this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Traditionally you use a fuck ton of water in a giant pot but, really, that’s mainly so you can boil it harder without it boiling over so easily. The actual pasta comes out basically the same regardless of the amount of water.
What isn’t the same, though, is the water. And many pasta dishes call for adding some of the starchy pasta water as a thickener/emulsifier for sauces, so actually if you’re doing that you’re better off using less water as it’ll be more concentrated. And obviously less water boils faster.
For this reason many well regarded chefs have taken to cooking pasta in a wide flat pan with just enough water to cover it, at least for small quantities.
Serious eats has a good article: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boiling-tips-the-food-lab
Thanks. That article was great. I feel like I’ve been cooking pasta all wrong, for all these years.
This video even shows a method using a wok that's really similar to kenji's last experiment, where he cooks the pasta with a small amount of water and just uses the remaining starchy water to immediately make a sauce. Pretty smart!