A Pasta Primer:

Pasta is so omnipresent in our meal planning that 77% of Americans eat pasta at least once a week. Cooking pasta well should be second nature. Yet questions such as "should I oil the cooking water", or "do I need to rinse the pasta after cooking" seem to frequently appear in cooking how to columns. The following is a pasta primer dealing with Western pasta; i.e. pasta made from flour and water.

Marco Polo did not bring pasta to the Western world. Western pasta is first found in Italy, in an Etruscan tomb dated about 1,000 B.C. Today, in roughly the same location, i.e. Parma, the Barilla factory produces 1,000 tons of pasta/day.

It's not a surprise that pasta is ancient; it really is a very simple food composed largely of kneaded flour and water. There are relatively few variations. Eggs or a few flavoring or coloring items can be substituted for some of the water. Traditional substitutions include tomato paste for red color, cooked and chopped spinach for green, saffron for yellow, or squid ink for black.

Pasta comes in two forms - fresh and dried. Fresh pasta usually includes eggs while dried pasta is usually made without eggs; egg noodles being the primary exception.

The best dried pasta is made from semolina. Semolina is coarse flour ground from durum wheat, most of which in grown in the Northern U.S. Durum wheat is a very hard wheat, i.e. it has a very high protein content which allows the pasta to keep its shape after cooking. When choosing boxed pasta, look for 100% semolina or durum wheat on the label. That is a better quality indication than the country of origin, although Italian pasta is usually 100% semolina and American manufactured pasta can be a blend.

If you're buying fresh pasta, or motivated to make your own pasta, dont worry about using semolina. The eggs in fresh pasta add sufficient protein to all-purpose flour. Choose fresh pasta by its expiry date - the fresher the better.

There are hundreds of shapes of pasta; to choose which kind to use there are some rules of thumb. Thin, delicate pasta like angel hair is suitable for light, thin sauces such as oil and garlic. Thicker, straight pasta such as spaghetti or fettuccini is appropriate for heavier sauces, perhaps Alfredo or Pesto. Shaped pasta, or pasta with edges or holes like farfalle or macaroni, is good for chunky sauces. Generally, also, dried pasta goes best with tomato or oil based sauces, and fresh egg pasta works well with butter, cream, or cheese sauces.

When choosing an amount to cook, assume that eight ounces of most pasta will cook to four cups, enough for eight side servings or four main courses. The same weight of egg noodles, however, will only cook to 2 ½ cups.

When cooking pasta, a few key rules should be followed. First, use a large quantity of salted water - at least a gallon of water for 1 pound of pasta or less and 6 quarts of water for up to 2 pounds. With that much water, the pasta will not stick together and adding oil to the water is not necessary. Oil is not effective in any event, as most of it floats to the surface.

Salt added to the water will help flavor the pasta; use at least 2 tablespoons of kosher salt for the pot. The water should be vigorously boiling when the pasta is added, except when cooking filled pastas such as ravioli. Vigorous boiling will break them apart so a gentle boil should be maintained.

Fresh pasta is cooked for 1 - 5 minutes; dried pasta for 4 15 minutes.  Don't just follow the box directions or throw the pasta against a wall to test for doneness, but taste. Pasta that has finished cooking should be al dente, i.e. when biting through the pasta, your teeth will feel a slight resistance but no hard inner core. Pasta like lasagna or macaroni that will have a second cooking should still have that hard core in the center.

After cooking, only rinse pasta if it's either going to be used in a cold dish, or you're not going to sauce and serve it immediately. Not rinsing will keep much of the starch on the pasta surface, and this will help the pasta hold on to the sauce. For the same reason, it is important to pour the drained pasta immediately into either a warm bowl, or, more practically, the pan in which the sauce is being cooked. An easy way to warm the serving bowl is to drain the pasta directly over it, and then just pour out the hot water.

Cooked pasta, preferably unsauced, can be refrigerated for up to 5 days. A convenient way to reheat is just to pour boiling water over the pasta and drain immediately. Add a little oil before refrigerating to prevent the pasta from sticking. Uncooked pasta will keep in a dry cupboard for up to a year.

Here's something fun to do with pasta. If you have leftover pasta that has solidified, like macaroni and cheese, try frying the leftovers. Cut a block of the pasta, dust all over with flour, dip the floured block in a little beaten egg, and apply bread crumbs on all sides. Fry in 375-degree oil until brown all over.