cooking fettuccine

How come everytime I cook fettuccine some of the pasta sticks to itself?

I usually add a good amount of water, but I always find myself with this problem… I use semolina (barilla) pasta only…

Add salt, or lemon juice to the boiling water, and make sure to stir early, vigorously, and often!

At least that’s what works for me.

What Quadgop said. If you’re ending up with a clump of stuck-together fettuccine within an otherwise unstuck bunch-o-noodles, it definitely sounds like lack of stirring may be the culprit.

Not to ask the obvious but are you getting the water to a rolling boil before you put the pasta in? Pasta that heats with sub-boiling water tends to be nasty and sticky.

Also, are you using enough water? If you don’t have enough water, it cools down to much when you add the pasta and goes off the boil.

Use more water, some salt and make it a rolling boil. Overcooking will cause the pasta to get gummy, so lean towards ‘al dente’, leaving the pasta slightly firm.

Old Schoolers believe olive oil, say a tbl spoon, will keep it from sticking, but I feel this helps upon straining it, not while it is in the pot.

We cook with big lobster-pot-sized pots, even for 2-4 servings. Also, noodles are going to stick regardless of cooking technique after they are strained/drained. At this point, you need some type of sauce or gravy (red sauce with meat can be called gravy).

The sauce can be good ol’ butter, or oil and garlic, a marinara, meat sauce, or even al fredo sauce, etc. Left alone, even the best pasta will stick to itself.

Capish?

What Philster said. Emphasis mine.

Cooking pasta is an art. Moving to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

I agree with all the others who say “use more water” and “make sure to bring it to a rolling boil.”

What size pot are you using? When I cook a whole pound of pasta, I use a minimum of a 6 qt pot and fill it almost to the top with water.

I am cooking vermicelli tonight, and will give that a try.

I always add a little olive oil to the water before I put the pasta in. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I make pretty good pasta. Well, it doesn’t stick together at least.

Ditto others:

  1. Rolling boil

and

  1. Toss with olive oil after straining

Putting olive oil in the water is an old wives tale and does nothing…

Another thing I would add, is to add the pasta slowly into the water, about one serving at a time to keep the water boiling. I accidently put the whole package (1 lb) in at once the other night, and had sticky pasta galore.

I will agree with those who say, “Use more water,” and I would add, “Use even more water.”