How to cook pasta

The water

Use a large pan and plenty of water, so the temperature does not crash when the pasta goes in and the strands have room to move rather than sticking to each other.

Salt it properly. It should taste noticeably salty — around 10g per litre is a common guide. This is the only chance to season the pasta itself, and unsalted pasta under a well-seasoned sauce always tastes slightly wrong.

Do not add oil. It floats on the surface, does nothing to prevent sticking, and coats the pasta as you drain it so the sauce slides off. Stirring in the first minute is what prevents sticking.

The method

1. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil.
2. Add the pasta and stir for the first thirty seconds, while the surface starch is at its stickiest.
3. Start tasting two minutes before the packet time. Packet times are consistently a little long.
4. Reserve a mugful of the cooking water before draining. This is the step to build a habit around.
5. Drain the pasta about a minute before it is done — genuinely underdone — and never rinse it.
6. Tip it into the pan with the sauce over a medium heat, add a splash of the pasta water, and toss vigorously for that last minute.
7. The starch and the fat emulsify into a sauce that clings. Add more water if it tightens; it should look glossy, not dry.

Why the pasta water works

Pasta water is starchy and salty. The starch acts as an emulsifier, letting fat and water combine into a smooth sauce that coats each strand instead of sitting in a pool at the bottom of the bowl.

That is why carbonara, cacio e pepe and a simple aglio e olio all depend on it — in each case the "sauce" is largely fat and water held together by starch. It is also why finishing in the pan matters: the tossing is what does the emulsifying, and pouring sauce over drained pasta cannot achieve it.

The pasta also absorbs sauce during that final minute, which is why it is drained early. Pasta cooked fully and then sauced tastes of pasta with sauce on it; pasta finished in the sauce tastes of the dish.

Shape and sauce

Long thin — spaghetti, linguine

Oil-based and light sauces that coat. Carbonara, aglio e olio, clam sauces.

Long ribbons — tagliatelle, pappardelle

Rich meat ragùs. The broad surface holds them.

Short tubes — penne, rigatoni

Chunky sauces with pieces that lodge inside. Baked dishes.

Twists — fusilli, casarecce

Pesto and anything that needs somewhere to catch.

Small shapes — ditalini, orzo

Soups and brothy dishes.

Shells — conchiglie

Sauces with peas, beans or small pieces that sit inside them.

Common questions