Spaghetti is one of our most loved recipe and is usually enjoyed with stew, sauces or made jollof.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been cooking it for years, and by now you could probably make it with your eyes closed.
But as simple as it is to cook spaghetti, you might be making common mistakes without even knowing it.
Here are the five most common mistakes that are made when cooking spaghetti, plus our best tips on how to avoid them!
Using Small Pot
This is a very common mistake, trying to squeeze a tall pack of spaghetti into a relatively smaller pot. It’s wrong ! Cooking spaghetti in a smaller pot makes the water temperature drops significantly when the pasta is added hereby making your spaghetti clumpy and mushy ( regular Nigerians would say ‘gumgum’)
To most of us, not putting salt in spags is an habit or maybe for diet purposes. But it’s wrong, remember salt also has iodine benefits and asides that the salt doesn’t get into the pasta, remember we sieve our the water?, It’s just to rough the surface.
When next you’re cooking your spaghetti, follow this tip: bring your water to a boil first then add 1-2 teaspoon of salt.
Adding Spaghetti To The Water Too Soon
You can’t wait to eat, I understand. But when you put in the pasta before the water is boiled, the pasta sits in water that’s not hot enough, it gets gummy and sticky. Next time wait till comes to a boil for pouring in your pasta
Not stirring your spaghetti
Most of us just put in our spaghetti and walk away leaving it to boil. This isn’t rice yunno! Skip this step and you’re left with a giant clump of noodles that are stuck together.
Always ensure to stir your pasta immediately after adding to boiled water and also occasionally while it cooks
Rinsing Your Spaghetti
We often think the starch isn’t healthy and rinsing it makes it better. Meanwhile, you don’t know by washing the starch, you’re washing away the spaghetti wonderful flavour.
Instead, just sieve and drain the water and serve!
How do you prepare your spaghetti? What’s your common mistake? Are you fond of rinsing? If yes, why?
Chefs and dear readers, express your minds, we all cook spaghetti, don’t we?