Hacker News Reader

Comment by mgaunard | Hacker News Reader

One interesting aspect of pasta sauces is that the amount of starch they need is usually incompatible with the recommended amount of water to boil the pasta in, and if you use less water, your italian friends are going to complain.

Cheating by adding some starch is the right approach, and works much more reliably.

View on HN

Why do we need so much water when cooking pasta, is it even correct? I know pasta tend to stick if you have less water, boiling hard with lots of water alleviates that, but so does some stirring.

> It turns out that not only do you not need a large volume of water to cook pasta, but in fact, the water does not even have to be boiling.

https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boi...

Use a short wide pan and just barely keep the noodles covered. You will get better pasta, easier cacio e Pepe and reduced energy costs related to pasta.

You will, but italians will insult you for not respecting the 1 liter per 100g of pasta rule.

In practice, cooking it like a risotto is actually a great approach.

I heard this a lot but when I actually try it like go describes my pasta gets mushy and mealy - what am I doing wrong?

temperature too low?

Pasta being overcooked. Also may be using lower quality pasta.

I’m Italian, and I don’t have any insults for you until you overcook your pasta or cook it unevenly.

Not sure about the energy costs: surely a short wide pan dissipates more heat than the classical pasta pot.

You could be right but if you do it in a large pasta pot so only put in enough water to cover the noodles. No more. Add more if needed as the noodles soak the water.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com