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The Absolute Best Way to Cook Pasta, According to Too Many Tests

Absolute Best Tests columnist Ella Quittner is back to tackle noodles.

March 16, 2020
Someone buy me a ruler, please. Photo by Ella Quittner

In Absolute Best Tests, Ella Quittner destroys the sanctity of her home kitchen in the name of the truth. She's boiled dozens of eggs, mashed a concerning number of potatoes, and seared more Porterhouse steaks than she cares to recall. Today, she tackles pasta.


Nobody likes limp, lifeless pasta.

If you donā€™t believe me, you could invite my friend Lauren over for dinner and overcook the bucatini. But donā€™t come crying to me when she gives you her ā€œdente, dente, denteā€ lecture (essentially just a series of emphatic hand motions and a look of blistering disappointment, which is much worse than it sounds).

Or, you could take my word for it, and cook your noodles just until tender with a slight bite, not a moment longer, then finish them in their sauce with a splash of starchy cooking water and finely grated Parm.

Join The Conversation

Top Comment:
“Bring a big pot of water to a boil, add a good portion of salt, add the pasta and bring back to a slow rolling boil - then, wait for it! - turn off the heat, add a lid and let it sit for 7 minutes (or 9 for tortellini). Stir periodically. Drain and dress. Perfection! No broken ravioli, not water logged, perfect texture and any sauce added is not swimming in lingering water. For fresh pasta or dried itā€™s a perfect technique. Iā€™m not a scientist and donā€™t know why but it just works. You must have enough water and room for expansion. Too small of a pot and not enough water will give you mush. ”
— Julie
Comment

But beyond these well-accepted pasta truthsā€”never boil to a mushy pulp, and finish everything togetherā€”the topic of how best to fine-tune your noodle routine starts to get murky as the cooking water itself. Namely, the matters of how much water to add, and how much salt to include.

Some, like the great Marcella Hazan, say four quarts of water are required per pound of pasta. Less, Hazan writes, and ā€œit becomes gummy.ā€ (Donā€™t get her started on salt, a minimum of 1 1/2 tablespoons of which should make an appearance in the water.) Others, including the not-quite-as-great-but-doing-fine me, have touted less water for a starchier output to aid with sauce binding, and more salt for optimal flavor. Still others call for less salt, or even more than four quarts of water per pound.

So when my editor tasked me with tackling how best to cook pasta for Absolute Best Tests, Iā€™d be lying if I said I didnā€™t start to sweat. Wouldnā€™t the nonnas come after me? Or worse, the Twitter users?

After some deep breathing and a gentle reminder that Iā€™d be allowed to eat nothing but spaghetti for two days, I set out to find the ideal amount of water and salt per pound of dried pasta, plus a few miscellaneous factorsā€”oil in the water, or cower in shame for even suggesting it? Please enjoy the results of my tests, brought to you by the consumption of many grams of carbohydrates, and several non-pressing microplane injuries.

(Psst: If youā€™re looking for a guide to making fresh pasta, head here.)


Controls

For all tests, I used the same brand of boxed dried noodles. Shape-wise, I went with spaghetti for ā€œSaltingā€ and ā€œOther Factors,ā€ and rigatoni for ā€œWater Quantity,ā€ and for reasons only marginally relevant to this sentence, Iā€™d like to link you to my favorite pasta-shape comic.

I salted with Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which I added once the water was at a boil, as Iā€™m terrified of pitting my pots. All noodles were cooked 2 minutes less than the box suggested for al dente, then finished for 2 minutes in their sauce with 1/4 cup cooking water, which was intended to test each batch of waterā€™s ability to help the sauce bind to noodles. With that out of the way ...

What if the noodles were tiny individuals and the cheese were their hair??? Photo by Ella Quittner

Salting

If we the people of Absolute Best Tests have learned anything in our maniacal experimentation, itā€™s that seasoning is everything. Obviously, this applies to dried pasta, which swells to fill with cooking liquid as it boils. I ran three trials, each with 1 pound of dried spaghetti, and 4 quarts of water:

1 Tablespoon Salt Per 1 Pound Pasta (4 Quarts Water)

My only notes from this 1 tablespoon trialā€”an oft-touted amountā€”read ā€œblahā€ and ā€œwhy bother????ā€ I couldnā€™t even taste the salt in an undressed noodle, as confirmed when I tasted it side by side against a batch in which I forgot to add salt (which was eliminated from my results).

To my surprise, almost no sauce clung to the noodles, relative to the test batches with higher concentrations of salt. According to Dr. Robert Brackett, a Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at Illinois Institute of Technology (and therefore much more qualified to speculate than me, who conducted all of these tests in pajama pants I stole from an overnight flight), this makes sense.

ā€œThe stickiness of pasta is primarily affected by starch gelatinization and adding more salt changes the gelatinization,ā€ Dr. Brackett explains. ā€œIt might be possible that lower concentrations of salt may reduce the ā€˜stickinessā€™ whereas ā€˜higherā€™ concentrations may have the reverse effect and cause more stickiness, as you observed.ā€ Got itā€”as if I needed another reason to love salt.

ā€œThere are food scientists that spend their entire careers doing fundamental research to answer ā€˜simpleā€™ questions like yours,ā€ Dr. Brackett continues. ā€œBut as most things in science, the true answer is rarely simple.ā€

Ominous. Letā€™s move ahead.

Salt finally gets its close-up, and kind of blows it by being boring. Photo by Ella Quittner

3 Tablespoons Salt Per 1 Pound Pasta (4 Quarts Water)

These noodles tasted pretty great on their own, and once sauced, were perfectly seasoned. (The sauce on these noodles clung so hard, the whole thing was like a middle school friendship. ) Iā€™d recommend starting with this salt-to-water ratioā€”aka a heaping two teaspoons per quartā€”for 1 pound of dried spaghetti, and scaling up if youā€™re working with a fully unseasoned sauce, for example.

ā€œSalt Like the Seaā€ Per 1 Pound Pasta (4 Quarts Water)

If youā€™ve ever cooked dinner with a confident cheffy person, youā€™re familiar with the imperative to ā€œsalt like the sea,ā€ or ā€œuntil it tastes like the ocean.ā€ (Such people donā€™t have time for specifics!) I ā€œran the numbersā€ on this, by which I mean used the first stat about average seawater salinity I could find, then plugged it into a brine calculator, to determine that for every 1 quart of water, to achieve 3.5% salinity, one would need to add 33.11 grams salt. (So for 4 quarts water, thatā€™d be 132.44 grams salt, which amounts to a sizeable mountain.)

Long story short, the resulting spaghetti was nearly inedibly salty, just like accidentally swallowing while youā€™re snorkeling. I suppose it could be a life hack for those who wish only to dress their noodles with olive oil and garlic, but any quantity of cheese wouldā€™ve taken things over the top. (Note: Subsequently, I came across this piece on Serious Eats, and highly recommend it for a more detailed look at water-saltingā€”it puts my mini trials to shame, with fancy percentages and an embedded chart at the end.)

Had to remind my boyfriend three times not to accidentally drink these. Photo by Ella Quittner

Water Quantity

With a basic salt ratio downā€”about a heaping 2 teaspoons per quartā€”I turned to the next question: how much water to use for 1 pound of dried pasta. I ran three trials, each with 1 pound of dried rigatoni (best pasta shape, I wonā€™t apologize for that take), and a consistent concentration of salt:

5 Quarts Water for 1 Pound Dried Pasta

I chose 5 quarts because the box recommended 4 to 6 quarts, and I had to draw the line somewhere. This water trial obviously took the longest to reach boiling point, which was so annoying that when it was finally go time, I furiously dumped the salt in as if rubbing it into a wound. Iā€™d have been willing to forgive this, were there some other obvious advantageā€”I donā€™t know, amazing mouthfeel? Cash materializing from nowhere?ā€”but the noodles turned out largely like the 2 quarts batch below, minus the extra-starchy water. Meaning for this trial, the sauce didnā€™t cling as well to the rigatoni. Not ideal but not a disaster.

2 Quarts Water for 1 Pound Dried Pasta

My anxieties about this trial (noodle sticking, ad infinitum) were completely invalidated when nary a carby tube stuck to any other carby tube. Despite being sort of annoying to stir with a wooden spoon since things were more crowded, the batch of noodles turned out well, with starchy cooking liquid to boot. The texture of each noodle was standard and pleasant, and not at all engorged or fuzzy like those from the next trial (spoiler!). For the most even cooking, though, Iā€™d recommend starting with closer to 3 quartsā€”especially with larger noodle shapesā€”since the pasta absorbs a great deal of the water as it cooks and with just 2 quarts, some of the noodles will then stick out above the liquidā€™s surface.

Just Enough Water to Cover the Noodles

Speaking of! Iā€™ve written about this method before, in which dried noodles are just covered in water in a sautĆ© pan or skillet, and brought to a boil from cold. The idea is that the cooking water becomes supercharged thanks to a higher starch concentration, which is great for sauces like aglio e olio that largely rely on said liquid emulsifying with grated Parm. However, in these experiments, I found the texture of the rigatoni Iā€™d cooked this way to be unexpectedly gummy, and almost downy. True to form, this method produced the clingiest sauce-noodle combination, but at what cost?


Other Factors

Adding Oil

Pretty much everyone, from Lidia Bastianich to Rachel Ray, cautions against adding olive oil to your pasta water, but here at Absolute Best Tests, weā€™re (Iā€™m) wild!!! Weā€™ll try anything once! Also, I had a childhood neighbor who swore by this ā€œtrickā€ to keep noodles from sticking together, and she was a very nice lady. Unfortunately, this time around, it was a disaster. Always listen to Lidia.

To Rinse or Not To Rinse?

Donā€™t rinse! Youā€™ll lose valuable starch that helps sauce cling to your noodles. I could bore you with the details of my experiments, but youā€™ve got pasta to make, so Iā€™ll let you get on with your life.

POV: your head is on the table because too much pasta put you to sleep. Photo by Ella Quittner

In Summary

For cooking water thatā€™s rich with starch without compromising noodle texture, aim for about 3 quarts per pound, or closer to 2 quarts if you can commit to diligently stirring noodles back below the waterā€™s surface. Do not salt your noodles like the actual sea, but do add about 2 heaping teaspoons Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt per quart of water, and scale up or down depending on the saltiness of your sauce. Finally, wield your microplane with extreme caution.


What should Ella test next? Let us know in the comments, or send her a message here.

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Colten
    Colten
  • AlexisVS
    AlexisVS
  • cyndin
    cyndin
  • Tuan Nguyen
    Tuan Nguyen
  • Sara Sid Bonafede
    Sara Sid Bonafede
Ella Quittner

Written by: Ella Quittner

Ella Quittner is a contributing writer and the Absolute Best Tests columnist at Food52. She covers food, travel, wellness, lifestyle, home, novelty snacks, and internet-famous sandwiches. You can follow her on Instagram @equittner, or Twitter at @ellaquittner. She also develops recipes for Food52, and has a soft spot for all pasta, anything spicy, and salty chocolate things.

52 Comments

Colten July 2, 2023
Thank you for helping people get the information they need. Great stuff as usual.

 
AlexisVS May 13, 2023
Really enjoy your writing, Ella! Great info and very entertaining to read.
 
cyndin June 14, 2021
Next test? How about hummus? Ratios of tahini, lemon juice, chickpeas, olive oil (these aren't just about good vs better but more about regional variation; I like a lot of tahini). Roasted vs raw tahini (raw for me). Fresh vs quality jarred lemon juice (fresh is better but jarred is acceptable). Dried vs canned chickpeas (dried is worth the effort but canned is fine). Texture of chickpeas before mixing (under cooking bad). Texture of hummus after mixing (when I make it slightly chunky, people rave about it, but my daughter wants it silky smooth, which I've grown to prefer). Amount of chickpea liquid to add (if I make it with canned, I add 2 cans of liquid and discard the third, but 1.25-1.5 cans if I'm making a batch without a lot of tahini). Tools (food processor for the win! but there are of course other methods).
 
Tuan N. December 15, 2020
I use the chart from Serious Eats, 1%. Boil 4 quarts per pound, then add in 10 grams https://greensowing.com/ salt per quart after the water boils, then cook to Al dented.
 
Sara S. September 3, 2020
Next one: custard!! (How many eggs, flour, cooking method, etc)
 
Julie August 12, 2020
Thank you for your effort. My son went to Italy 2 years ago and was lucky to take a few cooking classes. His trip has forever changed the way I cook pasta - for the better. Especially good technique for filled pastas (ravioli, etc). Bring a big pot of water to a boil, add a good portion of salt, add the pasta and bring back to a slow rolling boil - then, wait for it! - turn off the heat, add a lid and let it sit for 7 minutes (or 9 for tortellini). Stir periodically. Drain and dress. Perfection! No broken ravioli, not water logged, perfect texture and any sauce added is not swimming in lingering water. For fresh pasta or dried itā€™s a perfect technique. Iā€™m not a scientist and donā€™t know why but it just works. You must have enough water and room for expansion. Too small of a pot and not enough water will give you mush.
 
Deleted A. August 12, 2020
I can see that working very well, it is basically the same method used to hard-boil an egg. It would be perfect for any filled pasta as cooking it at a rolling boil can easily cause some ravioli or tortellini to open and release their contents into the water, as I'm sure most if not all of us have experienced. I would not use this technique with any dried noodles, but as most stuffed pasta is either fresh or frozen, I see it as an excellent way to cook those. Seeing as I just made a pot of sauce, I'll pick up some ravioli or tortellini this week and give it a try!
 
MacGuffin February 19, 2023
The cookbook I used that taught me that technique referred to it as "hard-cooking" rather than "hard-boiling"; it supplied the recipe for the latter as well.
 
Austin B. July 20, 2020
I use the chart from Serious Eats, 1%. Boil 4 quarts per pound, then add in 10 grams salt per quart after the water boils, then cook to Al dented.
 
Marina July 20, 2020
The term is ā€˜al denteā€™, no caps. Itā€™s not about your local councilor, lol.
 
Guy S. July 19, 2020
Did you know that Kenji covered this 10 years ago?

https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boiling-tips-the-food-lab.html
 
Marina July 19, 2020
And pasta cooking will probably be covered again and again by the media. In my experience itā€™s a subject that comes up all the time with consumers on the doā€™s and donā€™ts. And everyone has their preferred method
 
Jeremy H. May 17, 2020
I know it is heresy, but most of the time I prefer Spaghetti with only olive oil and parmesian reggiano. The result is that I get a MUCH better product if I both salt the water, add oil to the cooking water, and cold rinse al dente pasta (because starch is not your friend when you don't have a sauce you are trying to bind). I also finish is good olive oil and then sprinkle cold parm on top. That said, when making sauces, I use both the pasta and pasta water prior to rinsing.
 
John B. April 3, 2020
I Love this site. Science about food is awesome.
 
Gerardo C. March 31, 2020
Samin Nosrat says to salt "like your memory of the sea" since mimicking actual sea water salinity would be unbearably salty as you showed.
 
Scott S. April 1, 2020
Memory. How much salt do you need to remember the sea?
 
Anne J. March 24, 2020
Dear Ella, you are the best, an absolute brick. You spent so much effort and produced definitive answers. Iā€™m particularly appreciative because they sort of validate my slap dash method of preparing pasta, I donā€™t measure exactly but I know the dimensions of my pots so approximation is easy, I use sea salt from Brittany and regulate my pinch according to the quantity of water, had a major, nasty, salty failure two weeks ago, had to trash it sadly. Had my mind on something else, a mistake in the kitchen always. Usually I get a good pasta, firm and sticky for the sauce. Adding oil to the water is something I have seen many Italians in New York do but I donā€™t. You did a wonderful job, you are a patient and enthusiastic woman, carry on with your important work!!! The research and results are valuable!!!
 
Cheri S. March 24, 2021
I concur!!
 
Deborah J. March 21, 2020
Loved, loved, loved this effort. Thank you!
My geese gave me their first egg [172 grams, oh my!] of the season yesterday. Goose-egg pasta is on my radar big time, no-salt in the dough, dried overnight.
CV-19 updates can take a back seat today!
 
Marina March 19, 2020
I adore pasta, I import pasta and Iā€™ve cooked a lot of pasta. I was lucky enough to learn of the traditions passed down from my Nonna from Parma, but the best teacher is just to cook it yourself. I detest overly salted water, so my tip - just taste it. If the water is slightly salted, youā€™ve put in enough. It should not taste like ā€œthe seaā€, thatā€™s too much salt. Donā€™t forget that your sauce and your 24 M grated Parmigiano-Reggiano will add some salt too.
 
Deleted A. March 19, 2020
If you want your sauce to cling to the pasta, use dry pasta that is bronze extruded. I discovered this when I tried Delverde pasta a few years ago and recently came across a Canadian brand of pasta, Italpasta, who also market a line of bronze extruded pasta. This gives the pasta a much rougher texture which really does improve the way sauce adheres to the pasta. I'm sure there are other companies with similar products on the market but I won't buy anything other than bronze extruded now unless I am getting fresh pasta. I think it is really worth seeking out.
 
Matt March 30, 2020
Delverde <3 for some reason my grocer stopped carrying their spaghetti.
 
Deleted A. March 30, 2020
I noticed recently that all their websites, other than the Italian one, are no longer functioning. They used to have both US and Canada websites; both give a 404 error now. I think this may be a sign they are having problems of some kind. That would be a shame because they have an excellent product. At least I came across the Italpasta bronze extruded pasta and I hope that will continue to be available as it is the only other pasta of that type I have found in Montreal grocery stores.
 
Austin B. July 20, 2020
Mine too, Sprouts has started carrying DeCecco instead for 50% more, unfortunately.
 
bobp040653 March 28, 2021
Here in Northern NJ DeCecco brand is the most available Bronze Drawn pasta. Nearly all supermarkets carry it.
 
MacGuffin February 19, 2023
DeCecco is my supermarket pasta brand of choice for that very reason. One of my friends moved to Rome and said it's what Romans use as well, although there's a high-end product that isn't exported (at least not to the U.S.). I've turned my not-in-the-know friends on to it and they're enchanted with the way it holds their sauces.
 
thelastmike March 19, 2020
I find the cold-water/just-enough-to-cover to not work as well for me with thicker shapes like rigatoni. But for elbows or spaghetti or angel hair I dig it. It's also so quick and so versatile. I can measure 4oz pasta and 10oz water and have a large single or small double serving of whatever on the table lickety split. Few pans to wash to boot.
To be clear there is no pasta water leftover from this. I do it as an absorption method.
I do 4cups water to 1lb pasta in a closed system like a pressure cooker and 5cups water to 1lb in an open pan. Dried pasta of course.
I'll cook a little protein. Reserve it. Pasta and water in same pan. Cook. Add whatever for sauce and protein back in to reheat at the end. Done. Simple. Fast.
Sometimes the protein doesn't need precooking and just goes in to heat with the pasta in the latter stage of the cook. For instance a can of tuna in oil goes in with some capers and whatever else I feel like. Leave a little more water at the end for a nice sauce and mount with butter perhaps. A million ways to do it.
Disclaimer: I often add a splash or more of water again at the end to get the pasta just where I want it with just the amount of retained water/sauce I want for whatever I'm doing.
 
d W. March 20, 2020
I am with you on this. I have hung out in Italy and then gone off on my own and done what works best for me. I usually have a time constraint and starting in cold water saves time and using a sparse amount of water is a factor, too. I have recently tried making the long pastas in the microwave containers and love it. They require less water and tap water. I don't' use a lot of salt...a couple teaspoons of sea salt works. When I make alfredo sauce, I use the pasta water and cheese as I learned to do in Italy. I also throw in a little butter to make it richer.
 
thelastmike March 23, 2020
I've never tried the microwave containers. I'll have to give it a go as fast and easy to clean is me all over. LOL. Thanks for the tip.
 
Andrew W. March 19, 2020
Aside from the ludicrous idea that rigatoni is the best pasta shape in a world where radiatore exists, this was a very helpful and informative article. Thank you.
 
Annagon March 19, 2020
Wait, why was adding oil a disaster?
 
Nabeela March 19, 2020
I was wondering the same thing
 
Ella Q. March 19, 2020
It completely prevented the sauce from clinging on to the noodles.
 
Jason C. March 19, 2020
I've found that a 2-2.5% salt ratio based on the weight of the water is actually pretty decent. A quart of water in most of my experience is between 760 and 800 grams, which means 18-20 grams of salt per quart of water, for the ease of math, I've defaulted to the 20 gram guestimate. I like the weight based method, personally, and might see how much 2 heaping teaspoons of Diamond weighs in at for comparison
 
Rekrab82 March 19, 2020
Can you share measurements in Metric as well? šŸ˜£.
 
MacGuffin February 19, 2023
Search engines are your friend.