Most directions for cooking pasta say something like this: 1. Bring water to a boil, 2. Add a pinch of salt, 3. Let it boil for 8-10 minutes. Occasionally, the directions might mention something about altitude and longer cooking times. These directions will generally get you from the point where pasta is dry and hard to the point where your pasta is no longer hard or dry, but it won't get you perfect pasta. The directions below will get you perfect pasta anywhere in the world at any altitude with any water.

This is my quick guide to making perfect pasta every time.

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Add salt*, you want to get the water to the point where it is just about the taste of sea water, generally around 2 tablespoons.
3. Add the pasta and use the the technique below to determine when the pasta is done.
4. Drain and add your sauce.

Don't add any oil. Pasta that is over cooked tends to stick together much more than pasta that is cooked right. Your sauce will stick to your pasta better without oil.

Knowing when your pasta is done.

(click to see larger versions)

Dry pasta starts out hard and smaller than the final product. As it cooks, the pasta absorbs water, expands, and slightly changes color. The color change is the secret perfect pasta. At about 5 minutes take a piece of pasta out of the pot and bite it in half. The dry parts in the center look whitish. Check the pasta every couple minutes or so until the white has completely disappeared. As it disappears you want to check it a little more often. Once the white is just about gone, but not completely (see the picture above) you want to let the pasta boil for another 15 seconds. This is about how long it is going to take you to get out your strainer plus a few seconds. It is imperative that you strain your pasta as soon as possible.Your pasta is done! This means that if you are not quick you probably want to skip the 15 second wait. You must to serve it immediately. If you cannot serve it within 3 minutes, you probably want to leave it a little underdone.

* Many people think that you add salt to the water when cooking pasta in order to raise the boiling point of the water and make the water cook faster. The amount of salt needed to raise the boiling point of water enough to make to make a difference will also make your pasta taste awful. The real reason to add salt to the water is to provide some flavor to the pasta, since dry pasta has no salt in it. In fact back before we polluted the ocean so much, Italians who lived by the sea would use water straight from the sea to cook pasta.