01.27.09
A Pasta Rant
So perhaps I’m ranting too much, and not saying enough in my story as of late. Simply put, I’m sort of stuck here in the US awaiting my UK visa so I can go back there and get on with the story. This limbo I find myself in has caused a major drag in developments in this blog, and I apologize for not making it more entertaining in the meantime.
 Still a retard. |
But since people seem to love it when I’m harsh on people in the cooking world, allow me to wax poetically on a pasta cooking technique that I consider to be one of the dumbest things I repeatedly witness in the kitchen. However, I’m a story teller first and foremost, so allow me to set the scene in the form of a true story that happened a few years ago.
I arrived at my friend’s house early because we were planning on watching something on TV, and as we tuned the flat screen to the appropriate channel my friend said, “Hey, I was thinking of making pasta for dinner, you in?”
“Why of course!” I replied. “You know I love pasta - it’s a requirement for all Italians!” (Aside: I think a celiac Italian would have to commit suicide.)
So my friend put the water on for the pasta, added the salt (to my pleasant surprise, enough salt for cooking pasta - an otherwise common mistake avoided) but then did something I hadn’t seen before. She poured some olive oil into the cooking water. Mind you, this story is taking place a few years back. Since this happened, I have seen many other people do this as well, and my reaction has always been the same as this first time though.
“Ummm… what are you doing?” I asked. (This was my first time remember, I really didn’t have any idea…)
“Adding oil to the water,” she replied as if I were not capable of understanding what happened when one tipped an open bottle of olive oil over a pot of boiling water.
“Well, no shit,” I said so as to confirm I understood this basic concept of physics. “Why are you doing that?”
“It keeps the pasta from sticking together.”
A silent contemplation washed over me as I thought through the implications of what I had just been told. The more I thought of it, the more laughable it became in my mind though. So what now follows now is my rant as to why this is a truly stupid idea, and basically is the lecture I give everyone who I see doing this.
 Clip art, photoshop and too much time on my hands. A deadly combination. But hopefully this diagram gets the point across. |
So we’ll start with an experiment you can do at home! Get a pot of salted boiling water going. Now pour in some oil. Where does the oil reside in the pot? That’s right, the top! Now, pour in a pound of pasta. Where does it reside? The bottom? Well mercy me! It seems like the pasta and oil AREN’T TOUCHING EACH OTHER! How can the oil keep the pasta from sticking if they are not touching?
No worries, let’s give the water a healthy stir - we can stir the oil in and make it combine with the cooking pas… oh wait, what’s that? The oil floats back to the top when you stop stirring? You mean OIL AND WATER DON’T MIX? Hmmmm…..
Well, not to worry! When the pasta is done cooking, we have to strain it out. We’ll just pour out the mix into a strainer and… oh wait, all the oil - on the top - poured out first before the pasta ever got a chance to touch it….
 Somebody put a lot of time and effort into this stupid papier mache mask, so it would be wrong of me to make fun of it. But some things can’t be helped… |
People, please, don’t waste perfectly good olive oil in your pasta water! If you want to throw money away like this, please send it to my PayPal account (matt1@finarelli.com) instead. Keeping pasta from sticking together is a real concern. The over-simplified chemistry of pasta cookery is that pasta is made from flour and is cooked in water. As we know from elementary school, flour and water makes glue. (Or terrible papier mache projects.) So if you just cook pasta and let it sit, yes, it will stick together and from a glob of truly sinister proportions.
So something needs to be introduced to keep the cooked strands/pieces of pasta from sticking together. The key word in that last sentence was COOKED. When pasta is uncooked, somehow it seems to not stick together. The threat of pasta sticking together is avoided during cooking by using rapidly boiling water, and by STIRRING. Oil in (on) the water will not help you here, and is totally unnecessary. AFTER it is cooked, you must add something - like oil! - to keep the strands apart. Tomato sauce also works well here! Using my over-simplified chemistry from before, the “glue” on the pasta is what will grip on to a sauce - of any kind - and make it part of the dish! And with all the “glue” on the pasta holding onto sauce, they will no longer stick to each other!
 Does NOT approve of bad pasta cooking methods! |
Pretty cool, huh? (Yes, this is dumbed down heavily, I know, but when trying to talk people out of putting oil in cooking water…) Which leads me to the other thing I see some people do.
Please, if you are serving your pasta right away - for the love of God, DON’T RINSE IT! Simply put (yet again) this washes the “glue” off the pasta, and the sauce won’t stick as a result. In fact, rinsing pasta actually pisses me off even more when I see it done. So why didn’t I write about that?… Hmmm… I have no idea.
Just be good to your pasta people - that’s all I ask. It’s not complicated, and you don’t need to throw it against the wall to see if it’s done. GAH! There’s another pasta peeve of mine!
I had really better stop…
Stumble it!
Bridal Bird said,
January 27, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I’ve never heard of adding the oil to keep the pasta from sticking together. I was always told to do it to keep the pot from boiling over. Is this just as stupid?
Chef Matt said,
January 27, 2009 at 2:38 pm
BB - Nobody has EVER mentioned this to me as a rationale for doing this. But the physics of it DO work! Just like adding soap to water, the oil would break up the surface tension of the water - especially water with all that starch in it - and prevent a boil over. So this could be a reason to do it, but all the same, you could still save yourself money and oil if you just turn the heat down a little when you add the pasta, and pay attention to what you’re cooking…
I found this article online about what is going on, and it comes to a very important conclusion: “…be careful you don’t do it (oil in water) in front of someone who takes (it) so seriously.” It’s as if they knew me!
http://www.meninaprons.net/2006/08/how_to_avoid_boil_over_when_co.html
jamy said,
January 27, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Perhaps you could explain why it’s so important to salt the water–I’ve never understood the rationale for that. I apologize in advance because I fear this question will pain you–but I’m prepared to be enlightened.
Barzelay said,
January 27, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Wow, I had also never heard Bribal Bird’s explanation! On the other hand, if you just take the lid off, it’s never starchy enough to boil over (at least not while cooking a single pot of pasta at home–restaurant pasta pots may be another story.
I wonder what would happen if you incorporated something hydrophobic into the pasta itself? Like if you added a bunch of glycerine to the pasta dough, then oiled the pasta before cooking, would it stay on throughout the cooking process and prevent the pasta from sticking? I will have to try this!
Bridal Bird said,
January 27, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Thanks for the link. From here on out I’m going with the “eternal vigilance” plan when boiling pasta, as opposed to oil. I think I must have learned that oil thing from my nana. Although in all honesty my nana considered Jell-o a cooking staple.
Eize said,
January 28, 2009 at 4:03 am
I–I am shocked! Appalled!!!
*dramatic hand placement over forehead*
Niki said,
January 28, 2009 at 8:46 am
LOL. I love when you get all ranty. Believe it or not, despite my family’s culinary shortcomings, oil in the pasta water never happened. I don’t think we ever called it pasta, though. “Noodles” was just fine for us simple folk.
Chef Matt said,
January 28, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Jamy - I would NEVER treat someone badly for asking a question! A legitimate question always needs to be answered - it’s what makes me a good cooking instructor. Simply put, pasta needs salt so as to have some flavor in the finished product. There are certain foods that act as, what I like to call, “flavor sinks”. They just have no flavor when cooked on their own, so they usually need some salt as they cook so as to not be completely devoid of flavor in the final product. Some examples: pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, almost any grain. The best way to see this for yourself is next time you make pasta, bring two pots of water to a boil - one salted, one not salted. Cook half the pasta in each, and then dress them separately with your sauce. Do a side-by-side taste test and see what you think! Your kitchen is a lab, feel free to experiment!
Barzelay - (First off, long time no hear! Good to see you again!) You are right, boiling over is really a function of letting it get too hot (cover on) and not having attention paid to it. This is how I keep the mess down at my place. Your idea of basically “bonding” oil to pasta is an interesting one. I would love to hear the results of this!
Bridal Bird - If I have made one convert, then this has all been worth it. My ranting has not been in vain!
Eize - As always, it is good o hear from you. What is the cause of your being appalled? That people do this, or that there are people who consider Jell-O a staple? (Sorry BB…)
Niki - Your family’s culinary history has always scared me. Though to be fair, my Italian family always referred to any pasta as “macaroni” - no matter what the cut. Interesting huh?…
Sarah said,
January 28, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Thank you Fin! I will now have evidence in my continuing argument with Art. I’m anti-oil in pasta water and he’s for it. You would think as a scientist he would know better (especially one that deals with physics and water on a daily basis).
Eize said,
February 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Chef Matt - the fact that we still add a bit of cooking oil into the water before letting it boil. Ack.
Berry said,
February 3, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I totally agree about the oil thing. I think Alton Brown (or maybe the
Mythbusters) tested this by building a rig to recover the oil and see if any was gone, presumably into the pasta. Nope, they got every drop back.
Also, it turns out Italy is very celiac-friendly. My wife and daughter are both celiac, so I perforce learn about these things. One can’t eat the pasta, of course, but most places understand and try to accommodate celiacs. (Incidentally, Tinkyada brand rice pasta is a gluten-free pasta that’s good enough to eat al olio e alio!)
Chef Matt said,
February 3, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Sarah - I would also think he would know better based on the fact that he speaks fluent Italian… But yes, you were the one who was right on this front, and you can tell him I said so. But we still love him, right?…
Eize - Eize Eize Eize… You made me facepalm. Well, at least now you know how I feel, and I still love you as well!
Berry - I had not heard of either of them doing this - though I am a big fan of both of them. I will have to look for that episode. And yes, I was being a tad tongue-in-cheek about the celiac-friendly nature of Italian cookery. I think there are a lot of great options like rice pasta out there. There are also chick-pea varieties that my celiac friends say are nice as well. Combined with my knowledge of gluten-free pizza crusts from my time at Rustico, maybe I should consider opening an all-celiac friendly Italian restaurant, huh?…
Eric Levine said,
February 4, 2009 at 11:39 am
In a recent episode of Good Eats by recent I mean last few years, Alton changed his stands on the oil in water, because it prevents the water from boiling over.
Berry said,
February 4, 2009 at 7:26 pm
“maybe I should consider opening an all-celiac friendly Italian restaurant..”
Do it on the San Francisco peninsula and you’re guaranteed one family of repeat customers!
Chef Matt said,
February 10, 2009 at 5:45 am
Eric - Wow, another soul I have not heard from in some time! So Alton switched back, eh? Well, he is an absolute FREAK about safety in the kitchen, so I guess anything that would prevent a boil-over he would be in favor of. All the same, a little diligence would absolve you of the need for this. But I am still a fan of Alton’s - he has too much else going for him.
Berry - That is a wonderful invitation. I’d have to say that would be quite the commute from Oxford right now, but we’ll see where things take me over time!