Fast Recipes: Pastas

My favorite time-saver: boiling the pasta until it’s just barely al dente while I make the sauce in a big skillet. Then I toss all of the ingredients together in the hot pan so the pasta finishes cooking while it soaks up the delicious sauce.

A Pasta Lesson

There are a few secrets to making perfect pasta:

Salt the water just before adding the pasta.

Save some of the starchy cooking water (before draining) to help thicken, season and round out the flavors in almost any finished dish.

Use the right quantities For every 1/2 pound of pasta, use 3 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of kosher salt.

Published May 2007