Pasta from Scratch: Cooking the pasta

Introduction

The final step to creating a home-made pasta dish is cooking it, which is the easiest and fastest part of the process. After cooking your pasta, you can mix it with sauce, cheese, or eat them plain if that's what you prefer. 

Cooking

First, fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove. Add sea salt to the water to be absorbed by the pasta. Once the water is bubbling, add your pasta to the pot, stirring occasionally. The amount of time needed to cook your pasta al dente, or firm to the bite, varies depending on the type of pasta you are making. Both farfalle and fettuccine take only 2 minutes to cook if the dough is fresh. However, Manuela Zangara says, "Use the cooking times listed in this book as a reference only," (Zangara, 40). Dried pasta will take longer to cook compared to fresh pasta, so that is another important thing to remember. The only way to make sure your pasta is truly done is to taste it. Is it hard in the center? Keep it cooking a few more minutes. Too soft and chewy? It is probably overcooked. 

Draining

If your pasta is al dente, then its time to drain it. You can do this with a colander (food strainer) or slotted spoon. If you are cooking stuffed pasta or gnocchi Zangara recommends a slotted spoon since they are more delicate than other kinds of pasta.

What's Next?

However you choose to eat your pasta is up to you. Sauces and cheeses, whether homemade or store-bought, can be mixed with your pasta as soon as it has been drained. In Zangara's book, Homemade Pasta made Simple, many of the pasta recipes include a sauce recipe if you don't know what type of sauce to pair your pasta with.

My farfalle and fettuccine recipe, unfortunately, was a failure. Both the portions of pasta were rolled too thick which caused me to cook them for over 10 minutes. After draining them and mixing with a sauce and cheese, I can now say that it was the most unpleasant bowls of pasta I have ever had. Yet this will not stop me from trying to make another batch next time! It was a great learning experience and I am glad I did it.

Will you try to make pasta from scratch? If so, what type of pasta would you want to make?

Source:

 Zangara, Manuela. Homemade Pasta Made Simple: a Pasta Cookbook with Easy Recipes & Lessons to Make Fresh Pasta Any Night. Rockridge Press, 2017.