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I boil my pasta on a medium boil. Should I boil it high to get the most starch out of the pasta? And I like to use store bought packaged whole grain pasta.
I think they are saying to leave your pasta al dente (less cooked) and finish it in the sauce, two things will actually happen to help you:
1. The pasta will release more starch than if you use fully cooked pasta and just put the sauce over it, and
2. The pasta will actually incorporate the sauce (suck it into itself) as it finishes cooking,which will add to the thickness too.
The other thing is that most cream based sauces are either going to be roux based, and if you perfect your roux skills, you'll have perfect and stable sauce, or reductions. If you're doing a reduction, it takes time, as you are basically evaporating the excess liquid out of the sauce.
Either way, if you want it to be think, then see above, lightly undercook your noodles and finish them IN the sauce.
And FWIW, I call BS on "all restaurants used canned sauce". Maybe the big-box crappo places, but any 'real' restaurant is making their classic sauces in the classic way.
Do I need to be making sauce with higher heat so as soon as the liquids hit pan, the water vaporizes away?
I like making sauces for pasta and don't use high heats, medium is best for sauces.
It sounds like you aren't cooking your sauce long enough, wine especially needs to be reduced after using it to wash the fond back into the sauce. Removing the protein while getting the sauce more reduced should be done so it isn't overcooked (the protein I mean).
I use cornstarch not a flour roux but I'm an amateur who chooses "easy and quick" every time.
Just use a light hand with cornstarch to avoid gloppy sauce and always mix the cornstarch in water first, never put cornstarch directly in the pan.
I almost never put the pasta into the sauce while in a heated pan because the sauce gets too absorbed and disappears.
Maybe pro cooks disagree with this. My dinner, my way.
I would say to cook the sauce longer and on low or medium temps. I like cooking it in a slow cooker. I’ve never tried baking it for whatever reason, but I imagine that would be good as well.
I have always added oil to the pasta while it was boiling to keep it from sticking together. I’ve heard that doing that also keeps the sauce from sticking to the pasta. I like keeping the pasta separate from the sauce prior to plating and when storing, so I’ll continue to add oil to the water.
As someone who makes homemade meat/marinara sauce and is Italian I hope none of you are putting cornstarch or flour in it to thicken. Use tomato paste and cook the sauce low and slow for at least 5 hours and if there is meat in the sauce cook a bit longer. for other pasta sauces such as alfredo using heavy whipping cream butter and grated cheese will help it thicken plus as it cools it will thicken and always add the cheese last and take it off the heat. Pesto should not need thickening either. other sauces like Marsala, piccata or Francaise sauce should thicken on it's own because the cutlets are dredged in flour. For these types of sauces I like mine slightly thicker and use a little cornstarch and water.
As someone who makes homemade meat/marinara sauce and is Italian I hope none of you are putting cornstarch or flour in it to thicken. Use tomato paste and cook the sauce low and slow for at least 5 hours and if there is meat in the sauce cook a bit longer. for other pasta sauces such as alfredo using heavy whipping cream butter and grated cheese will help it thicken plus as it cools it will thicken and always add the cheese last and take it off the heat. Pesto should not need thickening either. other sauces like Marsala, piccata or Francaise sauce should thicken on it's own because the cutlets are dredged in flour. For these types of sauces I like mine slightly thicker and use a little cornstarch and water.
I think it would be easier to just come to your house for dinner.
The only time you should be putting oil in the pasta water before cooking is when you boil Lasagna noodles. You want to the sauce to stick to the pasta but to each their own. I also prefer to mix the sauce and pasta together as well.
In restaurant kitchens, creating those creamy, full-bodied pasta sauces consistently often involves some insider tricks. They do indeed use a significant amount of pasta water because it contains starch released from the pasta during cooking. This starch helps thicken the sauce and bind it to the pasta.
Your observation about the higher heat is spot on – it helps evaporate excess liquid, leaving you with a creamy consistency. And that beautiful fond from the scallops adding color and flavor sounds like a delicious touch!
As for your pasta water, using it with a good amount of salt can enhance its starchy properties. And fresh pasta does have the advantage of providing starchier water, which can make a difference in your sauce's texture.
So, don't be shy with that pasta water, crank up the heat a bit, and you'll be on your way to mastering those restaurant-quality pasta sauces. By the way, the best way to reheat fried rice is to use medium heat in a skillet – it keeps the texture just right. Happy cooking.
Last edited by garyhardy; 10-17-2023 at 03:36 AM..
Reason: correction in spellings
How do restaurants really make creamy, sticky, full body pasta sauces consistently?
In my personal experience, using pasta water, and some kind of stock along with white wine will make the sauce very runny. I just tried to make scallop/seafood pasta tonight. I added white wine, and some stock made from the boiling pasta water, and lobster bouillon. By just the white wine, it already seemed too watery/runny, but I added the stock anyways. I just skipped the pasta water. At the end of it all, I had to add heavy cream. But still not the best result I was hoping for.
Whenever I watch the pros on YT, they add loads and loads of pasta water. It is mostly water but the sauce becomes creamy, and sticks to the pasta well. When I do it, the bottom of bowl/plate has all the sauce. Do I need to be making sauce with higher heat so as soon as the liquids hit pan, the water vaporizes away?
What did happen tonight is the scallops produced a good amount of orangy, reddish fond on the pan. When I added the white wine I scraped it all up, and the liquid in the pan turned to orangy/reddish which is what I wanted. Perhaps I did not need to add stock at that point. I also made the stock using the boiling pasta water by mixing it in small bowl with bouillon. So there is the starchy pasta water in it. Perhaps I am not adding enough salt to the boiling water. Or is it because I am using store bought packaged pasta? Is fresh pasta better for making starchy pasta water?
Here is an example of chefs adding a ladles and ladles of pasta water. I dont see how it can work. Pasta water is after all mostly water.
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Professional Chef here. Your sauce failed because you tried to incorporate stock into your sauce. The video shows that cook using butter and pasta water. Like another poster stated, he used maybe 8oz of pasta water. There's a chef rule: reduce, reduce, reduce. It sounds like you also didn't reduce enough. The perfect sauce takes time, especially if you're reducing liquid.
Your scallops produced a beautiful fond. I would've removed the scallops, added the wine as you did, reduce that to au sec (almost dry), added some butter, let that melt and barely start to brown, add the pasta and then start adding the pasta water-just like the cook did in the video. Reduce, reduce, reduce. You're going to get that wonderful seafood taste you want because of the fond. Now if you want a thicker sauce, add some cheese like he did, otherwise your sauce will be thinnish, but delicious. You have to reduce to sauce consistency or nappe'. If you don't want a cheesy sauce with your scallops, but a thicker sauce you could add a bit of heavy cream to finish. Otherwise I think the sauce would be fine with just the fond/wine/butter/pasta water reduction.
I have worked in scratch kitchens. We don't use can sauces. Cream sauces use reduced heavy cream. We never used flour or cornstarch to thicken our sauces unless we were making a roux (with flour, not cornstarch) for one of the French mother sauces.
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