TIPS AND TRICKS FOR COOKING PASTA

You can prepare pasta up to 24 hours in advance. To do so, follow these instructions:

• Cook it for half the time recommended in the package instructions.

• Then, drain the pasta and spread it out on a cooking sheet and allow it to cool.

• When it is cool, toss the pasta with extra-virgin olive oil—aim for approximately 1 teaspoon of oil per pound of pasta.

• Then, put the pasta in an airtight container or Ziploc bag and refrigerate.

• When you are ready to start making your dish the next day, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the pasta and allow it to cook for approximately 1 minute.

When you finish boiling your pasta, don’t pour all of the water down the drain. Set aside one cup and add it to your sauce as you mix in the cooked pasta. A little cooking water can take sauce from “too thick” to “just right” without diluting the deliciousness. Plus, starch is also saved in the water, which allows the pasta to further cook in the pan with the sauce—giving it texture and flavor at the same time.

Adding oil to the pasta water does not stop pasta from sticking together. Using Barilla pasta and using the correct proportion of water to pasta ratio will prevent the pasta from sticking together.

Barilla pasta is made with the highest quality durum wheat, so it doesn’t release a lot of starch in the cooking water. Pasta that releases excess starch will turn cooking water cloudy and usually results in cooked pasta that is sticky and clumps together.

Pasta provides steady energy.  Cooking pasta perfectly ‘al dente’ (still slightly firm) allows you to reap the full benefits of pasta’s already strong ability to increase satiety, delaying hunger pangs and providing fuel for working muscles long after meals. Due to the special protein structure of traditional pasta dough, pasta has a low to medium glycemic index (GI) value depending on the cut, which means that the body digests it more slowly than most other carbohydrates. To keep the GI value low, cook your pasta to ‘al dente.’

One of the most important things to keep in mind when cooking pasta is that you should always aim to cook it “al dente,” which means “to the tooth” in Italian. Pasta that is cooked al dente maintains pasta’s low-glycemic index value and it also tastes better than pasta that is overcooked and mushy.

We always suggest to use plenty of water when cooking pasta – at least one litre of water for 100g of pasta. Be sure to use a large enough pot to allow the pasta plenty of room to cook properly. The typical procedure for cooking pasta is to bring water a boil, add salt, add the pasta, and cook according to the package directions.