In a typical South African cooking routine, you cook pasta by taking a saucepan, filling it with water, adding the spaghetti and placing it on the stove. It may surprise you to hear that this system would stun a native Italian. In Italy cooking pasta is extremely specific and once you have used this method you will see exactly why.
The first step is extremely similar, in that you take a pot with water, turn on the stove and then heat it until the water reaches a rolling boil. For expedited boiling, cover the pot with a lid. Crucially you don’t add the pasta in yet.
Once the water is at a vigorous boil, introduce salt to the equation. Salted water takes longer to boil, so adding the salt later saves time. Adding it at the beginning will not change the flavour but will cost you in waiting. The recommended choice here is “cooking salt,” known as “sale grosso,” which consists of coarse, irregularly shaped salt grains. Although fine table salt can be substituted without affecting the flavour, it may require a larger quantity and can be trickier to gauge accurately. It’s important to note that the amount of salt you need to add will depend on individual preference and each individual should experiment.
After introducing the salt, wait for around thirty seconds before adding the pasta. It’s crucial to place the pasta into the boiling water once it has returned to a vigorous boil as doing so earlier will result in a less-than-ideal product.
Follow the pasta’s recommended cooking time as indicated on the package, frequently stirring to prevent sticking. Do not add oil!
Cooking pasta is generally straightforward, but there’s a subtle technique to elevate the dish. Think of pasta as a sponge that absorbs the liquid it’s cooked in. While boiling it in water is perfectly acceptable, an even better method is to cook it in your sauce, infusing the pasta from the inside with those delightful flavours.
Here’s the secret: about a minute before the prescribed cooking time elapses, transfer one or two tablespoons of the cooking water from the pot into the pan where your sauce is heating. Then, strain the pasta, transferring it into the pan with the sauce. Stir the pasta in the sauce, allowing it to complete its cooking process in there. Heat the mixture for one to one and a half minutes, remove it from the heat, and serve your delectable pasta creation.
