i don't know if anyone does cooking diaries here anymore. i haven't seen one in a while. I always thought this was worth sharing because I learned it by rumor and I know no one else who does this.
Ok, we are all taught to make pasta by taking a big pot of boiling water, salting it, putting some olive oil in it. cooking the pasta, straining it in a colander, cooking the sauce separately and combining the two before you serve them.
There is a subset of very fancy people who say that you should reserve a cup of "pasta water" and drain the pasta a little early and put it in the pan with your sauce and some of the pasta water and let them cook together for the last few minutes. This is supposed to be the advanced way.
Whichever of those two ways you choose, you have a timing issue between the pasta and the sauce, you also have a very large pot to clean (which if you have a dishwasher will occupy most of it) and if you want to make any of those northern italian/tuscan pasta dishes like pasta con fungi (mushrooms) you haven't got a prayer of it coming out right.
So here is my discovery for anyone who really loves pasta.
I'm going to describe it for linguini with mushrooms but linguini with garlic, crushed pepper and olive oil is the same idea. So is pasta with asparagus or zucchini or tomato sauce or anything else you can image. Just consider the general cooking time for the ingredients. There are some fresca sauces where the heat of the pasta is supposed to melt the mozzarella and just warm the fresh, raw ingredients (obviously that is different.)
Take a large pan at least twelve inches across and 2 inches deep (you need a pan that the pasta will lie flat in.)
Warm the pan over a low heat. Put on a large kettle of boiling water.
If you are using fresh mushrooms, clean the mushrooms. If you are using dried mushrooms soak them in several cups of warm water.
Now add olive oil and garlic to the pan with some crushed red pepper (if you want) - like you would if you were starting any sauce. Don't let the garlic brown.
If you want onions or shallots add onions or shallots. Now, add some white wine or some or the water from the dried mushrooms o,r if you dan't have wine and are using fresh mushrooms poor the water from the kettle straight into the pan and turn the heat up. You should now have some oil garlic and onions floating in about an inch of boiling water in a large 2 inch deep pan (it should look strange) add salt and then put the linguini strait into this pan. If you added white wine initially then add some boiling water with it before the linguini. If you added dried mushroom juice the same. Either way, continue stirring the contents of this pan with a wooden spatula fairly consistently for the next ten minutes or so until it is done. You'll need to continue to add kettle water as the level of water in the pan gets too low. In the beginning when the pasta is very raw, keep the water at least an inch deep. Don't let the pasta stick together. As the pasta softens, the fluid in the pan will become more sauce-like and you'll need increasingly less fluid in the pan. Taste for salt. Add pepper.
Chop up some flat leafed parsley to add at the end. If you are using dried mushrooms add them shortly after the pasta. if you are using fresh mushrooms and you want them fully cooked but not falling apart wait a couple of minutes to add them. if you want them still stiff wait till close to the end.
As the process goes along, and the pasta becomes more flexible, the starch being released from the pasta will make the fluid in the pan a little cloudy. This is the basis of your sauce. Also, the pasta is absorbing all the flavors in the pan throughout its cooking making it much more flavorful.
This is a process that requires you to taste as you go. Taste for doneness. Taste for salt (I always need more than I think I should.) Keep stirring. You don't want this to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Regarding the heat: initially, you turn it up high because you want it to boil but as the process continues and the pasta softens you need less fluid in the pan for the pasta to cook and so the heat should be turned down so that the pasta doesn't stick or burn.
Close to the end I usually add a little extra olive oil but that is optional.
When it is done, all the water has either evaporated been absorbed or turned into a sauce.
Mushrooms aren't nescessary. I did this the other day just with garlic crushed pepper and parsley and it was awesome.
Almost anything anyone has ever made pasta with would work this way. Also any shape of pasta works.
Have fun!
Experiment!
It's a whole lot easier than the way we were taught and it tastes better. Also much less to clean up.
What's your favorite way to make pasta?
Update Adamantius reminded me of something (yes I know it's weird to update a cooking diary.) The best use of this technique is white clam sauce. You cook the pasta down in the white wine and clam broth and add the clams and parsley at the end when the linguini is basically cooked and the sauce is just a little thin. Also, for reasons that are not clear, a tiny amount of tomato paste does not change the color and really melds the flavors.