Spotlight Series: Saucing And Serving Pasta Like A Pro
Spotlight Series: Saucing And Serving Pasta Like A Pro
Behind every great pasta dinner is a great sauce. An incredible pasta sauce isn’t just about its flavor or list of ingredients, but how the sauce and pasta come together. Whether it’s a simple tomato sauce or a decadent cream sauce, sauces truly shine when introduced to pasta in just the right way. How a pasta is served is all the difference between cooking an authentic Italian meal and simply preparing Italian ingredients. This guide will teach you how to sauce pasta for the perfect meal.
The Right Way To Sauce Pasta
Heat Your Sauce First.
Keep the sauce on a low simmer until the pasta is ready. Do not let the pasta sit while you are waiting for your sauce to cook. This will lead to overcooked, overly starchy pasta.
Cook Your Pasta for Al Dente Texture.
Aim for al dente texture when cooking your pasta. Cooking pasta is not an exact science. Be sure to continually check your pasta for doneness before the specified done time on the box—about 1 minute or so prior. Al dente is when the pasta is tender but with a yielding bite, or slight chew to it.
Transfer Your Cooked Pasta to Your Sauce in the Pan.
First, in authentic Italian cuisine, the sauce is always tossed with the pasta before it ever hits the plate. Just before the sauce is done cooking, the hot pasta is added to the saucepan. Generally speaking, we recommend cooking the pasta in the sauce together for about 1-2 minutes. Cooking them together helps to coat the pasta and to marry the flavors. There should only be just enough sauce to coat the pasta, not drown it.
Add the Reserved Pasta Water.
Add the reserved pasta water to the saucepan just after the hot pasta is added to the sauce. When adding this hot pasta water, be sure to do it a little bit at a time until you get the desired consistency.
Cook Hard and Fast.
Cook pasta as quickly as possible to prevent it from sitting too long in the starchy pasta water. Only add pasta to the pot once the water is boiling vigorously. Adding pasta too soon or leaving it in the water too long can make the pasta mushy, unevenly cooked and even sticky.
Adjust Consistency
Reserved pasta cooking water is hot and starchy making it perfect for adjusting the consistency of your pasta sauce. For thicker sauces, use pasta water to make the consistency thinner and lighter. For oil-based sauces, use pasta water as a binder to help sauces coat the noodles.
Serve Immediately
Once pasta and sauce comes together, serve immediately. Don’t give your noodles a chance to get mushy. Enjoy pasta dishes while they are hot.
The Right Way To Serve Pasta
Get Your Portion Size Right.
Whether you’re making a pasta dish for yourself or a crowd, it is important to know how much pasta to cook. The recommended amount of dried pasta is 2 ounces (56g) per person, which equals about 1 cup of cooked pasta. This is best for a meal where pasta is a side dish or accompanying the main event. For pasta as a full entrée, double the amount to 4 ounces. These are great guidelines, but consider the guests and the heartiness of the sauce. You may need to tweak the amounts a bit.
Adjust the Serving Method.
Presentation can make all the difference when it comes to serving up a great pasta dish. For long cuts of pasta, like spaghetti and fettuccine, use a large fork to twirl the pasta against the surface of the plate. For short cuts of pasta, like penne and rigatoni, serve pasta using a pasta fork or a large spoon.
Plate in a Shallow Dish or Bowl
Consider the cut of pasta and sauce when you are deciding how to plate your pasta creation. In general, pasta dishes are best served in wide, shallow dishes or deep bowls depending on the characteristics of the dish. This is because they allow plenty of room for twirling long pasta noodles, while showing off the whole pasta dish—sauce, toppings and all. This allows for a better distribution of ingredients and pasta in every bite. For heartier pasta dishes, like meat ragù and lasagna, deep bowls are best for containing these chunkier, heavier meals and keeping them warm.
Garnish with Cheese and Fresh Herbs.
Once your pasta and sauce are married together in the saucepan, remove it from the heat. Now is when you stir in grated cheeses and sprinkle with fresh herbs. If you add the cheese while heating the sauce, the cheese has a tendency to clump up in thinner sauces. As for the fresh herbs, they are most flavorful when they are raw, so adding them to a cooking sauce will only dull their aroma. Add fresh herbs to the pasta dish as a finishing garnish after the sauce is done cooking.