Ok, I need help with my spaghetti. It's the only pasta I can't do right, it seems. Every time I make it, it always comes out clumped up and in a big ball. What am I doing wrong here? I have a 12 quart pot filled with boiling water for a pound of pasta and it never fails to stick together on me. Someone help. I've tried rinsing after it cooks, I've added oil to the water, everything. I can't get it right.

I don't think you are supposed to rinse it after its done cooking. Also, try putting a little butter in the water while its cooking.

Are you cooking it to long? I don't rinse it after just drain it. I bring the water to a boil, add a tad of salt and olive oil and add noodles for till the consistancy I like them, tender but firm.

No, it's only 4 minutes or so for a pound of pasta. I get it al dente, it just always sticks on me. I don't know what I'm doing. I add salt and I've added oil to the water and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Do you always use the same pan? It could be your pan.

I don't know, maybe. It's the only one I have thought that's big enough.

It very much could be the pan outside other things I mentioned not sure what else

Yeah, or I could just be a loser at cooking spaghetti.

4 minutes? Seems a bit low. No pasta expert but mine is usually 7-9 min.

Agreed with putting butter/olive oil in the pasta and mixing right after the strainer.

Try stirring the pasta often to prevent the sticking. Also, put the pasta in a few at a time instead of all at once. Just some random thoughts.

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4 minutes seems a bit low on the cooking time. And stir the pasta pretty awesome. Oil in the water doesn't help as much as adding a little bit of oil after draining the pasta. (When the pasta is draining I cool down the pot with cold water, dump it out, and then put the pasta back in the cooled pot (cool so it won't stick) and stir in a bit of oil.

Maybe I should ask what kind of pasta brand are you cooking? I have had good luck with San Georgio, Barilla, and Krogers and frozen homemade, I think Schaivo brand. Make sure your water is boiling pretty good before "dropping". Don't settle for little peeny bubbles, make sure it is chugging along pretty good. And like someone said above, stir it a few times at the start to keep it from even thinking about clumping. If it doesn't start out clumpy, I don't see how it could get clumpy. Forget the minutes, do what my Italian mom has been doing for at least 48 years. After the first piece of pasta starts to float (should be at the 3-5 minute area), start testing one piece every minute or so. Spoon it out, blow on it and test it. Unless you have two kids (like her and later me), then your take 2 or 3 pieces out, cool them slightly and test. The kids really think they have a good job, head pasta tester. Or at least I did.

Stir with a pasta spoon, it helps and keeps the noodles separated. Also, I've never liked putting oil/butter in the water or after cooking. It doesn't let the sauce cling to the noodle like it should. I never add the salt until the water boils.

^^What she said. And 4 minutes seems way too not enough time. I'd try about 6 or 7 at a good boil and it should still be al dente.

When is it clumping? In the pan while cooking or after you've drained it? If after you've drained it, add a little bit of oil to the boiling water. Also, after draining it, if you aren't immediately adding sauce to it and you aren't cooling it with cold water, put it in a bowl with a LID or at least cover the bowl with saran wrap and this will keep it from clumping.

I believe the salt helps the water boil "As soon as any of the salt dissolves in the water, the boiling point of the water
will begin to rise -- by about one half degree Celsius for every 58 grams of salt dissolved per kilogram of water." Which is why you add it before it begins to boil.

Are you using dried pasta or a fresh pasta that is still sticky?

4 minutes isn't enough for a lb of pasta. Stir it with a spoon similar to the one shown above. You can add a LITTLE bit of oil while it's cooking (oil would do the same as butter and unless you want buttered noodles, would be better.

You can cool your pasta with water and put back in same pot and add sauce. Cooling it stops the cooking process right away. If you don't care about that, dump the drained pasta in to the same pot or another bowl and add sauce. My husband's family prefers the sauce on the pasta. My family (when I was growing up) preferred the pasta in one bowl (with a lid to keep it from clumping) and the sauce in a different bowl.

rinsing after it cooks should be done with COLDwater (your sause should be what makes the pasta hot), cold water will also prevent the pasta from hold water and make a watery plate of pasta. rinsing and then let drain (shake pasta a few time to get the water off), olive oil is the only type of oil to use in the water, salt should be sea salt and add to the water after water is boiling. the more water the better as long as it is boiling. Cheap pasta is just that cheap..

cooking time I find that if you use more water and let the pasta tumble in the additional water cooking time is shorten..

I use a decent size pan (not huge), add sea salt after the water is boiling and cook it for however long the box says. I've never had a problem with any of it clumping. Maybe I'm just lucky?

chicago510;510200 wrote:4 minutes? Seems a bit low. No pasta expert but mine is usually 7-9 min.

Agreed with putting butter/olive oil in the pasta and mixing right after the strainer.

I was thinking the same thing. If this is fresh pasta or presoaked pasta then 4 minutes sounds about right, but if this dry pasta, then you need at least 7 minutes for al dente. Also, pasta should never be completely cooked in the water. Take a few ounces of the pasta water right before you strain the pasta and add it to your sauce (likes of flavor in that water) then strain the pasta and immediately add it to the sauce and toss. The sauce has a lot of heat and moisture in it so the pasta will finish cooking in the sauce, and it the pasta doesn't clump until it's been strained this should prevent that from happening.

Also, if you're always using the same brand of spaghetti I might try another brand. The brand you have could just be high in gluten causing it to stick more. I'd also recommend trying a whole wheat pasta instead.

I'm one of the types that like to add my own sauce. Plus, watery pasta blows.

ha ha, thanks for all the help. Never knew we had a bunch of budding chefs on the OC.

PS, don't rinse the pasta, as you are washing off the starch that helps sauces stick to the pasta better. I feel like a "The More You Know" commercial on NBC haha

salt the water before u put the pasta in

Come on, IT'S PASTA. Get your head in the game.

friendfromlowry;510968 wrote:Come on, IT'S PASTA. Get your head in the game.

No shit. Salt, boil, strain, done.

Just realized the video I linked wasn't complete.