Pasta 101

I made one of the most basic pastas imaginable tonight, but it was incredibly delicious thanks to great ingredients and a few basic rules behind pasta making in general. The dish was farfalle con parmigiano e pepe bianco - bowtie pasta with parm and white pepper. For quite some time now I have known what must be done to produce a top quality pasta dish but I haven't known all the reasons behind each step, the "why" if you will. This past week I asked around the kitchen and did a little research to answer all my "why" questions.

First question: Why salt the water?

Every Italian will tell you that pasta water needs to be as salty as the sea. To find out why I started by asking my roommate and his response was, simply, pasta tastes terrible if the water isn't salted. I took that response to chef Antonio, who illuminated the fact even more. He said unsalted pasta does taste bad, but you cannot merely add salt later. By putting salt in the water it gives the pasta much more of a chance to absorb the salt, rather than merely be coated with it. He also pointed out that by salting the pasta in this way you don't need to salt the sauce as much. This explains why there is never salt on the table in an Italian restaurant.

A second reason is that salted water has a higher boiling point. When you dump the pasta in the water it stops boiling for a bit, but the fact that it was already at a higher temperature means that it will cook the pasta more, rather than merely leave it to soak in warm water. More on this in the next question.

Second question: Why stir the pasta so much right when it goes into the water?

Both my roommate and Antonio gave me the same answer to this question, if you don't the individual pieces will actually fuse together. Fine, but why? When pasta is in warm (not boiling) water the starch in it essentially seeps out. While this is happening the pasta will stick together quite easily, so it's important to stir the pasta a good amount until the water returns to a boil.

Third question: Why not drain the pasta in a colander?

If you drain the pasta two things happen. One, you lose all the pasta water, which has a great starchy flavor that should be added to sauces instead of plain water. Two, if you let the pasta dry out or coat it with oil or butter before combining it with your sauce of choice the pasta won't absorb the sauce, as it already has another coating.

Now for the recipe...

1 bag farfalle pasta (bowties)
3 tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
white or black pepper
2 tbsp good olive oil

1. Boil water with salt. Dump in pasta when water is at a roiling boil.

2. Pour olive oil into large pan, but don't turn on, you don't want to heat the oil too much because as you heat good oil it breaks down and begins to lose its flavor.

3. When the pasta is just about done turn on the flame under the oil.

4. Add pasta, parm and pepper, stir well and serve immediately.

I was lucky this past week to get a bottle of olive oil from Antonio, whose family produces a hundred or so bottles a year for their own use and very local distribution, which is some of the best olive oil I have ever had. Melissa also brought me some white pepper corns and a pepper grinder back with her from Istanbul. White and black pepper actually come from the same seed, black pepper is harvested when the seeds are green and not yet ripe. They get their color from drying in the sun. If the seeds are left to mature they turn white. White pepper has the same flavor but is a little milder and more subtle.