You've been cooking pasta all wrong!

My wife was away for the weekend and it was up to me to cook for the kids. Needless to say, pizza played a part in my weekend plans, but I did make pasta one of the nights, and apparently I have been doing it wrong nearly all my life. Tell me if you you this too:

Add a little oil to the water so the noodles don’t stick together
Add a pinch of salt to the water so it boils faster, and
Throw a noodle against the wall and if it sticks you know it’s done.

It turns out ALL of those things are wrong, according to America’s Test Kitchen. Check out the video above for best practices. They say adding oil to the water makes the noodles so slippery it keeps the sauce from sticking to it. You SHOULD add about a tablespoon of salt to the water, but to season the noodles. And rather than mess up your walls throwing pasta at it, they say it’s better to just taste it yourself and see if it’s done.

—Brian Demay

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