Tips for Cooking Pasta at Our Gainesville, Florida Apartments

One of the simplest but most satisfying meals you can prepare at your Bellamay Grand apartment home is a pasta dish. Whatever style of pasta you prefer, be it rigatoni, linguine, or penne, there are several general tips that can help your pasta dish turn out wonderfully.

Here are some of the ways you can make your pasta dishes stand above the rest:

• When cooking your pasta, add a few pinches of salt to the pot of boiling water before throwing the pasta in. While any salt will do, the effect is better if you use kosher or sea salt. The salt in the water will absorb into the pasta as it cooks and add flavor to your dish.

• Take care not to overcook pasta so that it falls apart. Most pasta is served “al dente,” or firm. Remember to taste-test your pasta every couple of minutes to make sure it’s not getting overcooked, and stir it frequently to ensure that all of the pasta is ready to eat at the same time. The pasta should typically need no more than 8-10 minutes in boiling water to be ready to consume.

• Once the pasta is done, drain it in a colander or similar device, but do not rinse it with water or coat it with olive oil. Rinsing with water strips the pasta of starch and nutrients and may remove the added salt. Similarly, rinsing with olive oil is often done to keep the pasta from sticking, but pasta that is not overcooked rarely sticks, and adding olive oil after the pasta is done may prevent your pasta sauce of choice from sticking to it, causing the dish to be bland and forgettable.

• Before you serve the pasta, return it to the empty pot and toss is with your favorite pasta sauce as well as a few teaspoons of the salt water you just boiled it in. This will help spread the flavor to all the noodles, and before you know it, your delicious pasta meal will be ready to serve.

Once your pasta is ready, you can choose to mix in any number of extra toppings and ingredients, like shrimp, chicken, or mushrooms. No matter what your preference, making pasta is easy with the well appointed kitchens in all of our Gainesville, Florida apartments. To learn about the many amenities available at Bellamay Grand, contact our leasing office today. We’d be happy to tell you all about our beautiful apartment community.