Did you know? Important facts about cooking pasta.

Cooking pasta seems like a relatively easy and simple thing to do. However, many people make a couple of common mistakes when they cook pasta.

The first error many people make is to cook the pasta in not enough water. You should use AT LEAST 4 liters of water per pound of pasta. If you don't use enough water, pasta becomes gluey and stuck together.

The water for cooking pasta should be at a roaring boil before you add a teaspoon of salt to the water, and then the pasta. Make sure to stir the pasta periodically, to make sure it is staying separated and not getting stuck to the bottom of the pan.

The biggest error people make when cooking pasta is to add oil to the boiling water. Sure, it may help the pasta from getting stuck together, but once cooked, the pasta is coated in oil. If the pasta is coated in oil, it acts as a protective barrier and does not allow the sauce to bind to the pasta. Bad!

Finally, always add the pasta to the sauce, straight from the boiling water if possible. It's good not to drain every last drop of water from the pasta, because the water has a lot of starch from the pasta and will help the sauce bind to the noodles.