Wizard Recipes

You can make your own pasta,but even the most devoted and skilled home cooks I know do so just a few times a year. (There are exceptions; you might make Spaetzle, more often, because it’s so easy).

So for the most part you’re going to buy pasta. You can buy fresh, which is available in several levels of “freshness”: At good Italian or Asian markets, fresh noodles are made regularly and are usually very good.

Supermarkets also sell “fresh” pasta that falls somewhere in between fresh and dried; it varies in quality but is usually too expensive and not all that terrific.

Almost everyone buys dried pasta routinely. For most occasions, you want to buy pasta that is 100 percent durum wheat. Ironically, though the flour comes from the States or Canada, the best pasta comes from Italy. Good pasta is easier to avoid overcooking and has a deeper, more appealing color and a texture that grabs the sauce better.

Cooking Pasta

With a few exceptions, you must cook pasta in abundant water; figure a gallon or so per pound (even a little more is better, and you can, of course, use less water and a small pot if you’re not cooking a whole pound). You should salt the water well too-a fistful is about right, but if your hands are small you need more than that (a couple of tablespoons).

It doesn’t matter much when you add the salt.  While the pasta cooks, adjust the heat to keep the water boiling and stir frequently.

If you have problems with sticking, it’s because you either don’t use enough water, don’t salt enough, or don’t stir enough. (And without enough salt, your pasta will be both sticky and bland.) No matter what you learned in college, adding oil to the water will not cure the problem. In fact it’s counterproductive, because it keeps the sauce from grabbing properly.

If your pot is not deep enough for spaghetti or other long pasta, either break the pasta in half or hold the noodles by one end and dunk the other. As the bunch softens, swirl the strands around until they bend enough for you to submerge the whole thing. Or get a bigger pot. Don’t undercook or overcook.

Easy enough to say and easy enough to do: When the pasta starts to soften, taste it; it’s done when it retains a little bite but is no longer chalky. If you cut a piece in half, you’d still see a little hard white bit in the center. At that point, get ready to drain; it will cook a little more on the way to the table and be al dente-literally “to the teeth” or what I call “tender but not mushy”-when you eat it. It doesn’t take much practice to get this right.

Don’t trust anyone’s pasta-cooking times. It varies from box to box and even day to day. Cook by taste and you’ll never go wrong. This holds true for every noodle you make, from fresh egg pasta made in your own kitchen to dried rice noodles from Thailand.

Draining, Saucing, and Tossing Pasta

Have a heated bowl ready; pasta cools quickly, and you want to eat it hot. A bowl from your cool cupboard is going to rob your pasta of heat immediately. It’s best to warm a heatproof bowl with hot water (you can often put it under the colander so that the draining cooking water heats it) or put it in a warm oven while you’re cooking.

Then drain, quickly but not thoroughly: in most cases, the pasta should remain quite moist. (Before draining, dip out a cup or so of pasta-cooking water and reserve in case you need to thin out your sauce.)

It was once true-in fact ten years ago it was true- that Americans ate more sauce on their pasta than Italians. But as scarcity has decreased in Italy, and all but the most traditional Italians have become “modernized,” you see what was once considered oversauced pasta all over the place. So sauce as you like, but for crying out loud don’t drown the pasta.

The real problem is that if a sauce is too thick we overcompensate by drowning the pasta with it, in an attempt to make the dish moist enough. If you have a thick sauce, one that is clumping up on the pasta instead of nicely coating it (or if you don’t have enough sauce), thin it out with a little pasta-cooking water, a tablespoon or so at a time, until you achieve the desired consistency.

This technique is used by most home cooks in Italy, and pastacooking water can be replaced by stock or water you used for cooking vegetables.

Toss quickly; pasta is best when it’s very hot. Don’t worry about solids collecting at the bottom of the bowl; you can scoop them over the pasta after it’s served. Garnish at the last minute. Serve and eat immediately.

The carbohydrates are a vast and diverse group of nutrients found in most foods. This group includes simple sugars (like the sugar you add to your morning coffee) and complex forms such as starches (contained in pasta, bread, cereal, and in some fruits and vegetables), which are broken down during digestion to produce simple sugars.

The main function of the simple sugars and starches in the foods we eat is to deliver calories for energy. The simple sugar glucose is required to satisfy the energy needs of the brain, whereas our muscles use glucose for short-term bouts of activity.

The liver and muscles also convert small amounts of the sugar and starch that we eat into a storage form called glycogen. After a long workout, muscle glycogen stores must be replenished. Both simple sugars and starches provide about 4 calories per gram (a gram is about the weight of a paper clip).

Because carbohydrates serve primarily as sources of calories (and we can get calories from other macronutrients), no specific requirement has been set for them. But health experts agree that we should obtain most of our calories (about 60 percent) from carbohydrates. Our individual requirements depend on age, sex, size, and activity level.

In contrast to the other carbohydrates, fiber (a substance contained in bran, fruits, vegetables, and legumes) is a type of complex carbohydrate that cannot be readily digested by our bodies. Even though it isn’t digested, fiber is essential to our health. Nutrition professionals recommend 25 to 30 grams of fiber daily.

Simple Sugars

Simple sugars make foods sweet. They are small molecules found in many foods and in many forms. Some simple sugars occur naturally in foods. For example, fructose is the sugar that naturally gives some fruits their sweet flavor.

Table sugar, the sugar that we spoon onto our cereal and add to the cookies we bake, also called sucrose, is the most familiar simple sugar. A ring-shaped molecule of sucrose actually consists of a molecule of fructose chemically linked to a molecule of another simple sugar called glucose.

Sugars such as fructose and glucose are known as monosaccharides, because of their single (mono) ring structure, whereas two-ringed sugars such as sucrose are known as disaccharides. Another disaccharide, lactose, the sugar that gives milk its slightly sweet taste, consists of glucose linked to yet another simple sugar called galactose.

The inability to digest lactose to its constituent sugars is the cause of lactose intolerance, a condition common to adults of Asian, Mediterranean, and African ancestry.

The table sugar that we purchase is processed from sugar cane or sugar beets. As an additive to many different types of prepared or processed foods, sucrose adds nutritive value (in the form of calories only), flavor, texture, and structure, while helping to retain moisture.

Today, sucrose is most often used to sweeten (nondietetic) carbonated beverages and fruit drinks (other than juice), candy, pastries, cakes, cookies, and frozen desserts. One of the most commonly consumed forms of sugar is called high-fructose corn syrup.

High-fructose corn syrup is also commonly used to sweeten sodas, fruit drinks (not juices), some ice creams, and some manufactured pastries and cookies. Other forms of sucrose include brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, and turbinado (raw) sugar

Foods that are high in added sugar are often low in essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, these foods are often eaten in place of more nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and low-fat whole-grain products, and they may prevent us from obtaining essential nutrients and lead to weight gain.

Nutritionists are concerned by the enormous increase in sugar consumption by Americans during the past 30 years, particularly because much of this sugar is in the form of soft drinks. On average, teens today drink twice as much soda as milk, and young adults drink three times as much soda as milk.

As a result, their intake of calcium-rich foods is low, a factor that is thought to contribute to lower bone mass. This can lead to an increased risk of bone problems as we grow older.

The increase in sugar consumption also has been attributed to the increasing availability of low-fat versions of such dessert and snack foods as cookies, cakes, and frozen desserts. Often, the sugar content of these foods is high because sugar is used to replace the flavor lost when the fat is decreased.

Sugar promotes tooth decay, when consumed in forms that allow it to remain in contact with the teeth for extended periods. Thus, foods that are high in sugar, or sugar and fat, and have few other nutrients to offer  ans should be eaten sparingly.

In contrast, choosing fresh fruits, which are naturally sweetened with their own fructose, or low-fat yogurt, which contains lactose (natural milk sugar), allows us to get the vitamins and minerals contained in those foods as well as other food components that contribute to health but may not have yet been identified.

On the positive side, there is no credible evidence to demonstrate that sugar causes diabetes, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, or hypoglycemia. No evidence has been found that sugar-containing foods are “addictive” in the true sense of the word, although many people report craving sweet foods, particularly those that are also high in fat.

Pasta has become a weeknight favorite for many cooks; it’s nutritious, easy to prepare, and delicious. Best of all, pasta is extremely versatile. It can be rich and satisfying when combined with meat, light and luscious when tossed with vegetables or seafood, or positively mouthwatering when layered and baked until golden and bubbling.

We use dried Italian-style pasta for most of our recipes, as it is readily available. For special occasions, homemade or store-bought fresh pasta is an excellent choice.

Made with eggs, fresh pasta has a delicate texture that works well with creamy sauces. Dried pasta, made from flour and water, is more economical, lower in fat, and a good match for a wide variety of sauces.

BUYING AND STORING PASTA

For the best taste and texture, buy dried pasta made from durum wheat flour or from semolina flour. Store dried pasta in a cool, dry, dark place for up to one year, but if it is made of whole wheat, store up to six months.

Even though clear plastic pasta storage containers are attractive, do not use them. Light destroys riboflavin, a key nutrient in pasta. We recommend buying pasta that comes in cardboard boxes for the same reason.

Store commercially made fresh pasta in the refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze for up to one month. Homemade pasta can be refrigerated for up to three days or frozen for up to one month. For the best results, don’t thaw frozen pasta before cooking.

PERFECT  PASTA

Cook the Right Amount of Pasta

Most packages list a 2-ounce serving size, but a more generous main-dish measure is 4 ounces dried pasta or 3 ounces fresh pasta per person. The cooked yield of pasta depends on its shape: Four ounces of tube-shaped pasta, like penne, equals 21?2 cups cooked; 4 ounces of long-strand pasta, like spaghetti, equals 2 cups cooked; 4 ounces of egg noodles equals 3 cups cooked.

Cook Pasta in Enough Water

Use at least four quarts of water for each pound of pasta. Cover the pot and bring the water to a rapid boil over high heat. Salt the water, then stir in the pasta.

Be Sure to Salt the Water

Pasta doesn’t contain salt, so it needs to be cooked in salted water to be seasoned properly. If you are concerned about the amount of sodium in your diet, rest assured that only 10 percent of the salt in the cooking water is absorbed by the pasta. The basic proportion is 2 teaspoons of salt per pound of pasta.

Stir Frequently

Stirring ensures even cooking and keeps pasta from clumping together and sticking to the bottom of the pot. Do not add oil to the cooking water; it prevents sauce from clinging to the pasta.

Don’t Overcook Pasta

The cooking time on pasta packages is only a guide, so start checking for doneness before the suggested time and check often. To test pasta for doneness, remove a piece from the boiling water, rinse it briefly under warm water, and bite into it.

When pasta is perfectly cooked, it should be al dente (”to the tooth”) with no raw flour taste and a tiny chalk white center. After it’s drained, pasta will continue to cook from the residual heat and from the hot sauce with which it’s tossed. If the pasta is to be baked, undercook it slightly, since it will continue to cook in the oven.

Drain Well and Don’t Rinse

Drain the pasta in a colander, shaking to remove excess water. Don’t rinse pasta; rinsing cools down pasta and removes both the surface starch that keeps it firm and its essential nutrients. Only lasagna noodles and pasta for salad should be rinsed.

Serve It Hot

When pasta stands, it gets cold and unappetizingly gummy. So call everyone to the table while you’re tossing the pasta. To keep it as hot as possible, return the drained pasta to the cooking pot, which will still be warm, and combine it with the sauce there. Or warm the serving bowl and the individual bowls

The origins of this popular and versatile food are lost in the mists of history; several countries (China, Japan, and Italy, just to name a few) claim credit for pasta. Nearly every country, however, has some pasta variation to claim as its own.

The term “pasta” is used broadly and generically to describe a wide variety of noodles made from dough. The word “pasta” itself is thought to be derived from the Italian word for paste.

The main ingredients in pasta dough are flour-which is usually made from durum wheat and is called semolina-and a liquid. The dough is rolled out, cut or pressed into the desired shape, and readied for sale.

Pasta is sold fresh, frozen, or dried. Imported dried pasta is considered superior to American-made products, mainly because the imported pasta is made with only semolina, which does not absorb as much water and is pleasantly firm when cooked al dente (slightly firm).

What is Semolina? Semolina is a yellow, granular flour that is ground from durum wheat. The word is derived from the Latin “simila,” which means fine white flour. Semolina is made from the endosperm of the durum wheat seed. It has a high protein content.

Although it can be used in a variety of baked goods, semolina mainly is used to make pasta.Pasta also may include other ingredients. Some doughs have a little egg added.

Other ingredients may include soybean and mung bean flour, vegetables (spinach, tomatoes, beets, carrots), gluten, whey, herbs, spices, and flavorings. Color can be provided by vegetable purées or food coloring.

Pasta comes in literally hundreds of shapes, sizes, thicknesses, and colors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, groups it all into two main categories:

Macaroni-This includes just about every pasta shape and size. The FDA requires that macaroni be made from durum wheat flour or semolina. Ingredients such as salt, eggs, and flavorings also may be added.

Noodles-Noodles are generally made with softer durum wheat flours than semolina and contain egg. In addition, the amount of egg they can contain is limited to 5 1/2 percent of weight or less.

The shape and choice of the pasta you choose depend on what you like and how it will be served. A general rule is that thinner pastas are best in soups and stews. Pasta that is curved or tubular is thought to soak up creams and sauces better.

The color and crispness of dried pasta determine quality. White pasta should be slightly golden and translucent, not grayish or cloudy. Spaghetti should have the springiness of fresh twigs. A good-quality flat noodle will fracture in a jagged line when broken and not look starchy. Check fresh pasta for expiration dates.

Dried pasta should be stored airtight in a cool, dry place and can be kept almost indefinitely. Fresh pasta should have a pleasant aroma. It is highly perishable and will keep for several days in the refrigerator and for up to a month in the freezer.

Cooked pasta will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Preparation Tips

Pasta is cooked by adding it to boiling water. If desired, add a pinch of salt for flavor and a small amount of oil to the water. The oil will help prevent the pasta from becoming sticky. Then, cook the pasta until it is done.

Doneness is mostly a matter of taste-how firm or soft do you like it? Many cooks use the term “al dente” in reference to pasta doneness. Al dente simply means cooking the pasta until it is firm to the bite.

Cooking time varies, however, depending on whether the pasta is fresh or dried. It also depends on whether the pasta is made from soft or hard flour. Generally, pasta made from hard wheat flour is cooked longer than pasta made from soft wheat flour. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried pasta.

If desired, rinse pasta with cold water after removing it from heat. Some pastas used in baked dishes-such as lasagna, manicotti, and cannelloni-do not require precooking, but they usually require a greater amount of sauce, which is absorbed by the pasta as it cooks.

Pasta that is cooked for a long time loses slightly more of its water-soluble B vitamins than pasta cooked al dente.

Serving Suggestions

Pasta itself is low in calories and fat, but sauces that are heavy and fatty, as well as other additions, can negate pasta’s nutritional advantages. Fortunately, healthy options abound.

Supermarkets offer a wide variety of reduced-fat pasta sauces or those that are vegetable- and herb-based. Tomato-based sauces are also easy-and quick-to make from scratch.

Simply use several cans of whole, peeled tomatoes, crush them, and then simmer them in a skillet until they turn “saucy.” Add desired seasonings (garlic, pepper, and salt work well) and a small amount of olive oil to the cooking mixture.

Top with reduced-fat cheeses. Pasta is also excellent served cold when tossed with a little oil, vinegar, garlic, and fresh herbs.

Jamie Oliver Cooking Pasta

As I was looking for an interesting story to write, I found this wonderful article that I think everyone will want to read , at least the ones who have 9 to 5 jobs:

As much as I believe in the power of a midday pause, I’m often as guilty as anyone else of dashing out, grabbing takeout and returning to eat in front of the computer. When I’m not brown-bagging it, that is.

It’s not the most healthful approach, perhaps mentally even more than physically. I’ve read about Take Back Your Lunch, a movement started by the Energy Project that encourages workers to reclaim the lunch hour, and of course it makes sense to fuel creativity by stepping away and relaxing, even to see friends or to network. One colleague of mine is the king of the indulgent lunch, giving no thought to cabbing off to Alexandria for the prix-fixe special at Restaurant Eve or taking the Metro to Arlington for a hit of Ray’s Hell-Burger. And he’s plenty productive at work.

Even if I made the time, though, here’s a news flash: My office is nicely air-conditioned, and in the recent triple-digit heat downtown, I would rather do anything than step outdoors, especially around noon. When I head down to The Post’s cafeteria, trying to find something appealing at the so-called Around the World Bar, let’s just say that it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the day.

The compromise? I take the time to cook lunch myself. I should probably put quote marks around that operative verb, because compared with what I usually do at home, this might not exactly be considered cooking. Nonetheless, for someone like me who finds the kitchen the most meditative room in the house, it’s still almost as soothing to cobble together something in our office’s kitchenette as it is to chop, heat, slice and stir at home.

I’ve made a game of it. What ingredients can I bring to work and store in my dorm-size fridge or desk drawers that will last without quickly spoiling (or annoying my office mates); can pack enough flavor to allow me to forgo spices and seasonings; and can be made with the simplest of equipment?

Smoked, cured and/or otherwise fully cooked sausages, herb-brined olives and canned sardines go to the front of the line. Right behind is tomato paste in a tube, which, unlike its canned counterpart, is more convenient for single-serving recipes. Canned beans (I prefer the low-sodium or no-salt-added variety) are ready whenever you are. Instant couscous and angel-hair pasta nests are shelf-stable and cook in minutes.

Best of all, these ingredients can be prepared using the typical appliances in office kitchens.

Truth be told, I do sometimes employ a toaster oven at work, but in acknowledgment of the fact that many offices aren’t as well equipped, I resisted developing recipes for this column that way. Instead, my instruments have been the microwave and teakettle. At home, I use the former for two things: reheating and cooking a potato or sweet potato. At work, its job has been limited to “cooking” — really just heating — toppings for that pasta and couscous.

The teakettle does what teakettles do: boil water, a key step in making instant couscous. I’ve also taken advantage of the fact that angel-hair pasta is delicate enough that once boiling water has been added, its residual heat can get the noodles to al dente in a few minutes flat. I also have been known to “blanch” vegetables such as snow peas, sugar snaps and broccoli using the same technique.

At first, I was a little hamstrung by the kitchen tools, or lack thereof. What passes for a sharp knife in our office would prompt any culinary instructor to launch into a lecture about the importance of cutlery maintenance. And forget measuring cups or a big cutting board.

No matter. A dull paring knife can still handle olives, spinach leaves and sausage. Sardines barely need breaking up with a fork. The container of instant couscous comes with its own measuring scoop, and I found a plastic leftover-food container that has cup markings on the side for the water that will hydrate the couscous. Mostly, measurements aren’t needed; I boil as much water as possible to keep the pasta from getting gummy, and I eyeball everything else.

Preparing food at work comes with etiquette issues, the types of behaviors that prompt those “Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here” signs. I keep things clean enough, but I’ve been worried about those sardines. After all, I’ve been in some offices that specifically forbid fish in the microwave, because the device has a way of carrying the odor across time and space. But with a paper towel over the fish and just enough time to heat the small amount I use, I’ve avoided the wrath of others.

After several weeks of experiments, my pasta with sardines was pungently satisfying, but the couscous-and-sausage concoction was so simple it verged on boring. That’s when another crucial ingredient became mandatory. Now, one thing I always keep in my desk drawer is a little bottle of Tabasco.

I don’t think I’ll be completely satisfied with my workplace cooking, though, until I cross one remaining hurdle. Once the weather cools, I am going to try my darnedest, after I whip up something in our kitchenette, to carry the plate or bowl not back to my desk, but up to a roof-deck patio. And maybe even to invite a colleague to do the same

We should not leave some of pasta’s close relatives unmentioned, even though they are relatively unimportant when it comes to North American menu items.

The overwhelming variety of strange-named Asian noodles intimidates most Western cooks who, until now, entirely disregarded them. But Asian noodles are “in” and we can no longer ignore them.

Even mainline supermarkets carry some of them, and one, ramen noodles became household name. Ramen soup packages are highly popular, inexpensive and most convenient, almost instant, reasonably flavorful soups that appear on many people’s pantry shelf.

Most Asian noodles are no different from our pasta products. They are usually long products made with wheat flour and there is absolutely no reason why you could not substitute similar-shaped pasta for them.

Oriental egg noodles are similar to Italian angel hair pasta, vermicelli or spaghettini (these are all long but increasingly thicker pasta) but the Oriental version includes a small amount of egg. For example, you can use vermicelli or angel hair pasta

when the recipe calls for thin Chinese noodles or ramen noodles.

The Japanese make similar noodles from buckwheat flour, giving a heavy, dark-hued pasta. Some Oriental cuisines even make noodles from mung bean flour. There is no substitute for these types in the Italian pasta repertoire.

Rice flour is the ingredient for rice noodles. They have different texture, color, appearance and mouthfeel than wheat flour noodles of the same shape but if you are stuck in a recipe, go ahead, substitute with vermicelli weight by weight.

You can also use a more commonly available Asian noodles for some odd-named variety a recipe calls for, just like you can substitute one Italian pasta for another in most recipes. The result may not be authentic but the dish will taste the same.

Spätzle is a somewhat more distant cousin, mostly in German and Eastern European cooking (it is called galuska in Hungary and kluski in Poland). Spätzle is really a fresh, homemade irregular-shaped egg pasta, the size of cherries, that look like tiny dumplings. Its blessings is in its quick preparation yet it also tastes good with a slightly chewy consistency of al dente macaroni. Spätzle is so rough and irregular in shape, that it holds sauces very effectively like many tiny little spoons.

With a little experience you can put spätzle on the table in less than 10 minutes. Put the pot of water on to heat and mix the flour, water and egg into a medium-stiff dough, something like a soft yeast bread dough. Form it into small chunks and drop into the boiling water. It is ready three minutes later. Drain and serve.

Experienced cooks can make spätzle with nothing but a small board and a spoon with which they scrape little pieces of dough into the boiling water. But if you are making more than 6 or 8 servings, a spätzle-maker is handy. I came across two kinds.

One is a flat, rectangular shaped metal tool with large holes that looks like a flat grater. It has hooks to hold it firmly on top of a pot. You place some of the dough on top of it while it sits over the boiling water, and scrape it back and forth with a spoon until you press the dough through the holes, then continue with the rest of the dough.

The second type is a food-mill-like tool with a handle that rotates a paddle on the bottom. The paddle presses the dough through holes into the boiling water. This also has hooks to firmly set it over a pot of boiling water. Both are efficient, easy to use.

Italian gnocchi is similar to spätzle but you make it with semolina instead of standard household flour. Italians, who like variations on a theme, add other ingredients besides the flour to cook cornmeal gnocchi, potato gnocchi, ricotta gnocchi to name a few.

Cooking pasta is very easy. So why is it that so many cooks ruin it? The fault is usually the cook’s inattention or his or her poor knowledge of a few basic facts. Pasta needs plenty of boiling salted water, about three times the volume of the dry pasta. A large amount of water keeps boiling while you add the pasta, a crucial factor for ending up with a firm outcome.

If the cook starts with a small pot of water, according to basic laws of physics, the water temperature drops drastically when you drop in the pasta compared to a large pot of water. To help keep water remain in furious boil, add pasta little at a time, not all at once.

Start your timer when the last batch is in the water. Use 1 tablespoon salt for every gallon of cooking water. Cooking without salt gives you a flat-tasting pasta that no sauce can cover up. Too much salt gives a sharp over-salted taste to whatever you mix it with.

Many cookbooks advise you to add oil to the boiling water to keep the pasta from sticking together. This is an unfounded myth. The oil remains on the surface of the water, only making it harder to wash the pot when cleaning up. Pasta won’t stick together if you keep stirring for a few seconds while adding it to the boiling water. After the water returns to a full boil, hang around and give your pot a stir once or twice. Good pasta will remain in distinct pieces.

Never, never cover the pot while cooking pasta. Some of the starch dissolves in the water during cooking, floats on the surface and the water boils over, making a terrible mess of your stove.

Instructions on the package give you a general guide about cooking time, but experience with the same brand is your best bet. When uncertain about cooking time, taste test the pasta near the end to avoid overcooking. Pasta should be cooked to a stage of, as the Italians say, al dente, or firm to the teeth. Fully cooked yet just slightly chewy, like barley grains in a soup.

If you overcook pasta and it becomes mushy, throw it out and start with a brand new batch. Feed the overcooked pasta to your dog. The cat is apt to have more gourmet sense and won’t touch it. As soon as the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander. Good pasta does not need rinsing.

Cheaper pasta with its higher starch may benefit as you remove any remaining surface starch that helps to keep the individual pieces from sticking together. If you serve the pasta right away, shake the colander to remove as much water as possible. Add a little oil, preferably olive oil, to the still-warm cooking pot, just enough to barely cover the bottom.

Return the drained pasta to the pot, thoroughly stir the oil into it and warm it over low heat stirring constantly until most of the moisture has evaporated. Now the oil coats the surface of the pasta and keeps the gelatinized starch of neighboring noodles from sticking together. Within a minute your pasta should be hot enough to serve.

When you are baking a pasta dish like lasagna, which has plenty of liquid in the sauce, you don’t need to pre-cook the pasta. Disregard all such recipe instruction. Just layer the dry pasta with the rest of the ingredients and bake it for the usual time. By the time it is baked, the pasta will be soft and fully cooked. Try this method first with the family, before you serve it to dinner guests, to prove to yourself that it works. It saves an hour of anxiety should you try it on guests.

How do you decide how much pasta to cook? There are a number of kitchen gizmos available to help you measure the appropriate amount. Best and easiest is to weigh it. The average person eats about 3 ounces (85 g) of pasta by dry weight when it is the main entrée. Reduce that to 2 to 2½ ounces (55 to 70 g) when it is a side dish with generous amount of other foods. Take into account the individual appetites of the people you are serving, too.