. If the diameter is about that of a quarter, it should be about 1.5 servings, I think. It’s about one serving for me, but I kind of eat a lot. I don't know what to tell you for short pasta... read the box?

If you're hungry and can eat pasta, make a bunch about the diameter of a 50 cent piece. If you have leftover, you can always store it in Ziploc bags for later. Makes for quick eating next time. And if you warm it up with your pasta sauce, you can hardly tell!

3. Snap the bundle in half over the pot (or do in smaller bundles if your total bundle is too thick to do this in one go). Toss pasta in, and make sure it's all completely submerged. Adding more uncooked pasta a few seconds to about a minute into cooking is ok.

4. STIR! Unless you like big clumps of chewy noodles stuck together, stir your pasta! It’s not hard, it's just kind of annoying, but it'll be better for it. If you forget to stir, you can kind of stir at the end of cooking and break apart some of the clumps, but be prepared for the possibility of chewy clumps (yumm)

5. Don’t leave your pasta unattended. You can read next to the kitchen or something if you need to. Give it 10 min max (from the time you throw pasta in) if you're going to risk leaving it alone. Anything longer than 10 minutes could be sucky.

I try to not leave my pasta for more than a few minutes at a time. Maybe 5 max. General rule, do not leave your cooking unattended. And if you’re scatterbrained like me, put an alarm on your phone or something.

6. Is it done? I use wood chopsticks bc they grab noodles best and you can control them better than a fork. Pick up a noodle from the batch while it’s still cooking. If you pick one up and it’s not bending around all the way, like it’s still stiff, put it back and keep cooking. Otherwise: Cool it off by blowing on it or run it under cold water (probably not a good idea if your water’s not dependable). Try it. Is the consistency alright? If it’s kind of hard in the middle, let it cook longer. If it’s really soft and mushy when you try it, you’ve overcooked it. Some people like their pasta overcooked, some like it undercooked. Figure out which you like better. And don’t undercook just because you’re impatient.

7. it’s done! Great, it’s done. Get a colander/strainer out. Now, very carefully, pour out some water into the sink or strainer (try to avoid having glassware in the sink while you do this. Hot water + cold glass don’t mix well at all). Just pour out enough so that you can comfortably pour the rest into the strainer you have ready. Don’t go too fast, and try to position the strainer so you don’t have to be holding it while you’re pouring the hot water/pasta. Ok now rinse the pasta in the strainer with cold water. I don’t exactly know what this does other than cool it off, but a lot of ppl do it? Maybe it keeps the pasta from sticking? If your water’s really fishy, you could probably leave this step out. Set aside.

And then prepare whatever other fixings (like pasta sauce).

If you have salad like trader joe’s spring mix salad, this mix works really well.

Here’s what spring mix looks like:

http://www.markon.com/html/productsearch4.aspx?pageid=11&prodsubid=465&catid=3&subcatid=30&mem_id=3&submem_id=5

http://www.freshexpress.com/products/productdisplay.asp?cat=bb&salads=5

Take rinsed salad (rinse veggies in cold water unless you want your salad cooked) and mix it in with your pasta (I use linguini for this). Add red pepper (thinly sliced) and red onion (actually looks purple) into the salad

To make the dressing, mix all this stuff together:

1 Lime (just need to squeeze out however much juice you want)

2 Tablespoons, Balsamic Vinegar

4 Tablespoons, Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons sugar or honey power

I don’t know how feasible that is to make for you, Lien (as in, don’t know how easily accessible all these ingredients are), but you can try variations on the theme? Hope some of this helps.