• Use a big pot with lots of water. If you use too small a pot the pasta will stick to the bottom of the pot. Also, pasta absorbs a lot of water. The better the pasta, the more water absorption.
• Bring to a rolling boil before adding pasta. Don't rush this part. Putting the pasta in too quickly will make the pasta mushy.
• Add the pasta all at once and stir until all pasta is submerged.
• Don't leave the room while the pasta is cooking. This is important. One or two minutes can really ruin your pasta.
• Stir every two minutes so that it doesn't stick to bottom of pot. Stirring also keeps the pasta from sticking to itself.
• Test for doneness by tasting and checking the "bite". Lots of people have amazing techniques for testing when pasta is cooked to perfection. There is only one definitive method - pull out a noodle and take a bite.
• Don't throw pasta on the ceiling. Too messy.
• Drain in a colander. Don't use the lid of the pot to drain the pasta. You can seriously scald yourself and it does a lousy job.
• Do not rinse unless you are making a cold pasta salad. Don't believe the old story about needing to rinse the starch off. You just gave it a bath in boiling water.
