20 Easy Pasta Recipes You’ll Have on the Table in Just 20 Minutes (2024)

FAQs

What are 2 tips in making good pasta? ›

Spaghetti typically takes 8-10 minutes. Linguine is thicker and may take 10 or more minutes to cook. Fettuccine can also take 10 or more minutes. It's crucial to stir long noodles as they're cooking, to prevent the strands from all sticking together and creating a lump of pasta.

You can prepare pasta up to 24 hours in advance. To do so, follow these instructions: Cook it for half the time recommended in the package instructions. Then, drain the pasta and spread it out on a cooking sheet and allow it to cool.

Cook your pasta ahead of time, in a very large pot, with a lot of salt in the water, not oil. You can make your pasta up to a full day in advance. Make sure your pot is large enough to hold the full amount of water called for in the instructions on the box (for whatever quantity you intend on making).

Always bring water to the boil before adding pasta. Otherwise the exterior will start to turn mushy before the center softens. Once boiling, add plenty of salt: about 7 grams per liter of water; this doesn't just flavour the pasta, but also shortens its cooking time.

The water you cook pasta in should be as salty as the Mediterranean sea – add about 2 teaspoons of fine grain sea salt per litre (33 ounces) of water. That way your pasta has some flavour before you add the sauce – so you need to work less hard to make everything taste amazing.

To be sure that your pasta is cooked correctly, it is enough to follow a few, simple rules. To begin with, you should keep in mind the right quantities. In Italy, the golden rule for cooking pasta is 1, 10, 100 or 1 liter of water, 10 grams of salt for every 100 grams of pasta.

The pasta is flavored by the salt water, so not enough salt will leave the pasta bland. If you want to get technical you can use the golden rule of 10-100-1000, 10 grams of salt to 100 grams of pasta, to 1000 grams of water.

Most commercially-dried pasta contains only two ingredients: semolina flour and water. Giant silos that hold up to 150,000 pounds of semolina flour are the starting point of the process; pipes from the silos move the flour into a mixing machine, in which warm water is piped in.

Is Cappellini angel hair? ›

While angel hair pasta is similar to capellini, angel hair is actually a bit thinner. Capellini's diameter measures between 0.85 and 0.92 millimeters, while angel hair's diameter is between 0.78 and 0.88.

To quickly chill cooked pasta for salad, first drain the cooked pasta in a colander. Then place the colander into a bigger bowl filled halfway with ice water. When chilled, lift the colander out of the ice water, drain, and it's ready to use.

To save on the hassle of boiling pasta, you can even cook pasta right in its sauce on the stovetop. Add all the ingredients, including the veggies or meat, and dry pasta and let it cook till everything is done, usually in about 20 to 25 minutes.

In a large pot, add potatoes, 1 tablespoon salt, and cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook uncovered until potatoes are tender and can easily be pierced by a knife, about 10 to 15 minutes (20 to 25 minutes for larger potatoes).

Boiling. Boiling takes place at 212 degrees F, which is the boiling point of water at sea level. A sure sign of boiling water (or any liquid) is when the surface bubbles furiously and the liquid beneath it churns vigorously. You should also see a good amount of steam escaping from the pot.

Fresh or dried herbs will also add flavor to pasta dishes.

"I use a lot of parsley, either fresh or even dried," Montillo said. "Oregano, garlic powder, onion flakes, black pepper all work well in a variety of sauces."

Do Not Rinse. Pasta should never, ever be rinsed for a warm dish. The starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad or when you are not going to use it immediately.

It's a great trick to precious save time during service, but how did the pasta chef stop the pasta sticking together when cold? After all, you couldn't serve one of those clumpy messes of pasta in an Italian restaurant. Simple: they thoroughly coated the pasta in oil before storing it.

Pre-heat your chafing dishes

First, you need to fill the bottom with hot water and cover it with a lid for at least 10 minutes. You can then add your food once the chafing dish is hot to help maintain an ideal temperature before the food is served.

What makes a good quality pasta? ›

Good quality pasta will be al dente, or 'have a bite', meaning that it has texture in your mouth and not feel soggy too soft. Good quality pasta will still hold its texture even if you leave it cooking a couple minutes further, and will not glue together as easily. Quality of wheat deserves a full article in itself.

The tangy, salty, spicy and sometimes a tad sweet taste is just mouthwatering. There is little that that could go wrong with this delicacy. You can even add other things as in meatballs, lasagna etc that blends in with pasta just perfectly. The flavor and aroma of pasta are what makes it so popular among people.