The most annoying part of cooking pasta is having it boil in the saucepan. only to have it clump up into a ball after you drain the water out – completely stuck together. But pasta doesn’t always have to come out that way, and there’s a simple trick for making pasta cook perfectly al dente every single time you boil it. So what is that simple trick?
How to Keep Pasta From Sticking
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, you’ve probably heard of a little tip called adding olive oil to the water while it’s boiling. While it sounds good in theory, this isn’t actually true and it doesn’t help keep the pasta from sticking. What it does do, is coat the pasta and makes it more difficult for the pasta sauce to stick to it after cooking.
Now on to making your pasta as unsticky as possible! The big, giant tip that will help you cook your pasta as perfectly as possible every single time that you try is… (drumroll please)… cook time. It’s true. The biggest solid factor in cooking your pasta without it becoming sticky is how long you cook it.
Pasta cooked al dente (the authentic Italian way) should be slightly stiff. So, to get it to taste right and to not stick, it’s important that you don’t overcook it. Basic pasta that’s been dried and comes from a box should have a cook time of between 8-12 minutes. To be safe, it’s always a good idea to start taste testing your pasta 2-3 minutes before you think it’s done. Test it again once every minute after that until the pasta reaches perfection.
Once the pasta is finished cooking, immediately drain the water, since letting it sit in the water for longer will allow the pasta to cook further and soak up more water, making the pasta gummy and sticky. Once you drain the pasta, toss in the pasta sauce quickly.
Even though it seems like simple advice, adjusting the cook time of your pasta will help avoid any stick pasta mess – all without having to add in extra olive oil! Do you have any tips for how to keep pasta from sticking together when you cook it? Share it with our readers in the comments!
