I’ve given up on serving my patented spaghetti sauce with pasta shells until I can figure out how to keep them from nesting together in clumps of 2, 3, or up to 8 shells.
I use lots of water, properly salted, stir the hell out of them, etc. etc. Yet they always form a large number of variable-sized nests, giving me a rather unpleasant large pasta mass to chew on, instead of enjoying a delicate bit of pasta lightly coated with a bit of sauce.
I’ve tried a variety of standard shells from a number of reputable pasta manufacturers, tried less water, more water, oiled water, lemoned water, rinsed after cooking, not rinsed after cooking, al dente, boiled to hell and back, and to no avail.
That’s funny! I use 2 or 3 different size shells in an effort to try and get some nested, and rarely have any luck!
I use water and about 2 tbsp of olive oil to boil them is all (no salt) and only stir them once or twice while they cook (12 minutes; I live in a desert).
You must live in bizarro pasta shell world! I might have to experiment with not stirring and see what happens.
Tried oil after, with limited success.
Not a bad option, but that knot in the center of the bowtie is always too crunchy when the rest of the bowtie is al dente, or the knot is al dente but the rest is too soggy. :smack:
Qadgop: I use a healthy dollop of olive oil in the water before I put the pasta in, and stir frequently. With shells, you have to stir more. The oil has to already be in the water, and hot enough to distribute, so that the noodles are coated right away. Use more water than you think you need.
I wouldn’t worry about it most women don’t care about size. Who cares if your “pasta shells” are small.
For all those recommending olive oil - no, never at all, unless you are using the pasta in a salad. No Italian chef or even Italian mother would use oil in the pasta pot.
How about fusilli or radiatore, instead? Sounds like you want something which will catch your sauce in little pockets, and both of those shapes will do it without nesting, and are more even cooking than farfalle.
Just don’t dump in a bit of ziti and a bit of penne to empty the boxes and get them out of your pantry. They fit inside each other perfectly and you get a pasta-within-a-pasta situation I have dubbed penziti.
Qadgop, I’ve never had a problem with shells sticking together. They have a tendency to nest a little, but I don’t usually get huge clumps like you’re talking about. Do you add your sauce immediately after draining them?
If you’re looking to switch to a pasta with less tendency to snuggle, you can try cavatelli, but they’re harder to find than shells or the other basics. I’ve used them in the past and I find they do a pretty good job of filling up with delicious sauciness.
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…and stuff with a sauce to meat and vegetable ratio of 33.3% equidistant to the inclined curvature of the shells circumference…
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haha that’s why I make rigatoni and ziti (or penne) together; I like the occasional nested bits
The best way to find cavatellis is to make them yourself. It’s not hard to make the dough, and you can learn to “cavat”* easily as long as you have at least 2 fingers on one hand. My great-grandmother taught me when I was about 8 years old (taught me, my sister and our 2 cousins, actually).
And once you know how to cavat, it’s just a different type of dough to make gnocchi. Mmmmmmmm potato bombs.
*I have no idea if this is a real Italian word, but it’s what both my great-grandmother and my grandmother used to use for “the act of making cavatelli”.
I’ve heard it’s used to keep the water from boiling over, rather than keeping it from clumping. I don’t see how a pool of oil on top your water would keep your pasta from sticking to itself, and this site agrees (although says nothing about the anti-boiling over properties.) Pasta water should also be generously salted (“as salty as the seawater” is the usual rule of thumb). I find pasta cooked in un- or undersalted water to be bland. Oiling afterwards keeps the sauce from sticking to the pasta properly, so that’s out, too.
So, sorry, no help on the nesting issue. I don’t have any problems, just make sure you get a good, rolling boil going and are using enough water:pasta.
In Italian a ‘cava’ is a pit or a hollow. Cavatelli would be little hollows.
Qadgop it could also be the make of pasta you are using, some cook better than others.
This summer we were in England and my sister had the supermarket brand penne that cooked in 5 minutes. They were awful. Italian penne take 11 minutes to cook to al dente and hold their shape after cooking.
I might have to experiment with not stirring and see what happens.