Idiot's guide to seeing if spaghetti's cooked

[Hocus Eye.]

its already hard when you buy it....thats the whole idea behind dry pasta.

Yes I know this. I am talking about dried pasta not fresh pasta. But dried pasta also hardens further if you keep it a very long time such as more than a year. That means it takes longer than the advertised cooking time.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

I only buy fresh pasta as it cooks quicker and tastes better. I used to throuw it against the ceiling back in my teens when I lived at home. My mum still has the stains on her ceiling to this day. She was not impressed

 

[tarannau]

I actually think that the majority of freshly made pasta in this country is crap. I can buy a pricier bag of mushier fresh stuff made in a factory somewhere near Basingstoke, or some decent dried DiCecco stuff made in Italy. In most cases I reckon the dried's superior.

 

[Herbsman.]

In most cases I reckon the dried's superior.

IIRC that is Giorgio Locatelli's opinion too.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

I actually think that the majority of freshly made pasta in this country is crap. I can buy a pricier bag of mushier fresh stuff made in a factory somewhere near Basingstoke, or some decent dried DiCecco stuff made in Italy. In most cases I reckon the dried's superior.

Good job Basingstoke is not in my country then.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Some people

"the way to tell if spaghetti's cooked, if you throw it against the wall it will stick"

what kind of idiot would actually do that instead of simply taking a strand and biting it? ffs x 1,000,000,000

Its the only way... never ever fails

 

[Orang Utan]

DiCecco's the best and it ain't too expensive either

 

[Detroit City]

DiCecco's the best and it ain't too expensive either

I've always had this sneaking suspicion that all the dried pasta in the world comes out of one central pasta factory hidden underground somewhere in Italy

Then they just package it up in all different boxes.

 

[Orang Utan]

Boxes?

 

[tarannau]

I think DC's going for the 'most boneheaded posts in a row' record myself. When he says something, you usually can be sure that the truth's elsewhere.

Still, I'm not convinced that I could really tell the difference between fairly decent brands in a blind taste test, speciality pastas excepted. But brands like DiCecco are reliable and very consistent - some supermarket own brand stuff just seems to cook wrong and turn into mush far too quickly. It's easier to get something like DiCecco al dente and tasting damn decent every time.