My husband is an excellent sous chef, but he’s hopeless cooking on his own. Most of the time, he has me right beside him in the kitchen, so he doesn’t need to retain any cooking knowledge. In his defense, I like having control in the kitchen. However, that also means he asks a lot of questions.
Over and over, he has asked me how to cook pasta. He knows to add water to the pot, put on the lid, and place it over high heat. Once the water is boiling and he’s added the pasta, though, he can’t for the life of him remember whether he should put the lid back on.
So this article is dedicated to him, my dear sous chef, and to all of you who have wondered the same thing. Should you leave the lid on or off while pasta cooks? I talked to some chefs to find out.
The Pasta Pros
Credit: Simply Recipes / Getty Images
Why a Lid Can Help Speed up Cooking Pasta
I always boil water for pasta with the lid on, since it traps heat and helps the water boil faster. You can use the same principle after you add the pasta to the boiling water.
“I cover the pot after adding the pasta to bring the water back to a boil as quickly as possible. The pasta lowers the water temperature, and covering the pot helps trap the heat and get it back to a vigorous boil faster,” says Singley. “Once it’s boiling, I remove the lid and cook uncovered.”
This is especially helpful when you’re boiling a large pot of water or cooking a lot of pasta. Once you add the pasta, the water often stops boiling, and it can take a little time to return to a vigorous boil. Putting the lid back on helps the water heat back up faster.
Chef Rizzo agrees that this method works: “I might put the lid on briefly to bring it back to a boil and then I take it off and let the pasta cook uncovered.” The key, he says, is what happens next: The lid has to come off as soon as the water is boiling.
Why You Shouldn’t Cook Pasta With the Lid On
If you’ve ever left the lid on a boiling pasta pot by accident, then you know what happens: a big mess. Chef Boni explains, “Pasta releases starch as it cooks, which creates foam on the surface of the water. If you cover the pot, that foam can rise quickly and boil over.”
Chef Cacace says, “Starchy salted pasta water tends to foam up very quickly, especially when you cover your pot. A covered pot will overflow and create a big annoying mess to clean up!” I’ve cleaned up a few of these messes in my day, and “annoying” is an understatement.
In addition to avoiding a time-consuming cleanup, cooking pasta without the lid has a few advantages. “You want to watch what’s going on and stir your pasta so it doesn’t stick,” says Chef Cacace. Keeping the pot uncovered also makes it easier to monitor the water and prevent it from boiling over.
Plus, pasta water can come in handy. The starchy cooking water helps sauces cling to pasta and can make them glossy and cohesive when you add it to the sauce. “I like to add a bit of starchy pasta water to [the sauce] while everything comes together,” says Chef Boni.
This is especially true when you’re making one-pot pastas, says Singley. “Because the pasta cooks in a relatively small amount of liquid, you want that liquid to reduce and concentrate as the pasta cooks.”
To sum up: if you’re in a rush, or just impatient like me, you can put the lid back on after you add pasta to a pot of boiling water to help it come back up to a boil. Just don’t walk away. As soon as it starts boiling again, remove the lid and let the pasta cook uncovered. That way, you can monitor the pot, stir the pasta as needed, and, most importantly, avoid a big mess on your stovetop.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes