How to cook pasta…

Use plenty of water- the pasta must be able to circulate in the pot.

Bring water to a medium boil.

Add half-a-dozen noodles or shapes to the water, start a stopwatch.  Stir.

Check the pasta every minute or so and you’ll start to get a feel when the pasta is getting done- the noodles will slip freely, or the shapes will be softening quite a bit. 

This is it- decide when the pasta is done for your tastes.  It’s not the same in every household.

Now add the amount of pasta you wish to cook to the pot and remove when it is done to your taste, using your test boil time as a reference.

Or…

Noodles

Fine- vermicelli, capellini         2-5 minutes

Medium- fettuccini,                   6-9 minutes

Wide- tagliatelle                        9-15 minutes  

Alternative flours                      3-8 minutes

Shapes

Open- fusilli, shells                   7-9 minutes

Tubes- rigatoni, penne, mac      9-14 minutes

Bucatini, linguine                      6-8 minutes

 The salt thing...

Do what you want.

And, how to cook ravioli

Use plenty of water, bring to a moderate boil. 

Add ravioli, stir.

Water will stop boiling during Kilacaloric equalibriumazation, eventually boiling again.

This is important- once the water boils again, you may need to turn the burner down- a hard boil may cause the ravioli to burst.

Once the timer goes off, check a corner for doneness.  It’s OK to let the ravioli rest in the hot water for a minute before removing.

Ravioli

Smaller size                               4 minutes, steep

Larger size                                 5 minutes, steep