Pasta, boiled al dente
Dried pasta cooked in heavily salted water and lifted out while it still has bite, with a mugful of its starchy water kept back.
Method
Bring the 2 L water to a rolling boil in the widest pan you have, then add the 20 g fine sea salt and let it dissolve.
Add the 180 g dried spaghetti and cook for 9m, or two minutes short of whatever the packet claims. Before draining, lift out a mugful of the cooking water: the starch it carries is what will let the sauce bind. Drain the pasta while the centre still resists a bite.
Used in
- Cacio e PepeSheep's cheese and black pepper worked into a sauce with nothing but the starch of the water the pasta cooked in.
- Spaghetti alla CarbonaraCured pork, sheep's cheese and egg, brought together by nothing but the heat of the pasta and a little of its water.
- Spaghetti and MeatballsBeef meatballs, softened with a milk-soaked breadcrumb panade, simmered in tomato sauce and served over spaghetti.
See also Emulsifying with pasta water.