Pasta seems like an easy thing to cook — boil, drain, sauce, done — but like any other simple food, making boxed pasta can be complex. We hear the same pasta strictures on repeat: Salt the water (it should taste like the sea), don’t break the spaghetti, don’t simply ladle on the sauce. You get the idea.

Here’s a roadmap for navigating the pitfalls of pasta. In the end, great pasta is both simple and complex — and getting there is pretty easy.

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