How to cook macaroni so that they do not stick together

Probably, one of the most popular side dishes, and certainly the simplest in cooking products are pasta. It would seem, which is easier - threw them into the water, and let them cook, but even here it is necessary to know how to cook the pasta correctly, otherwise even such a simple dish can not work.

Usually we do this: we collect water into the pan, wait for it to boil, put salt, pasta and cook until ready. Water, as a rule, is not very much - usually exactly as much as it is placed in a pan, but this is not entirely correct. In addition to the amount of water, how many finished macaroni are produced, many other factors influence.

The most frequent trouble is that the pasta is stuck together. This problem can occur for several reasons. The most common is the quality of pasta. The cheapest pasta is made with the use of soft wheat flour of the lowest quality, and it is good, if at all, from wheat. No matter how good a specialist you are in how to cook pasta, you were, and you can not cook them properly. Typically, these pastas have a dirty gray shade, but recently manufacturers resort to various tricks to hide it, in particular, use dyes, often elegant and mouth-watering yellow. Such a color of pasta suggests that perhaps they have something to hide, but this is not an indicator of quality, because it is possible to paint macaroni and conscientious producers, just to ensure that the product does not look pale against the general background among competitors of cheerful colors. It is worth noting that the food industry usually uses yellow dyes as carotenoids, and they are not harmful, even on the contrary.

The indicator of the quality of macaroni will be the number of crumbs and broken pieces on the bottom of the package. It is clear that during transportation with them anything could happen, and they could break, but good quality pasta will not crumble and crack on small parts. The chips on them will be shiny and even, as if they were made of durable but fragile plastic. Anyway, but why do you in principle have broken pasta? Buy those in which at the bottom of the package there are absolutely no crumbs, and do not go wrong. Still it is necessary to pay attention to the appearance of pasta: their color should be uniform, the surface - a little shiny, as well as quality products can be as if with the effect of translucence, like good porcelain - it is especially noticeable if you decided to cook pasta horns Or, for example, seashells, that is, figured and voluminous pasta, as well as thin vermicelli.

It is right to choose the amount of water - this skill is also included in the mandatory training program for how to properly cook pasta. According to the classical Italian formula, 100 liters of pasta is taken from a liter of water. Of course, if we do not plan a dinner party or an exhibition of our own achievements, then we can take a little less water, the main thing is that it is at least seven times more by weight than macaroni. In a large quantity of water, pasta will almost certainly not stick together, and water will not Will turn into an eerie mucus, which then will have to be washed. It is best to act not by eye, but, before cooking macaroni, measure the necessary amount of water.

Macaroni is placed only in intensively boiling salted water, which can also add a little vegetable oil - this will be an additional guarantee of an acceptable result. After the water boils again, the pasta must be prevented, so that they all separate from each other and from the walls and bottom of the dishes. In the future, you can mix them again, somewhere in a couple of minutes, no more - then you should not do this, because the pasta will be soft, or at least, if necessary, you need to do it carefully. It is not necessary to be guided by the cooking time indicated on the packaging - you may need quite a different amount of time, since it depends on the amount of water and macaroni, and on the intensity of the flame, and on the quality of the gas, and on the hardness of the water. In addition, only you know how to cook pasta for yourself - to the beloved by the Italians the state of "al dente" or to the full readiness, as is customary here, so they should be periodically tested so as not to miss the right moment, otherwise they will be digested and again- Still slipnutsya.