First Step: When cooking pasta you must start with the right size pot! For a pound of pasta you should have at least a 5-gallon pot. Use a bigger pot if you are cooking pasta for more than 6 people.

The second important step when cooking pasta is to salt the cooking water. I am surprised at how many people are actually cooking pasta in plain water. For a 5-gallon pot I usually cup my left hand and heap a nice hill of salt on it. Cooking pasta in salt water will give it its distinguished taste, which will allow you to make simple and clean tasting sauces to accompany the pasta. In other words, you won’t have to overpower the pasta with over-seasoned and spiced up sauces. I once ate pasta that was cooked in sweet water and even though the sauce was tasty and delicious, it still had that undercurrent of blandness, which was very dissatisfying. Once the pasta is cooked, that’s it – you can’t “sprinkle” salt over the cooked pasta! That will result in patches of overly salted pasta – an irreversible disaster!

Third important step when cooking pasta: wait till the water has reached a rolling boil.

 
Fourth important step: when cooking spaghetti watch how you “throw” the spaghetti in the water. Definitely do not “place” them in the water. You should hold all the spaghetti together like a big tube. Place the “tube” perpendicularly in the center of the pot so that the end of this tube touches the bottom of the pot. Now let go of the spaghetti and let them fall randomly like a flower that opens up. Come to think of it…let the spaghetti fall in the water just like you would start a Mikado game.

Fifth important step when cooking pasta: as soon as you let go of the pasta, you must gently stir (for the spaghetti: push down the upper ends of the spaghetti as fast as possible to ensure that all the spaghetti are fully immersed in the water).
Please note: the water will “calm down” for a minute or so, but it will quickly resume the rolling boil. Continue to stir the pasta until the water is boiling again. Once it is, you only have to stir occasionally until the pasta is cooked al dente.

Cooking pasta al dente is indeed of utmost importance! I know; so many people subconsciously consider themselves experts just because they mention the term “al dente”. I’ve eaten pasta that supposedly was cooked al dente but in reality they were overcooked. Cooking pasta too long causes them to puff up like a sick person that retains too much water in the body. They become too heavy and lose their firmness and shape and whatever sauce you add will only worsen the scenario. I’d rather just eat the sauce with some good bread than waste it on “puffed up” pasta.

So…apart from personal preferences…what is a good guideline in knowing for sure that you’re indeed cooking pasta al dente? The cross section will tell. Let’s say you are cooking spaghetti no. 5 from Barilla. Fish some spaghetti out of the boiling water after approximately 9 minutes. Blow some cool air on the few strings of spaghetti and take a bite. If you see some white, uncooked dough in the middle of the spaghetti cross section they’re still undone. I increase the frequency of my cross section tests by the seconds and, as soon as that white part disappears, the spaghetti are perfectly al dente!

Final steps when cooking pasta: turn off the stove, pour one glass of cold water into the pot of pasta, and drain the pasta utilizing your colander. Place the pasta back into the pot or a big bowl and mix with your sauce.
Tip: don’t use all the sauce. I usually coat the pasta with just enough sauce so they won’t stick together while they’re still in the pot. After I serve the plates I make sure I also serve the extra sauce separately on the table for my guests to help themselves.