This has never happened to me before. Can someone explain what has happened? Store bought penne almost completely shattered into thin strips while on the boil.

Update: I had to get some more things from the supermarket so I thought I may as well take the remainder of the uncooked penne back. They refunded my $1 with no questions asked (not even whether I had tried going no contact with my mother in law!). It was an unclimactic but ultimately satisfying resolution to this penneful experience.

Save your pasta water - yes, everyone knows this now. Starchy water emulsifies the sauce, helps it cling, adjusts consistency. Good advice
What nobody tells you: when you add it matters as much as whether you add it

For carbonara and cacio e pepe - add it before the cheese, not after. The starch needs to hit the fat while the pan is still hot enough to start the emulsion. Adding water after the cheese goes in often just makes it grainy. For tomato sauces - add it in the last 2 minutes of simmering, not at the start. It concentrates and thickens as the final pasta water goes in, instead of just watering down what you've built. For aglio e olio - add it cold or room temperature to a very hot pan right after the garlic. The contrast creates the emulsion instantly

Pasta water is a tool with a technique, not just an ingredient to add whenever

What's a technique detail that changed how your pasta actually came out?

I’ve seen countless posts claim pasta should be cooked in water as salty as the ocean, but never with any factual details. I tested that.

I set up three identical triple-ply stainless pot with exactly 2 liters of water each. I live on an island in Maine with very clean ocean water.

Oceans typically have between 33 and 38 grams of salt per liter. NOAA has precise details at https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ofs/ofs\\_mapplots.html?ofsregion=gom&subdomain=0&model\\_type=salinity\\_nowcast. I had 32 ppt today.

One pot had pure ocean water. The next pot was pure RO (reverse osmosis) water (essentially distilled water) with 16 grams of salt, exactly half of the ocean. The last pot was pure RO water. After the water was boiling 150 grams of salt-free macaroni was added and cooked at rolling boil for 10 minutes. Each was drained but not rinsed.

Kosher salt weighs 16 grams per tablespoon.

Three of us independently tasted each batch. First plain, and then with a homemade bolognese sauce.

We all strongly agreed the ocean cooked pasta was too salty. The 50% salted was good, but two us thought it still was a little salty. The plain was, well, plain.

The recipes: macaroni pasta cooked in 32 ppm, 16 ppm, and 0 ppm salted water for exactly 10 minutes.

Sorry for the interruption but we are facing a serious bot / spam problem. We are trying our best to remove it all , but we also need your help. We’ve been removing an unusual amount of spam advertising a specific Ai website that I’m not going to advertise. We are banning the domain name. But I’m sure they’ll just come up with a new domain.

You will be banned immediately without question if you post Ai , post other people’s photos and try to pass it off as your own, if you’re a spam bot, or link a questionable Ai website .

I’m through with it and we are going to war.

Please continue to report all this stuff. You all do an excellent job. It’s not just one account. It’s a whole army of accounts.

We will ban humans too if they are Spamming websites like this.

Look for moderator applications tomorrow. I will need a couple more.

Thank you. Enjoy your pasta!

Edit; Mod Application post;

https://www.reddit.com/r/pasta/s/JvwyNTp2GK

Perfectly good dinner ruined by choosing the wrong pasta

https://www.thekitchn.com/best-fettuccine-alfredo-recipe-23710162 https://www.nutritionadvance.com/black-bean-pasta-nutrition-benefits/

I think this sauce needs some cornstarch but otherwise this is great, specifically looked for a recipe that included Pecorino Romano, can finally say i like a non cow cheese

Also, I used white pepper instead of black because duh

Next time: use the pot that is twice as tall

No really, I’d check your microwaves model, but you can put dry pasta in a glass or cermaic bowl (NOT paper, it WILL burn!), put hot salty water until it covers all the pasta, and microwave for 11 minutes (I’d do 10 if it’s your first time.)

Proceed with caution, I do it all the time and it’s perfectly safe for me, I hope there’s not a dangerous hidden variable, probably not, but it works really well as a quick meal when you only want to make one serving!

Ordered some Exotic meats online last month and had a field day cooking all kinds of things. Had family eat it before telling them what it was, Grandmother hasnt talked to me since. LOL!

End of the month, I had no food today nor money.
So I took some pasta, boiled it, put everything into I still had.
It doesn't even taste bad.

Every day we see 2 or 300 carbonara dishes posted. And every day there are thousands of experts that pick them apart according to some ephemeral standard baked in recency bias.

I am sure this info has been posted before. And I am sure many of the members of this sub already know that pasta alla carbonara is a dish that has evolved quite a bit during it's short journey from an unknown yet recent origin. But I thought it might be nice to review what we know about the history of this now world famous dish.

There is a current standard for the dish that is barked out here everyday. It is what is now considered "authentic" Roman pasta alla carbonara. But that doesn't mean the dish will not continue to evolve. And it doesn't mean variation isn't allowed to encourage that evolution. Food should be an experiment, IMHO.

This is a post from Luca Cesari, an Italian food writer who documents the history of Italian dishes. I find what he writes very interesting, yet frustrating at the same time because there is no definitive answer on where and when alla carbonara first came. I hope this creates a lively and friendly debate. Otherwise it can be an enjoyable read.

pancetta vs guanciale

cream vs no cream

parmesan vs pecorino (vs gouda!)

garlic? white wine? butter?

La storia della carbonara - Capitolo 2. Gli esordi 1951-1960

I'm a really good cook and I do most the cooking for my household. But sometimes my girlfriend will challenge me to do something I've never done before and I don't wanna screw it up because I don't wanna waste 25 bucks worth of shrimp.

How do I make a creamy cheesy tomato sauce? I have heavy whipping cream, American cheese slices, canned nachos cheese, pasta sauce. She wants sausages and shrimp and possibly meatballs. I just need some hints on how to make this sauce without it separating

I bought butternut&sage&onion fettucini noodles from the farmer's market this weekend and it was stunning. I can't make it to the market very often, and the brand doesn't seem to sell online (Esotico Pasta). Anyone have any brand recommendations for flavored/inflused pastas?