5 Pasta Mistakes Americans Make Every Single Day (The Nonna Way)

Everything in this video, written down — www.lacucinavera.com That cloudy pasta water is not dirty. It is an ingredient. Pasta does not finish cooking in the pot. It finishes in the pan, in the last two minutes, and the only thing that makes a sauce cling instead of sliding into a puddle is the starch the pasta left behind in the water. In nearly every American kitchen that water goes down the drain before the sauce is even started. Nobody ever told you. The short of it: salt the water until it tastes like the sea, about two tablespoons of coarse salt in a large pot. Never rinse. Take a cup of the water out before you drain, then swirl splashes of it into the pan over gentle heat until it turns glossy. Grate your cheese from a real wedge. No oil in the water. Ever. Tell me in the comments whether you saw it turn glossy in the pan, and tell me your county and where your family came from. I read every one. Next time: the difference between a real ragù and the meat sauce you grew up calling one. La Cucina Vera — the whole method written down, 79 pages, nineteen dollars, thirty days to change your mind. www.lacucinavera.com