Maine chef Sara Jenkins shares secrets to perfect pasta

Chef Sara Jenkins, owner of Nina June in Rockport, Maine, offers essential advice for achieving perfectly cooked pasta, stressing that timing is critical. "You can always cook it longer, but you can never go back," she explained, highlighting the irreversible nature of overcooking.

Jenkins shared four key recommendations for preparing pasta, emphasizing the importance of using enough water, salting it properly, controlling the cooking point, and reserving some of the cooking liquid. She advocates for at least six quarts of cold water per pound of pasta to ensure noodles have room to move and prevent sticking. This larger volume also helps the water return to a boil faster after adding the pasta, crucial for even cooking, especially in large batches.

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You can always cook it longer, but you can never go back.

Salting the water is Jenkins' second point, with her guideline being about a quarter cup of kosher salt per six quarts of water, aiming for a taste "like the ocean." She believes this is the primary opportunity to infuse flavor into the pasta itself. Regarding cooking time, Jenkins suggests starting to taste the pasta about three minutes before the package instructions indicate. This allows home cooks to achieve the desired al dente texture, which is firm to the bite. If the pasta is still too firm, it can cook a few minutes longer, but once overcooked, the texture is lost and difficult to correct.

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like the ocean