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One of the reasons I don't like to cook penne pasta is its tendency to stick together while being boiled, and then the stuck-together parts taking longer to soften than the rest. The same often happens with shell pasta; multiple shells stacking on top of each other.
I thought a solution might be to put some drops of oil in the boiling water before adding the pasta, but I don't really want my pasta to come out of the pot oily. (Because greasy and harder to clean.) The first few articles I found on the topic discouraged using oil anyway, as it makes the sauce "slide right off". That's not a concern for me, as I put either margarine (I know, I know; it doesn't have to make sense) or salad dressing on my pasta, not tomato sauce.
The articles advised stirring the pasta right away for a few minutes when putting it in the water. And using plenty of salted water.
So I did that today. I also added the pasta to the boiling water a few pieces at a time while stirring, rather than dumping them all in at once. It took a few extra minutes, but it really worked. They didn't stick together this time.
This page suggests putting the pasta in the water before bringing it to a boil; I'm interested in trying that out too:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/32040/how-to-prevent-orecchiette-from-sticking-to-each-other-while-cooking-how-to-sep
I thought a solution might be to put some drops of oil in the boiling water before adding the pasta, but I don't really want my pasta to come out of the pot oily. (Because greasy and harder to clean.) The first few articles I found on the topic discouraged using oil anyway, as it makes the sauce "slide right off". That's not a concern for me, as I put either margarine (I know, I know; it doesn't have to make sense) or salad dressing on my pasta, not tomato sauce.
The articles advised stirring the pasta right away for a few minutes when putting it in the water. And using plenty of salted water.
So I did that today. I also added the pasta to the boiling water a few pieces at a time while stirring, rather than dumping them all in at once. It took a few extra minutes, but it really worked. They didn't stick together this time.
This page suggests putting the pasta in the water before bringing it to a boil; I'm interested in trying that out too:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/32040/how-to-prevent-orecchiette-from-sticking-to-each-other-while-cooking-how-to-sep
no subject
Date: 2020-07-12 07:48 am (UTC)From:I won't be trying to make a dish like that which absorbs all the water; I'll only be putting the pasta in cold water, then boiling and draining it like usual.
It does usually taste quite good though when you have a dish like that where the pasta absorbs the sauce. I like to use the mini-pasta shapes like stars or orzo, to absorb excess water in stews. They are tiny so they don't take long to get soft. But even those tend to stick to the pot if you don't keep stirring.