PICK OF THE DAY - PASTA

The secrets for a perfect cooking scientifically explained

This post is just for personal amusement. I am not a chef but a chemical engineer that, because you never know what's going to happen to your life, has become a host managing some bed and breakfast activityy. A part of my job is to talk about my city, Rome, and my country, Italy, to my guests, especially foreign guest. And pasta is definitely one of the most important hallmarks of Italian cuisine if not all of Italy.
So, ho to prepare it in the proper way? When I was often travelling abroad, very often I was offered pasta that was rather good as glue. I obviouly politely said it was perfectly prepared.
I will try to explain, scientifically, the secrets to cook properly dried pasta.
They are seentially two, heat and time.
Essentially what is important is that, when you put pasta into the boiling water  temperature is high enough to allow the external part to harden quickly so that starch is kept inside and not released transforming pasta into glue. Threfore:
1) Add salt to the water before adding pasta; that will increase of a couple of degrees the boiling temperature of the water (ebullioscopic effect). Higher temperature means quicker hardening
2) Use enough water, at least 1 liter per each 100 grams of pasta. When you add pasta to the boiling water, the temperaure of the water will drop because pasta is colder. Using the above proportion, temperature will drp about 4 °C. If one uses half of the water, the drop will be 8°C and the external part will not harden quickly enough.
3) Do not overcook, take out pasta from the water at the proper time. Start to taste it one minute before the time that is indicated on the packaging
And now, after adding a good sauce, but fo that you need a chef's recipe

ENJOY YOUR MEAL

Vincenzo