How to Make Spaghetti Noodles

Spaghetti is an affordable meal, which is favored not only by the cash starved college student, but also by the food connoisseur. Along with being affordable, it is also an easy meal to make and tastes wonderful in all its forms. With spaghetti noodles, you can whip up a meal, when you are starving or host an Italian pasta dinner for your loved ones. The steps to make spaghetti noodles, will help you to cook them perfectly and you will realize making spaghetti noodles is indeed not rocket science.

How to Make Spaghetti Noodles from Scratch

Often the first question, which comes up, when people want to make spaghetti noodles is, what is the right method to make spaghetti noodles, so that they do not stick together. The answer is, use a large pot to cook the noodles, so that there is a lot of room for the spaghetti noodles to move around. Using a lot of water is equally important, as too small a pot or insufficient water will make the noodles stick to one another, clumpy and you may get unevenly-cooked pasta. It is normally seen, that Americans do not add salt to the spaghetti noodles, when they are boiling it but Italians do. According to a number of celebrated Italian chefs, using a lot of salt, while making the spaghetti noodles will infuse flavor and season in them more effectively. If you're wondering whether the extra salt will make the noodles salty, you need not worry, as most of the salt runs out with the extra water.

• Take a large pot, so that all the spaghetti noodles will fit in it well. Pour 4 quarts of water or more into the pot. Add 4 tablespoons of salt to the water.
• Bring the water to a boil. When the water starts bubbling, add the spaghetti noodles to it. In case you do not have a sufficiently large pot to accommodate the full length of the noodles, gently stir in a part of the noodles and once they are submerged, add the remaining part.
• Continue to stir the noodles occasionally, so as to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other or to the pot.
• Let the water return to a boil. The boiling time will depend on the kind of spaghetti noodles you are using. The varieties include semolina, whole wheat and gluten free pastas. The cooking time will vary between 10 to 12 minutes.
• After about 10 minutes take out a single strand of noodle and taste it. If the noodle is too hard to bite or tastes funny, when you bite it or if you see white in the center, cook it for a little longer.
• However, if it is chewy but firm at the center, then the noodles are ready. Well cooked noodles hold their shape well and are not too soft or squishy. This is known as al dente in Italian.
• Once the noodles are cooked, remove them from the pot and drain off the water with a sieve or using a colander. Shake out the excess water from the noodles and transfer the noodles back into the pot.
• Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the cooked noodles and toss.
• Now is the turn to add the favorite sauce and toss the noodles well. You may also choose to add the spices of your choice at this stage. And your noodles are ready to be served.

In some of the instructions on how to make spaghetti noodles you will come across, that olive oil is added right with the salt. This is also a method, which is used to prevent the noodles from sticking to one another. However, I like to add olive oil only after the noodles are cooked, so that the taste of the olive oil is retained, which does not happen in the other case.