Pasta Tips from Cristina Ferrare

Try these tips and tricks when you serve pasta
Did you know that most home chefs waste a valuable kitchen resource every time they cook pasta? They pour it right down the drain. That???s right -- the water your pasta cooks in might just be the missing miracle ingredient for your sauce. Professional chefs know that adding a little of the starchy, salty pasta cooking water to almost any sauce gives it a silky touch that helps bind the sauce to the noodles. Try adding anywhere from a tablespoon or two up to one third cup of your pasta cooking water as you finish your sauce.

Then, when your pot of noodles is ready, here???s another tip to finish it off. Instead of dumping out the entire pot of boiling water and then rinsing your noodles, try adding a quart or so of cold water from your tap into your pot. That stops the cooking but leaves the pasta still hot. When you pour the pasta and water through your colander, you won???t produce clouds of scalding steam, either. MORE PASTA TIPS
-Try cooking pasta like risotto. You can add a few ounces of hot cooking liquid at a time as the pasta soaks up the liquid. This produces a totally new texture in pasta. You can also use chicken stock as a cooking liquid for extra flavor.

-Go light on the sauce for a new experience. Toss pasta with a few vegetables coated in olive oil and sautéed garlic. Add pasta cooking water to bind it together for a light and simple meal;.

-In a hurry? Try Angel Hair pasta. It cooks in two minutes as opposed to 10 or 12 for other types of noodles.