How can I keep pasta from sticking to itself?
Whenever I boil pasta (specifically spaghetti), it always sticks to itself before I'm ready to use it. What can I do to avoid this without it becoming mushy (which happens if I keep it in the water)?
Of course, if I happen to have the sauce done by the time the pasta is ready and am ready to serve it, I can immediately add the sauce and it's a moot point. But I inevitably screw up the timing and have the pasta sitting there cooling, and then it becomes impossible to separate...
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You can use a little olive oil in the water, and it is not full of calories. In fact Evoo is good fat. Next if you want the pasta sauce to stick to the pasta, keep a bit of the pasta water after, drain it and pour back in the water and mix in sauce. Also, the pasta that is pre-packaged in the deli section is major easy to cook. Boil the water, when it boils you'll add the pasta. Usually it cooks really fast. Just watch it, and certain ones will boil and lay on top of the water. Done. Taste is also the best way. Happy Cooking, Ciao!
To keep pasta from sticking, stir it for the first couple minutes of cooking. The sticking is due to the starch that is released during the first stages. Adding oil will make it impossible for your sauce to stick to the pasta.
A couple References:
Fine Cooking article
Serious Eats article (under "A Sticky Situation").
I think it has to do with the region.I made sauce and spaghetti last night and you could cut it like cake.I went back home to Texas last Oct and made spaghetti there, it was loose and not sticky.For me I say it is the altitude,humidity or who knows?
Update: I just tried something else that worked very well for me.I cooked a serving of spaghetti noodles for 2 that turned out just right.It came to me that our city water is so bad that we have our drinking water delivered every month so may be it is the water.So.I used bottled water to make a batch using a cheaper brand of pasta.It turned out beautifully,separate and not sticky at all.I let it cool down and it is still just right.I solved my sticky problem and hope it would work for anyone else that needs help.I guess it is the region in a way because we have good water where I am from in Texas.
One more thought: if you are making your own fresh pasta, be fairly generous in the amount of flour you toss it in while it is waiting around before you boil it. This will dry out the surface a bit and reduce sticking when you add it to the pot. Shake off most of the excess flour before adding it to the pot.
You really don't need oil to keep your pasta from sticking.
The water that you used to cook in has a lot of starch in it from the pasta. When you go to drain your pasta, you can reserve a small bit of the water you cooked your pasta in. When the time comes to serve, simply pour and stir the reserved water over the sitting pasta. Not only does this help prevent stickiness, but it also warms your pasta again after sitting for 5-6 minutes, or however long you wait to serve your meal.
If my spaghetti has been sitting in the colander (usually in the sink) and has begun to stick, I just turn the hot tap on a bit and stir it up. Seems to unstick it easily enough.
According to this answer you could add a little lemon juice to the water to make the pasta less starchy, and so less stickier
Italian here :) I know that the oil is a well known trick everywhere ... but Italy. The main problem about pasta is that people just tend to cook it too much. The cooking time for pasta should be between 8 and 12 minutes, above this number it will be sticky. Spaghetti is the quickest kind of pasta to get ready, so just cook it around 8-9 minutes and it won't stick.
Cooks Illustrated ran an article on this a long time ago. Their trick, which I used regularly with great success for fresh pasta is to use lots of water. For a pound of pasta they used four quarts of water. They also added salt to the water, but no oil. Oil changes nothing but the flavor. Stir during cooking also to help prevent any sticking.
If you are working with fresh pasta that has been coated with flour while making it to prevent the fresh pasta from sticking to itself, make sure to rinse your pasta after cooking while in the colander to prevent it from becoming a gluey mass.
The best advice I have is to not overcook it. I used to overcook my pasta way past al dente. If the pasta doesn't have a slight chew to it when you strain it, you've cooked it too long. The pasta turns mushy once its past al dente causing it to stick to itself.
Cooked pasta has a layer of sticky starch on it, when it cools down, it will make it stick to whatever is adjacent to it. If it's pasta, the pasta will stick together. If you add oil, the pasta will not stick to itself, but on the other hand, you'll get a bunch of oil on the pasta, not very nice!
The proper way is to add your sauce to the pasta immediately, making the sauce stick to the pasta. This serves two purposes:
I. The pasta doesn't stick to itself.
II. You get yummy sauce sticking on the pasta, otherwise, the sauce and the pasta will become "separate".
You may add a little oil (olive) to the boiling water, and just keep stirring the spaghetti while it boils. Oil will stick to the pasta while boiling and keep it from sticking, but the most important thing is the stirring.
I am a 65 year old that has cooked more than 50 years and can tell you that region makes a big difference in if your spaghetti is sticky or not.I have tried all the tricks and use Barilla pasta but nothing makes a huge difference in Illinois.It has to do with the wheat used in making the pasta noodles.I do say Barilla is less sticky than others but a good boil to the water and stirring is the best answer to the sticky pasta issue. I never had this problem in Texas but it is a big issue here for me since I married an Italian who loves his pasta and red gravy.Just as making my famous buttermilk biscuits here.If using any other flour than the one I have trouble finding here my biscuits are no more than hard clods of dough.I say it is all in location.Just use salted boiling water to cook pasta and stir at start several times to lessen the stickiness.
I used to do the same thing a few years ago. I was taught by someone with more skill than me that it is pointless to add oil to the water. Sure enough, I don't use oil now and I cannot tell the difference. Stirring the pasta (especially in the first couple of minutes of cooking) is what keeps it from sticking together.
On a side note: I have read that cooking beyond al dente and rinsing the pasta afterwards both contribute to nutrient loss. I was taught to stir a tiny amount to butter into the pasta immediately after straining to keep it from sticking and to lock in the nutrients.
Don't add oil, it's unnecessary and just adds fat to your pasta.
A better solution is to fix your timing issues by cooking the pasta later. Put the water on to boil before your sauce is done, but don't actually put the pasta in until the sauce is ready to go. Then, lower the heat on the sauce to keep it warm as the pasta cooks (which is only about 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness and cut).
I also add a small amount of sauce to the pasta before serving it, which helps keep things loose once I've plated.
Additionally, as with most things, price makes a difference. Getting higher quality pasta will have an effect on the stickiness of the end product.
If you want good results, you have to toss the pasta with oil or sauce very soon after you take it out of the water. I'd only use oil if oil and parm is your sauce (a little butter is good too), as oil will prevent your sauce from sticking to the pasta.
You could rinse the starch off, but you'll be sacrificing flavor and the sauce might not stick (I'm not sure). Chef Hubert Keller did this on Top Chef Masters (with cold water, in a shower), but he was in a rather unique situation. I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it.
If you're having timing issues, wait till the sauce is done before you drop the pasta. You should be able to hold the sauce at low temperatures for a while (cheese sauces can be tricky, if they get too hot, they break). Mario Batali recommends pulling the pasta 1-2 minutes early and finish cooking it in the sauce.
To avoid the problem of a too cooked pasta, add some drops of lemon juice in the water. Any food acid would have the effect to avoid the pasta absorbs too much water, and gets a glue-like aspect.
I would also add that over the last year or so I've started to cook pasta with just enough water to cover the pasta itself (not the vast amounts I always see being used) - after stirring it initially on a lowered flame, slow boil, the sticking together problem has disappeared....
The problem of adding oil is that you want your pasta to absorb the sauce so that each mouthful has the full flavor. Adding oil coats the pasta with the oil and prevents the sauce from being absorbed. In addition to the previous answer of using quality pasta, I would recommend adding a ladle of the sauce to the pasta as soon as possible, then stirring to coat as much pasta as possible. You can also try reserving a cup or two of the pasta water when you drain it and adding it to the pasta when you see it's starting to clump.
Believe it or not, this is what works for me:
Put the DRY pasta into a bowl with a trickle of olive oil and stir it in order to spread the oil.
Proceed to boil the pasta as usual (add it when the water is boiling).
The idea is that first the oil will prevent the pasta from sticking to itselt and by the time the hot water removes the oil coat from the pasta, it will be half boiled and will not stick anymore.
The upside is that you hardly have to stir it while it's boiling. In fact, I don't stir it at all. I leave it boiling in the kitchen and come back after 10 minutes to drain it.
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