- My friend Dia once confessed that when she makes mac and cheese, she doesn't follow the rules. She said, I know you're supposed to use a big pot of water, and lots of salt, and the water has to be boiling before you can add the pasta, but I just put the
macaroni in water in a pot and I cook it, and it's always fine. Prove me wrong. So, of course, I went to my team and we kicked the idea around. And then they let me loose in the kitchen to see how many pasta rules we can break. (upbeat music) It's easy to think of pasta
as two discreet things, the pasta and the sauce,
but a great pasta dish is about how those two
components come together. What you want is one,
tender, but not mushy pasta. Two, a sauce that clings,
but isn't gummy or goopy. And three, a marriage
of the sauce and pasta. Does achieving these goals
require dropping pasta into a large pot of water
that's salty like the ocean? What happens if I use less water? What if that water isn't
boiling? Let's find out. But before we get to that, a
little intro to dried pasta. Most pastas are made by
forcing dough through a disc with holes in it, called a die. The die determines the shape of the pasta, and, traditionally,
they're made with bronze, but more and more manufacturers are using Teflon coated dies. Dough slips through a
Teflon die more easily, and the resulting pasta is smoother than pasta extruded through a bronze die. Teflon dies reduce wear
and tear in machinery, which is great for these companies, but the resulting pasta
doesn't absorb sauce as well, and it sloughs off less
starch during cooking, which really isn't great for us. Okay, let's cook some pasta. (upbeat music) Let's start with a tried and true method, boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. Here at Cook's Illustrated,
we have a default ratio that works for pretty much any pasta. Bring four quarts of water and one tablespoon of table
salt to a boil in a large pot. That's enough salt to
lightly season the pasta. And that's enough water, even if you're cooking
something like large shells, which take up a good
amount of space in the pot and have thick walls that are gonna take some
time to cook through. I've got a pound of spaghetti here. And now that this water is
boiling, these strands can go in. As these noodles cook,
the water becomes cloudy from starches released by the pasta. Now the cook time and the type
of die used to make the pasta will affect how much starch is released. Whatever its appearance,
that pasta water is useful, and sometimes even critical, for bringing the pasta and sauce together. If you want a reminder to
save that cooking water, just leave a measuring
cup in your colander. I like to cook my pasta till
it's about 80 to 90% done. You can taste for
doneness by biting into it and you're feeling for just
a little bit of resistance. Or you can do what I do,
which is cut into the pasta, and then look for a tiny dot of uncooked dough at the center. Now, when I combine the pasta and sauce, that pasta's gonna finish cooking, absorbing some liquid from the sauce. The sauce is gonna tighten up, but that's where the pasta water comes in. I can thin out the sauce
without cooling it down. And the salt in the water
means that I won't need to drastically adjust the seasoning even if I use a fair bit of pasta water. This ratio, four quarts of
water to one tablespoon of salt, is a great default. You need a large pot and you should expect it
to take 15 to 20 minutes to get that water to a rolling boil. Your pasta cook time is gonna be anywhere between four to 15 minutes,
depending on the shape. And this ratio is especially
great if you're using a sauce that's got lots of body and cling and it doesn't need help from
starches to stay together. I'm talking sauces like
a marinara, bolognese, or a creamy alfredo. But not all pasta sauces have this consistency
and the ability to cling. How do we give them the
extra body they need? (upbeat music) Pasta alla Gricia is one of
Rome's iconic pasta dishes. It is all about pecorino cheese, cured pork, and black pepper. It's also a dish where
the starchy pasta liquid is really critical. Now, Annie Petito's Gricia
recipe starts with guanciale. Guanciale is cured pork jowl. And if you can't get your hands on this, you can substitute pancetta. It's gonna get you that
similar cured pork flavor. We're gonna render this out in a Dutch oven in a little bit of oil. And pulling that fat out of this guanciale is really important. That fat, it's gonna flavor our dish, it's gonna give it that porky flavor. It's also gonna give the
sauce it's silky consistency. While this guanciale is going, I'm gonna start cooking my rigatoni. And instead of the usual
four quarts of water, I've just got two quarts in here. This will give us super
starchy pasta water, which is just what we need for bringing this fatty sauce together. I would normally also use
just half of the salt, because what I want is
starchier pasta liquid, not saltier pasta liquid. But because this guanciale is so salty, I'm gonna skip this salt
altogether for this recipe. I'm also gonna set a
colander in a large bowl. This is gonna help me save
all of that pasta water. (upbeat music) We're done. Alright, let's drain this. (upbeat music) This is just gonna need a few stirs to bring up any fond from
the bottom of the pot. And then we'll just let it simmer. You know how fat and water don't mix well? The starches in our pasta
liquid, they're an emulsifier. And between them and the tiny
bubbles generated by boiling, we're actually gonna be able
to get the fat and water to combine to form a rich creamy sauce. This sauce is looking nice and emulsified, so I'll turn this heat
down, add my rigatoni. And the guanciale. And just give this a nice stir and make sure everything
is coated in sauce. Now we get the pecorino. And I'm just looking
for the cheese to melt and that sauce to thicken slightly. So it usually takes about a minute for that cheese to heat up and melt and that sauce to tighten up. And you just got to be patient. You don't want to be
too aggressive with this 'cause you could break the pasta. This is looking pretty good. I'm going to shut off the heat. And I want this a little saucier, so I'm gonna add a little bit
more of that pasta liquid. Yeah, that's it. We're done. Let's eat. The nice thing about using less water is it takes less time and energy to bring that water to a boil. Your pasta cook time though,
it's gonna stay the same. I really like this method for
sauces that are oily or cheesy because that starch is gonna
help that sauce stay together. Other dishes where you might want to use just two quarts of water are carbonara, aglio olio, or cacio pepe. Alright, let's give this a try. Hmm. These bites are so porky and savory. There's that nice bit of
tang from the pecorino. It's delicious. And the best
part, is it's not greasy. I spent a lot of time
talking about this dish, and if I didn't have all
that extra starch there, that sauce would've kind of
gotten absorbed and broken while we were chatting. But it's not. It's awesome. So we've added pasta to
a lot of boiling water. And we've added pasta
to less boiling water. What happens if we add pasta
to even less cold water? (upbeat music) Starting your pasta in cold
water isn't anything new. Harold McGee, Kenji
Lopez-Alt, Alton Brown, they've all played with this method. And I'll cut to the chase. It works great if you're interested in saving water, time and energy. In fact, I wish I had
known about this method when I developed my
recipe for cacio e uova. Because not only do
you get those benefits, it actually produces the
best starchy pasta water. Here's how it goes. I have eight ounces of
tubetti. Goes right in the pot. This is one and a half
teaspoons of table salt. And last up, a quart of water. Now, I'll just bring that
up to a boil and let her go. The one thing you need to keep in mind is once that water gets hot, the pasta's gonna stick together. So what I want to do is wait until I see steam
rising from the pot. At that point, I'm gonna give it a stir and then a couple more stirs as that water comes up to a boil. Once it gets to boiling, I don't have to worry
about sticking anymore. And now that this has
come to a rolling boil, I want to turn the heat down and cook this pasta at a simmer. There's two reasons for that. One, I don't want it to boil over. And two, I don't want to lose
too much water to evaporation. We're not starting with very much. You can also do a cold
start with long noodles. You just need to use a 12 inch skillet. So while that pasta cooks,
I'm gonna get some lard and lightly smashed garlic
cloves into a skillet, heat that gently, and let the garlic flavor
infuse into the fat. I'm also going to whisk together
eggs, pecorino, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Pasta's cooked and it's
ready to be drained. I'm gonna use that same setup I had before with the colander and the bowl so I can hold on to all that pasta liquid. I'm just gonna ditch this garlic and we'll put this dish together. The tubetti goes back in the pot. And then the lard goes in. And then last up, our
egg and cheese mixture. Now, this isn't much of a looker, but wait till you see what happens when we get the starchy pasta liquid in. I want to add that pasta water
one tablespoon at a time. And I usually need about
a quarter cup all day, which isn't very much, but that's okay because we got a lot of starch in this little amount of water. I think one more spoonful and we're there. (soft music) That cheese is fully melted.
The eggs cooked. Let's eat. (upbeat music) Look at how that egg and
cheese mixture has transformed. It's just lightly coating the pasta. And you can see the sauce on the side is silky deliciousness. Hmm. This is so good. It's like mac and
cheese, but for grownups. There's a hint of garlic.
It's super cheesy. That sauce is nice and silky. It clings beautifully. It's awesome. A cold start is a great
method for cooking pastas that are gonna be combined with sauces that are low on water,
but high on fats and oils. So the next time you want to
combine any pasta with a pesto, it's gonna benefit from a cold start. Also, Teflon cut pastas,
or quick cooking pastas, they're gonna benefit from a cold start because they slough off
less starch during cooking. On the other hand, if you've
got a bronze cut pasta, or something that just
takes a long time to cook, you'll want to begin with more water, so hot start two or four quarts of water. There's no one best way to cook all pasta. So the next time you're
putting together a pasta dish, think about the shape,
think about the sauce, and choose the appropriate method. Tell me about the pasta rules you break. Do they work? Do they really
work? Should I test them? Let me know in the comments below. Links to the recipes in this video are in the description below. And while you're down there, be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe to the channel. For more recipes and techniques, check out cooksillustrated.com. Look at how silky that looks. I'm so satisfied with myself. - [Person Off-Camera] It's my
recipe. Did I mention that? - Did I do good?
