There is a heated debate out there about whether or not you should be rinsing your cooked pasta. For some, this is just what you do: strain, rinse, and serve. For others, rinsing pasta is pure sacrilege.
I myself fall on the latter scale: Why waste all of that amazing starch that will emulsify with some fat into a gorgeous, glossy sauce? When I externed at Soho’s Osteria Morini in New York City after culinary school, pasta was always prepared à la minute (cooked to order) and placed directly from its hot starchy bath right into a pan for saucing.
While I may have a go-to technique, I decided to reach out to some lifelong pasta experts to get a sense if rinsing pasta is quite as detrimental as anti-rinsers say, or if there are some cases where it’s perfectly acceptable.
Italian Pasta: Never Rinse
Beatrice Ughi, founder of beloved Italian-goods purveyor Gustiamo, has never rinsed pasta in her life. In fact, when I asked her about it, she said she has never even heard of the practice.
When she polled her Italian friends, she said, “You can feel the horror on the other side of the world on the telephone. They told me that it has happened, but very rarely in their lives. It’s always due to a mistake, like oversalting the pasta water, or because they’re in a hurry.”
Sergio Faella—the grand-nephew of Gaetano Faella, who opened Pastificio Faella in 1907— responded to the query with a passionate, “No way!”
While some may rinse pasta for a cold pasta salad, he recommends this instead: Cook the pasta in a large amount of water to reduce the starch content, then strain it, wait a few minutes, add some EVOO, then wait a few more minutes. “Good pasta doesn’t do well with those who are in a hurry.”
I also chatted with Vicky Bennison, the producer of viral videos for Pasta Grannies. She said she’s never filmed a Pasta Granny rinse pasta. “I think they’d regard it as a waste of water. Pasta water used to be used for rinsing dishes—that’s how frugal these ladies are.”
So is there a situation where rinsing pasta is actually essential?
I recognize that not all noodles are created equal. That’s why I reached out to my former Serious Eats colleague Sho Spaeth. He’s now an editor at ChefSteps and is working on a ramen cookbook that’s coming out in the fall of 2024.
His rationale for not rinsing noodles is a bit different than the Italians. “Generally speaking,” he said, “you avoid rinsing ramen noodles because it’ll make the noodles cold, and if you add cold noodles to hot soup, the soup becomes tepid.”
That being said, Sho told me that there are circ*mstances where you do want to rinse your noodles, like for tsukemen (dipping noodles). “With tsukemen, you have to rinse away all the starch on the noodles so they don’t stick together when you serve them.”
So Should I Rinse Pasta or Not?
So when it comes to rinsing pasta, in general, don’t waste those precious starches—the Italians sure don’t. If you want to make a cold pasta salad, you could rinse the noodles, sure, but instead, take your time and let them cool naturally with a bit of olive oil. And don’t forget that every rule has its exceptions. Let’s consider this fiery debate settled.
Do Not Rinse. Pasta should never, ever be rinsed for a warm dish. The starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad or when you are not going to use it immediately.
So when it comes to rinsing pasta, in general, don't waste those precious starches—the Italians sure don't. If you want to make a cold pasta salad, you could rinse the noodles, sure, but instead, take your time and let them cool naturally with a bit of olive oil.
To summarize, rinsing your cooked pasta would be detrimental to your final dish because that excess starch is instrumental in providing some structure and flavor to the pasta sauce that you're creating. In fact, that's the logic behind using pasta water instead of plain tap water in a pasta sauce.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy. The pasta will continue to cook in the hot water and become mushy if you leave it in water for too long. How do I keep my pasta from sticking? If you aren't ready to serve the pasta just yet, you can toss the pasta with a little oil or butter to keep it from sticking together.
“You're really just washing off those natural starches that are coming out of the pasta from the cooking, and that's such an integral part of pulling the sauce together,” Adler said. The starch on the pasta is what helps the sauce cling to it.
The only way to avoid having blobs of pasta sticking together is to use a lot of water. This way, the starches will disperse in the water and won't act as glue. You will need one litre of water for every 100 grams of dry pasta.
Whilst you won't catch any self-respecting Italians adding olive to their pasta water, it's a different story once the pasta is cooked. Italians often use olive oil (specifically extra virgin olive oil) to dress cooked pasta.
Whether you are Italian or Chinese, to properly cook pasta the water needs to boil with some salt and then only will you. put the pasta in the water. If the water is very hot it will not take long for the pasta to be cooked. Put some cold water after in the strainer so the pasta will not stick together.
Pasta cooked in cold water will be mushy, soft, and overcooked. The heat from the sauce will continue to cook the pasta & further ruin the look of the whole dish. On the other hand, if you put the pasta in boiling water, it speeds up the cooking time as well as improves the look and taste of the final dish.
As most chefs and home cooks know, when you drain your pasta, it's a good idea to keep back a cup of the cooking water to add to the sauce. Not only will this thicken the sauce, but it will also help it to stick to the pasta.
For the love of God, please don't confuse pasta water with any of these.) Because pasta is made of flour, it releases starch into the cooking water as it boils, creating a white, cloudy liquid that we often deem “dirty” and then dump down the sink. Big mistake.
A small amount of fat—extra-virgin olive oil or butter—is essential to good pasta sauce texture. Without fat, you have at best watery sauce (nobody has ever said, "Waiter, my pasta is not quite wet enough"), and at worst sauce that over-thickens with starch alone and takes on a pasty texture.
Rice and pasta can contain bacteria whose spores survive the cooking process. If boiled rice or pasta are left out at 12-14o C for a long time (more than 4-6 hours), it can become extremely dangerous to eat. At this temperature the spore producing bacteria can form heat resistant toxins.
The word 'pasta' is an Italian word meaning 'paste', referring to the paste that pasta dough is made from with egg or water and flour. However, before Italian pasta as we know of, was all over the world, pasta was called 'maccaronaro'.
When boiling pasta, you may notice that the water becomes progressively cloudy as it cooks. This is excess starch released by the pasta and it's the reason you should save some of the water before draining. The starch acts as a binder and, when combined with fat like butter or oil, creates an emulsion.
Rinsing it can remove the starch that makes your pasta sticky, but it also cools off your pasta and makes it hard for the sauce to stick to your pasta, too. Skip the rinse!
Cover your pan with a lid to help bring the water up to the boil more quickly, then remove the lid once the water is boiling or reduce the temperature slightly to stop it bubbling over. Add the pasta to the water once it's boiling, never before, and cook without the lid.
Introduction: My name is Aracelis Kilback, I am a nice, gentle, agreeable, joyous, attractive, combative, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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