Spaghetti Without Clumps -- No Oil

We all imagine a lovely plate of spaghetti, but too often we get goo. We all know that adding oil will fix it -- but oil doesn't really work that well. And besides, why add greasy calories?

This simple technique will give you perfectly separated spaghetti, fettuccini, linguini, vermicelli, and any other long, skinny pasta every single time. It even works with difficult pastas like rice pasta (demonstrated here.) (Dealing with pastas that are not long and skinny will be discussed in the last slide.)

You can practice this dry, but it is the key to clump-free pasta -- honest.

You hold the pasta in your hand, and let it pour out the bottom. As you do, you rotate your hand. The pasta comes out in a big spirally mess.

• First -- get your water to a full rolling boil! Keep the heat on as you add the pasta.
  
  • Note that the pot can be large enough to fully hold the pasta, or can be smaller as shown in the picture
• Second -- spiral the pasta into the pot.

• Keep the heat on full until the pot is at a rolling boil again!
• Stir with purpose (you can use a fork or a pasta server)
  • Your first job is to get all of the pasta wet, so any that is sticking out needs to be gently pushed down. It bends very soon, so you shouldn't have to break it. (I love my pasta full length.)
  • Your second job is to keep it tangled! As you stir, stir to tangle, not to straighten. You are not combing hair here.
• You needn't stir constantly! Once the pasta is kinda settled, and flexible, if it is nice and tangled you can reduce the heat and leave it to cook. It doesn't need to be boiling hard at all. You may want to tangle in it some more as the cooking process goes along, but there isn't much need.

A note on other pastas: This technique is for long, skinny pastas. However, much of it applies to the other pastas like macaroni, fusilli, etc. First, get the water boiling well. Second, add your pasta (especially if doing a lot, add just a bit, stir it in, then add more.) Stir very actively using the "tangle" technique until the water is back to a good rolling boil. Then you can reduce the head, and let your pasta cook.

This works -- Honest!