When the pasta is 2–3 minutes from done, add the sauce to the pan and keep it moving. The pasta finishes cooking in the sauce and takes some of it in, and the starchy water binds the two into one glossy sauce that clings. This is the step a restaurant does with its pasta water; here the water is already in the pan.
Options
| Option | Pick it when | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Tight | A thick base, like meat sauce | Cook it down until the sauce clings and nothing pools |
| Loose | An oily or fresh sauce | Stop while it’s still saucy; it tightens on the plate |
Notes
- You can push the noodles hard: let the water cook off, add oil, and fry the noodles, adding the sauce a bit at a time. Fry hard, add sauce, repeat. This is close to Spaghetti all’Assassina.
How it fails
- Watery or thin: too much water, so the starch was diluted, or it wasn’t cooked down before the sauce went in. Keep cooking it down, or thicken it with cheese off the heat. Cheese is almost always the answer.
- Dry or stuck: it cooked too long. Loosen it with a splash of water.