Sticky Pasta???!
Answers: I recently cooked a box of angel hair pasta to try an alfredo recipe, but once I strained the pasta, it became a tangled knot. It was not overcooked, and after I added the sauce it became a little bit more pliable. Is there a way to make pasta a little bit less eager to stick together and to the serving dish??
Angel Hair pasta is very delicate so you MUST use it immediatly after cooking it for the proper amount of time for it to perform as it should. I recommend adding salt to your boiling water just before you drop in your pasta and once the pasta is cooked and drained, toss it immediatly with your sauce and stir with tongs to coat each strand. If you must let your pasta sit even for one minute without any sauce then you should definatly pour some olive oil on it and stir with tongs. This will prevent the tangled mess you are referring to.
add salt to the water when your boiling it and add olive oil or butter to the pasta after draining to keep it from sticking to each other.
Did you use enough water to cook the pasta? Not using enough water will cause this problem.
salt your pasta water really well when you add the pasta, you can also add a little oil to the water and cook to al dente
You can add some oil to the pasta water, or add some oil to the pasta after you cook it.
You may have overcooked it just a bit. Check it a couple of minutes less than the recommended time. Do add salt to the cooking water. Do not add oil to the cooking water. After you've drained the pasta- add a little olive oil and stir.
Use more water
and add a little salt to the water while cooking it
you could also maybe add a bit of butter after it has been strained and before adding the sauce
Angel hair needs special handling. I always use plenty of salt in the cooking water, then rinse with cold water to chill as soon as it is drained. Then I drizzle with about 1 Tbsp olive oil per pound of pasta, a sprinkling of salt, and add a bit of parsley and toss it. I quickly heat it again before adding sauce. Leftover pasta that has been treated this way stays perfect to enjoy later.
If my pasta becomes sticky after sitting in the strainer for a while, all I do is give it a quick rinse in hot water to loosen them up again. Works every time.
Using enough water (at least 3-4 qts. for 1/2 box of pasta) in a big pot, adding salt to the water once it's boiling, before adding the pasta (about 2-3 Tbs. per pound of pasta), and adding about 1-2 Tbs. of oil to the water after adding the pasta, all should keep it from sticking. If you stir the pasta around right when you add it and the oil, then stir it again about halfway through cooking, it will separate the strands enough. You were right on with adding the sauce too... the longer the pasta cools "naked" without sauce, the stickier it will get. Hope this helps!
There's usually a lot of starch released when pasta cooks, so it's good to either add oil to the water when cooking the pasta or else to simply rinse the pasta in a colander after cooking to make it less sticky.
Use good quality pasta (no store brands)
add a little EVOO or Pam to the cooking water. For long pastas, break them in half before adding to boiling water. Cook according to package directions; if it says 7 minutes, set a timer for 7 minutes. Al dente pasta doesn't get tangled.
Use fettucine or spaghetti next time for Alfredo sauce; it's pretty hardy and can stand up to the thick alfredo.