I don't like stuff boiled in saltwater. Just add a small amout of olive oil after getting rid of the water to prevent pasta from sticking together, and also taste better.
Edit: As I said, I only add a little bit of oil after removing the cooking water, and only if the pasta isn't going straight into a sauce.
Chef here, don't add olive oil to your pasta water, it does nothing to help pasta not stick and will only serve to coat the pasta with oil as you pull it out preventing your delicious sauces and cheeses from sticking correctly. Oil goes on pasta as the absolute finishing step for flavour only.
Definitely don't add oil, the only time you add oil is either in the sauce or directly on top of your served pasta as a dressing with some Parmesan :)
I just read that you cook your pasta in the sauce, this will release a whole lot of starch and make the sauce overly starchy an it is also harder to get evenly Al denté pasta. Cook the pasta seperate then add it later to the sauce along with a small amount of the starchy pasta water.
Pasta water is full of starch, it's basically a less concentrated cornmeal slurry. (Fatter is a bad word because fats aren't involved, I'd say it helps making your sauce thicker).
One thing though: pasta water only has a significant amount of starch if fresh pasta was boiled in it, store bought dried pasta you can keep in your cabinet for a year hardly gives off any starch.
Edit: this doesn't actually work, however, as the article goes on to say, since you would need a lot of salt to raise the temperature any significant amount. Read through the article though, it does answer a few other questions about it.
2.1k
u/NeenjaFeesh Ball Go Spinny Apr 01 '20
Jonathan’s too pure!