Before answering the question, note that just about everything in this article pertains to dried pasta. Uncooked dried pasta, on average, contains about 65% starch. Once cooked, most of the starch is released, bringing it down to maybe 25%. Some of this starch forms a coating on the outside of the pasta. There is a great debate on whether to rinse your cooked pasta in cold water, to stop the cooking process and rinse this excess starch away, or not to rinse your pasta.
Let’s go over some of the logic behind rinsing cooked dried pasta in cold water.
Rinse Pasta to Stop the Cooking Process
Many proponents of rinsing pasta say you should rinse the cooked pasta immediately in cold water to stop the cooking process. According to them, there is a fine line between al dente and over-done so you must stop the cooking at once.
First, if you are going to be adding your pasta to a sauce to finish cooking it, you definitely do not want to make your pasta cold before doing so! Ideally, you remove the pasta from the boiling water a bit before it is fully cooked so that you can finish cooking it in the sauce. There should be extra moisture in your sauce for this undercooked pasta to soak up. And, that starch on the pasta, which is also continuing to be released, will both help thicken your sauce and allow the sauce to better cling to the pasta. You will also retain your pasta boiling water so that you can add some to the sauce as needed.
But what if you are not going to be adding your cooked pasta to a sauce? Sometimes we like to mound our spaghetti on a plate and pour some sauce over it. In this case, you would cook your pasta all the way to al dente. And here is where the rinse-immediately argument falls apart.
If it is true that the pasta continues to cook after you take it out of the water so that you must “halt” the cooking process, then why wouldn’t you undercook it before removing it? It’s going to continue to cook until it’s just right, isn’t it? Is it because there is no way to know how much it would cook out of the boiling water? Perhaps. Or is it because it does not continue to cook and this is a made-up reason? More likely.
While pasta does continue to cook while resting, this “cooking” is so insignificant that it’s not worth worrying over. Some sources do actually claim you should remove your pasta early so it will cook to perfection while resting, achieving that al dente texture. But there is NO way to know just when to remove your pasta for this to occur. And, once it stops cooking, it will start cooling down and drying out.
Here, we have different sources advising different steps based on the same underlying premise, that pasta continues to cook. Which is true? In my experience, neither. I would dispense with the “rinse pasta to stop it cooking.” It’s just not that significant an effect and ignores better practices.
Rinse Pasta to Get Rid of the Starchy Coating
I’ve already explained that if you are going to be putting your pasta directly into a sauce to finish cooking it, then the starchy coating on the pasta is not your enemy. It’s your friend. This starch will allow the sauce to cling to the pasta and help thicken the sauce.
If you are making a pasta salad, it may be a good idea to rinse the pasta if it is going to rest for a while before being mixed with the salad ingredients. I’ve never had a problem with pasta sticking together in a pasta salad, which typically contains enough oil to stop this from happening.
The only reason I would rinse pasta for a salad is if I wanted the pasta cold before adding it. However, I find that pasta salads taste better if I add the pasta warm. Some sources claim the pasta may get gummy and clump together but the only way this could happen is if there is no fat or liquid in your pasta salad which, instead of a pasta salad, would make it a salad with pasta, and not a very good one. Who wants a salad without dressing?
But let’s say you are going to serve spaghetti with the sauce spooned over it. In this case, rinsing the pasta may help keep it from sticking together. But then, you would be serving cold pasta with hot sauce spooned over it. I cannot see a scenario where anybody would want to serve cold pasta this way.
So, once again, rinsing pasta in cold water seems to be a bad idea. Even if you could get past the coldness of the pasta, the sauce will stick to a non-rinsed pasta better.
Rinsing Asian Noodles
It is sometimes helpful to rinse Asian noodles since they often contain much more starch and will become very gummy and somewhat slimy if not rinsed before mixing with other cooked ingredients.
But this too depends on the specific Asian noodles you are working with. Generally, it’s good to rinse soba, udon, and somen noodles, while you should not rinse ramen noodles. Asian noodles are beyond the scope of this article, however. We are talking about Italian pasta, here, which is made with high-protein wheat varieties.
What’s the Solution to Sticky Pasta?
If you are adding your pasta directly into a sauce, cook it until it’s slightly underdone and add it to the sauce to toss around and continue cooking. Retain your pasta water, which will contain starch, and use this to add moisture to the sauce for the pasta to absorb, as needed. The sauce will thicken naturally due to the added starch from the water and from the cooking pasta. No need to worry about the pasta sticking together.
If you want to mound your pasta on a plate and serve the sauce over it, like we Americans are fond of doing, you may have trouble with the timing of the pasta and the sauce, which, if left to rest a few minutes before serving, can get sticky. Here is an easy solution:
- Cook your pasta until it’s just underdone. Retain your pasta water and keep it hot but not boiling, with a lid on.
- Once your sauce is ready to serve or just about read, quickly bring the pasta water back to a boil and put the set aside cooked but underdone pastas into the water. Let it continue to cook until it’s to your liking.
- Test the pasta by eating some, not by throwing the pasta against the wall, this crazy method does not work.
- When it’s ready, you can take out the pasta with a pasta fork and place it right onto the serving plates.
- You will want to let some of the water drain off the pasta over the pot while removing it, but not all of it. It’s good to leave the pasta just a little wet!
- Spoon the sauce over the pasta and serve.
This is how restaurants do it and it is called parboiling or parcooking. It’s how they make large amounts of pasta at once and get it ready for individual customers very quickly. If your pasta is going to rest for a longer time, you can go ahead and cook it all the way while keeping your pasta water. The pasta will begin to dry out and even harden a little but will be brought back by the boiling water in just a few minutes, at most.
Note that I am not claiming that using your retained pasta water is a crucial step and it will produce superior results. I am not even claiming that its thickening power what some claim it to be. However, there is not good reason not to use this already heated water to add the needed moisture to the sauce while also, perhaps, thickening it a bit. The cooking pasta will be absorbing excess water, which itself will make the sauce less thin.
As for all the other times when sticky pasta may be a problem, I’d recommend buying a higher quality Italian pasta. Typically these are made with the hardest varieties of Durum wheat available and will both contain a bit less starch and release less of it while cooking. I find that the good Italian pasta I use does not stick together as much as the American-made pastas we typically buy at the grocery store.
What’s more, this traditionally made is extruded through brass dyes that give the surface of the pasta a rougher surface so that the sauce clings to the pasta better.
As for the ‘fine line’ between al dente and mushy, good pasta is simply more forgiving. It will not go from al dente to mushy in an instant so you have much more breathing room between undercooked and overcooked. I’ve found that these pastas remain in a subjectively “al dente” stage for quite a while and even once they are beyond that stage, they are not mushy but simply tender.
What About Fresh Pasta?
Fresh pastas is always added directly into a sauce. You should never let it sit after cooking. It should be undercooked and added to a sauce with plenty of moisture to finish cooking the pasta.
Conclusion
In conclusion, don’t rinse your pasta. There are not many good reasons to do it and all you’ll get for your trouble, at best, is cold pasta. Follow the recommendations in this article, buy better pasta, and enjoy.
