How long do you cook pasta?

Morning Glory said:
I certainly agree with that.

I'm seriously thinking I must be wrong about this. Either that, or I'm and old school Brit with a dubious taste in pasta! Talking of Brits, Yorky cooks pasta sometimes (I think he can only get one sort where he is). I am wondering how long he cooks it?
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We can get three or four different pastas, dried in bags. It says put in boiling water for 8 minutes. I usually reduce that a little.
 
garlichead said:
How would you know if the pasta was too al dente from a TV program? Everyone has a different interpretation of the term and why there's so much conflict. I've only ever had 1 complaint that the pasta was too al dente over the years, and this was in a high end Italian restaurant and I was the pasta chef 30 years ago. We all in the kitchen disagreed at the time, but I cooked the person a new pasta and I cooked it longer. There is a standard, but not everyone will agree. We'll not solve this with words unfortunately, except I'm pretty sure 20 minutes pasta doesn't exist in Italy. :)
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20 minutes sounds pretty extreme. I'll give you that. I can't think of a time I've cooked any pasta that long, other than a baked dish, like lasagna. I've never boiled pasta that long.

As for the TV chefs, they talk about pasta being served al dente, where I pull my pasta out of the water at al dente, to finish cooking in the sauce. That is my understanding of cooking pasta, and that's how I like it.

Pasta cooks from the outside in to the middle gradually -- dried pasta at a slower rate then fresh, obviously. When I serve my pasta, I want it to be cooked through, all the way. I don't want it to "feel" uncooked in the middle in my mouth.

CD
 
garlichead said:
On a personal note regarding the doneness of pasta in general. There is a window which I believe I'm close to the standard interpretation based on my experience working in restaurants and serving pasta for a while that a pasta can go from too al dente to overcooked in a fairly short window, and like I said earlier the need to adjust for further cooking in the sauce needs to be considered. Saying that, the window is in and around 90 seconds from my experience for executing consistency that is repeatable. Generally hard pasta is in the 8 to 13 minute window depending on the shape and density of the pasta. Bowtie is my nemesis......all the pasta squeezed into the middle makes it impossible lol...Cheers.
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I agree with that. I am not that precise. I just test my pasta often when it is close to being done (I pull a piece and eat it).

CD
 
garlichead said:
Yeah, Toronto in Ontario Canada has a large Italian population with over 1/2 million. Apparently the 4th largest in the world. Italian food has always been popular and well understood in Toronto.
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NYC has a few Italians. :wink:

Bearing in mind that Italian Americans, and I'm sure Italian Canadians, have changed the food over the years of living in North America. That is to be expected -- food evolves.

Being from an Italian American family, I grew up eating "Immigrant Italian."

CD
 
caseydog said:
NYC has a few Italians. :wink:

Bearing in mind that Italian Americans, and I'm sure Italian Canadians, have changed the food over the years of living in North America. That is to be expected -- food evolves.

Being from an Italian American family, I grew up eating "Immigrant Italian."

CD
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It sure does, more than Toronto. Italian food is iconic in Toronto and you can't get much by them when it comes to the cuisine.
 
caseydog said:
20 minutes sounds pretty extreme. I'll give you that. I can't think of a time I've cooked any pasta that long, other than a baked dish, like lasagna. I've never boiled pasta that long.

As for the TV chefs, they talk about pasta being served al dente, where I pull my pasta out of the water at al dente, to finish cooking in the sauce. That is my understanding of cooking pasta, and that's how I like it.

Pasta cooks from the outside in to the middle gradually -- dried pasta at a slower rate then fresh, obviously. When I serve my pasta, I want it to be cooked through, all the way. I don't want it to "feel" uncooked in the middle in my mouth.

CD
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Yes, there is a point that the core is still uncooked and can be detected by sight but the better and easier method is feel. Lifting pasta where the core is still a little raw translates into a stiffness that is detectable and becomes recognizable immediately and signals to let it cook longer. There after will be a time where the pasta is lively but relaxes with ease, after that point the pasta become more limp and lifeless, that could be considered overcooked especially if the pasta dish in question has few ingredients and where the actual pasta is more of the star of the dish like in for example spaghetti aglio olio. It's so hard to explain exactly the feeling of al dente pasta, but when you taste the difference you'll agree that there is a time where the pasta is alive and can stand on it's own.
 
caseydog said:
As for the TV chefs, they talk about pasta being served al dente, where I pull my pasta out of the water at al dente, to finish cooking in the sauce. That is my understanding of cooking pasta, and that's how I like it.
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The thing is, that the most usual way I make pasta with a sauce is to make the sauce separately, then add pasta to the sauce and briefly toss it. No 'cooking in the sauce'. So the pasta needs to be cooked how I like it before it goes in the sauce. The only exception is if I make a baked pasta dish (which I think you would call a casserole).

I believe that the majority of Italian pasta dishes are made by adding pasta to sauce just before serving. I've gleaned this by watching Italian chefs on TV (not American Italian chefs) plus lots of reading of Italian cookery books. In fact I am beginning to think that American Italian pasta dishes are in some ways rather different from European.

The upshot of this is that it may be you do in fact like your pasta the same way as I do! My personal preference seems to agree with your statement that you: 'want it to be cooked through, all the way. I don't want it to "feel" uncooked in the middle in my mouth'.
 
I like my pasta a bit more cooked than al dente, so I always leave it on an extra minute or 2. Thankfully for me, most italian restaurants in Portugal don't get the meaning of al dente and they cook the pasta a bit more, which is more to my liking.

I know al dente is supposed to be the way to go but you couldn't get away with serving al dente pasta to anyone in my family.
 
Depending on what shape I am cooking I start to check it about 2-3 munutes before I think it should be done for my intended application. Just to be safe. I eat a piece and when Just cooked through, no crunch or raw pasta taste, I take it out and move on to the next step.
 
I never cook dried pasta for more than 10-12 minutes. i do like pasta somewhere around the slightly al dente stage.

In fact the only time it is longer is when it's one of the protein pastas that seem to stay uncooked much longer and need perhaps 14-15 minutes.

I guess the only exception is lasagne which always seems to be overcooked to me, but nicely so.

gnocchi on the other hand seem to need slightly longer than when it floats... I usually add a minute or two to the cooking time.
 
Morning Glory said:
What type do you mean, for example?
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perhaps they haven't arrived in the UK, but that's actually what they are called. pasta made with lentil floor, chickpea flour, pea flour and other legumes, so you actually get 25g of protein per portion.

This is one example
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/619426/san-remo-pasta-pulse-penne

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74302
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
perhaps they haven't arrived in the UK, but that's actually what they are called. pasta made with lentil floor, chickpea flour, pea flour and other legumes, so you actually get 25g of protein per portion.

This is one example
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/619426/san-remo-pasta-pulse-penne

View attachment 74301

View attachment 74302
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Yeah - loads of them here. I've some in the cupboard. I thought that was what you might mean but because there are more traditional types of dried wheat flour pasta containing egg (which is protein), I thought I'd ask.
 
Morning Glory said:
Yeah - loads of them here. I've some in the cupboard. I thought that was what you might mean but because there are more traditional types of dried wheat flour pasta containing egg (which is protein), I thought I'd ask.
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the same brand egg pasta comes in at 16g of protein per serving (same size).

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