Cooking thread: Add salt/oil to boiling water when cooking pasta?

[NetWareHead]

Help settling a debate with a friend would be appreciated. We were talking about cooking pasta today and he says the way to do it is to add salt and oil to the boiling water when cooking pasta. I agreed with the salt but never any oil.

My position is that oil will uselessly float on the surface of the water. When you dump the water, the oil will go first and most of the pasta won't even touch the oil. He maintains that the oil is to cut the stickiness of the starch on the pasta exterior. To me, that stickiness is highly desirable. It acts as a glue which holds on to the sauce. If you add oil, the sticky starch will grab on to the oil and any sauce will slide right off the pasta and not stick to it.

My friend says they add oil to the water in Italy as well as call it gravy and not sauce over there. Lol ok dude My family is from Italy, my dad owns an Italian restaurant, my mother and grandmothers grew up on farms cooking authentic homestyle and no one I have seen in Italy adds oil to the water. This guy has never even been Italy and doesn't even speak Italian! And we call it sauce not gravy Go bullshit someone else I told him. Poll is added to thread.

 

[SillyOReilly]

They do call it gravy over there.

And since the water is boiling I'd say the oil does help keep the pasta from sticking while cooking, which is the point. I'm not sure about your slippery pasta while eating.

It seems you're wrong on all accounts.

 

[Gothgar]

Salt only, its mostly for flavor. After the noodles are done if you hit them with a little olive oil it helps them to not stick together, also adds more flavor.

 

[endlessmike]

Salt definitely. Oil is debatable, but in general I don't.

 

[NetWareHead]

They do call it gravy over there.

And since the water is boiling I'd say the oil does help keep the pasta from sticking.

It seems you're wrong on all accounts.

You're full of it. They call it gravy in the usa. italian has a word for sauce which is salsa. Gravy is meat juice based broth which is an entirely different thing.

 

[Chiropteran]

Salt in the water while cooking, olive oil in the pasta sauce after cooking.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Help settling a debate with a friend would be appreciated. We were talking about cooking pasta today and he says the way to do it is to add salt and oil to the boiling water when cooking pasta. I agreed with the salt but never any oil.

My position is that oil will uselessly float on the surface of the water. When you dump the water, the oil will go first and most of the pasta won't even touch the oil. He maintains that the oil is to cut the stickiness of the starch on the pasta exterior. To me, that stickiness is highly desirable. It acts as a glue which holds on to the sauce. If you add oil, the sticky starch will grab on to the oil and any sauce will slide right off the pasta and not stick to it.

My friend says they add oil to the water in Italy as well as call it gravy and not sauce over there. Lol ok dude My family is from Italy, my dad owns an Italian restaurant, my mother and grandmothers grew up on farms cooking authentic homestyle and no one I have seen in Italy adds oil to the water. This guy has never even been Italy and doesn't even speak Italian! And we call it sauce not gravy Go bullshit someone else I told him. Poll is added to thread.

Why do you need to ask us?

 

[NetWareHead]

Why do you need to ask us?

Why not? Plenty of knowledgeable people on this forum.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Why do people argue over such dumb things?

You can add oil and salt or just salt or nothing... who cares? It's freaking pasta.

 

[KeithTalent]

Salt only.

KT

 

[waggy]

i suspect this is a brag thread or the restaurant story is not true . why the fuck would you ask us and not his family?

anyway i put in both. why not? it won't hurt it and its pasta.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Why not? Plenty of knowledgeable people on this forum.

You don't trust your family? We make better pasta then them?

 

[NetWareHead]

i suspect this is a brag thread or the restaurant story is not true . why the fuck would you ask us and not his family?

anyway i put in both. why not? it won't hurt it and its pasta.

What am I bragging about? I'm trying to get more opinions. Won't hurt it? Thats the difference between a good Italian restaurant and Olive Garden or Sbarro. Man you try to serve a plate like that around my family and they will feed it to the dog instead. That's the difference between a nice plate of pasta that holds together and an oily mess with sauce sliding off the pasta and all over the plate. Sorry but we don't cook like that.

 

[NetWareHead]

You don't trust your family? We make better pasta then them?

My family already taught me the right way and I know their answer. I worked in my dad's place for plenty of years cooking

 

[lxskllr]

Oil only. It helps break the foam down so it doesn't boil over.

 

[Capt Caveman]

My family already taught me the right way and I know their answer. I worked in my dad's place for plenty of years cooking

If you know the answer, why are you asking us again? And did you tell your friend about your family and restaurant?

 

[clamum]

Salt, and a pinch of cocaine.

 

[mmntech]

Salt seasons the pasta, otherwise it's flavourless. Oil does nothing. It just floats on the top and ends up making your pasta greasy. Olive oil should only be added to cold pasta for salads.

 

[waggy]

Salt, and a pinch of cocaine.

thought it was LSD you add to food to make great. at least thats what futurama claims

 

[Mixolydian]

Salt.

 

[torpid]

LOTS of salt (for flavor) and no damn oil. Oiling it is a total waste of oil. If your pasta is clumping then you are not cooking it correctly in the first place or are using really crappy pasta.

 

[clamum]

thought it was LSD you add to food to make great. at least thats what futurama claims

That also works, but I mainly save it for special occasions (Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner). Just a drop or two in the water just before you strain the pasta.

 

[D1gger]

Salt only in the water.

Olive oil possibly used to dress the pasta after cooking with some of my simple recipes (EVOO, basil or parsley, grated parmesan).

I thought it was an east coast US thing were the Italians called their sauce gravy. They certainly did that on the Sopranos. I've never heard it called that anywhere else.

 

[NetWareHead]

If you know the answer, why are you asking us again? And did you tell your friend about your family and restaurant?

Cmon I can't start a thread to vent a little and conduct a poll?

 

[SillyOReilly]

Salt seasons the pasta, otherwise it's flavourless. Oil does nothing. It just floats on the top and ends up making your pasta greasy. Olive oil should only be added to cold pasta for salads.

So it does nothing, then it does something?