The best way to sauce pasta is to finish cooking it in the sauce as this infuses the pasta with flavor!
To start, cook the pasta in a small amount of water – you don’t have to use a huge pot filled with water. Cooking pasta this way has a couple of advantages – the water takes less time to boil and the water is starchier once the pasta is done cooking (we’ll be using the water when we sauce the pasta). I use a 12 saute pan that is big enough to hold the pasta I’m cooking, you basically need just a couple of inches of water – enough to fully cover the pasta. Salt the water but DO NOT MAKE IT AS “SALTY AS THE SEA”. That’s a dumb old wives’ tale – sea water is wayyyyyyyy too salty. I use a tablespoon(ish) – if you taste the water you want it to taste “right” – to your salt taste. I actually salt to Ash’s taste as I like things saltier than most people. Bring the water to a boil (you actually don’t even need to do this, you can cook pasta starting in cold water) and add the pasta, stirring to keep it separate. Cook until a minute or so short of al dente (taste it – you want to pull it out when it is still chewy – a minute or so less than the instructions on the box/bag say). Drain the pasta but save a cup of so of the cooking water, you’ll need it. Alternately, you can use tongs and just lift the pasta out of the water and put it right into your sauce, I do this pretty frequently.
Meanwhile, while the pasta cooks, have your sauce warming up in a big skillet (or make it if it is a quick cooking sauce like carbonara (yeah, yeah, I’ll do that one live soon). Turn the heat up to high and add the pasta and start stirring. Add pasta cooking water to keep cooking the pasta – I start with about a half cup. Keep stirring, adding more water if needed, until the pasta is done. Add finishing “stuff” – grated cheese, toasted bread crumbs (if you haven’t tried this, do it NOW), olive oil, fresh herbs, etc. Serve in warm (always!!) bowls. BTW, DO NOT over sauce the pasta, you can add more at the table if you want.
The pic below was made with a long-cooked ragu. I combined these two recipes:
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/ragu-napoletano-meat-sauce-pork-beef-sausage-recipe.html
