• RichardDegenne@lemmy.zip
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    5 hours ago

    Your pasta stick because of starch. Luckily, they release the large majority of their starch in the first minute of cooking, so stir well during the first minute and make sure there’s enough water in your pot.

  • Eiri@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    Just use whole wheat pasta.

    Stir literally once. No salt, no oil, no additional stirring.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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          3 hours ago

          It depends. If you’re putting the sauce on immediately then you don’t need the oil, but if you’re gonna wait and do it at serving time then I find a light coat of oil is worth it to keep from sticking.

          Granted, I tend not to do red sauces. Pesto and cream-based sauces tend to do fine though.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            I don’t have to fight him. Most of the people in the comments are already doing it.

            I guess to clarify, if you want your pasta not to stick, coating it in oil will stop it from sticking, covering it in telfon would do the same thing. The problem is what are you doing with the pasta after you cook it. You might get away with olive oil if you’re combining it with pesto, but you do that to a red sauce or an alfredo and you’ll end up with a bowl of sauce and oily noodles that did not combine well.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours ago
    1. get water boiling
    2. add salt+oil or stock
    3. then add pasta
    4. boil until it’s not yet mush

    = no sticky

    • kamee@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      Adding oil is a great way to lubricate your pasta so the sauce won’t stick to it…

      • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        It breaks surface tension and stops the water from boiling over. Oil means a lot less watching the pot while I do other things.

        • Axolotl@feddit.it
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          5 hours ago

          Is your pot really tiny or you put too much water? I don’t see how it’s possible that it boills over, only if you negkect it for a lot but at that point, the pasta is ruined too probably

          And oil will not do anything else other than making your sauce not stick properly to the pasta

          • THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            Mine boils over in a large pot because I’m impatient and have the heat too high. The bubbles come up and through the pasta so violently that they use the noodles to ramp out of the pot. It’s somewhat amusing until you get a fat sizzler that won’t stop and you know it’ll be a bitch to clean.

            Alas, it is a consequence of my own actions.

            • Axolotl@feddit.it
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              3 hours ago

              You should tune down the flame/power after it boils, the water will just continue to boil for long (or you can even put a lid and it should boil for a lot more without turning the heat, never did it because i forget to try every time tho, lol)

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I use cheap pasta, never stir and it almost never sticks. I’d hazard a guess that people who are having this happen are not using salt, and probably not using enough water or a big enough pot.

        • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 hours ago

          It is! If you want to get real fancy get pasta that’s bronze cut, it’ll usually have it on the box somewhere up top as a selling point. It makes the pasta edges slightly rougher and makes sauce cling to it more. I forget if Aldi has any like that, but you can usually find it for maybe 50 cents to a dollar more (USD) in other stores. Very low cost, high reward.

          • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net
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            2 hours ago

            UK Aldi, not sure I have ever seen bronze cut used as a selling point on pasta, probably out of my price range.

  • lewiks@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Serious comment on a shitpost community, but the easiest fix I found to pasta that sticks too much was to just buy better quality noodles. The cheapest stuff would stick like nothing else, while Barilla or any pasta cut on bronze dies never did.

      • lewiks@lemmy.world
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        33 minutes ago

        Oh no, absolutely. I realize in hindsight my wording implies that. As someone else commented here, I also consider them the bare minimum. Anything less than that and it’s awful noodles with no sauce adhesion or starch released.

      • PeroBasta@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Italian here. Barilla is considered the bare minimum. Its not a high quality pasta, although they have a bronze cut kind which I never tried.

        • Furbag@pawb.social
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          3 hours ago

          The Al Bronzo brand of Barilla does taste better, imo, but not worth the extra cost. I’ve never had a problem with the regular stuff sticking as long as I salt the pot and stir occasionally.

          • PeroBasta@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Bronze cutting is slower (so less efficient) but being slower make the pasta more “rough” and not smooth. This makes sauce stick more to it

      • Damarus@feddit.org
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        11 hours ago

        It’s absolutely not, they just have a high marketing budget. They didn’t even use bronze dies until they introduced a new product line not that long ago.

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Dissolve about a tablespoon of salt into the water when it starts boiling. This helps the pasta starch causing the stick to break up so pasta doesn’t stick to itself or the pot as much when it’s in.

    Then just make sure the pasta has plenty of room to roll in, not crammed in a small pot. Obviously never put pasta into non-boiling water. Just like noodles.

    If it’s happening on your plate, it’s just too starchy still. Get better pasta.

    • Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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      12 hours ago

      Salt does nothing to “break up” starch, it adds flavour to the pasta. Starch is definitely the reason your pasta is sticking but the fix is to cook it in more water. That said, if you want to use some pasta water in your sauce then stirring more frequently and using less water can be beneficial.

    • kunaltyagi@programming.dev
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      11 hours ago

      Salt is for flavor and you can put pasta in non boiling water. There are several recipes which do that to reduce cooking duration.

      Better pasta, soft water or just boiling till al dente are better solutions.