FOOD NEWS
This Is The Best Time To Combine Spaghetti With The Sauce
By Jennifer Mathews
The right balance of sauce to pasta, as well as combining them at the right time, can be the difference between mere sustenance and a meal so good you hope it never ends. Combining the proper amount of sauce at the right time is a technique that can transform your next pasta dish into restaurant-quality pasta al dente.
It's essential to combine the two components while the pasta is still cooking, and Rachael Ray says that pasta should be undercooked a few minutes shy of al dente when removed from the boiling water. Before straining your pasta, reserve a cup of pasta water, then add the pasta directly to your sauce.
As chef Devan Cameron explained to Mashed, continue to cook the pasta for a few minutes in the simmering sauce, using tongs to move the pasta around and adding a ladle or two of pasta water to bind everything together and create a silky sauce. The pasta will cook slower in the sauce, but it will continue to cook once taken off the heat, so make sure to pull it off before it’s perfectly al dente.