How to stop pasta sticking together | Kitchen aide

Fast-boiling salted water and active stirring prevent hollow pasta shapes like orecchiette from sticking together. Pasta should be checked before cooking to ensure pieces are not already intertwined, and it should not be dumped all at once. After adding pasta, stir right away, then continue stirring at regular intervals so shapes float free. Olive oil in the water is not necessary and does not prevent clumping if stirring is skipped. After cooking, lift pasta out with a slotted spoon or sieve and transfer in batches to a large bowl to avoid steam and cooling water causing glue-like clagging in a colander. If draining is required, use a double-colander approach.

"“It’s really important that you don’t just drop it [in boiling water] and walk away,” says Dara Klein, of Tiella in east London. “Like a dear friend, pay it some attention.” David mentions orecchiette, which is a particularly vulnerable shape, says the Guardian's Italian correspondent, Rachel Roddy: “They have a habit of falling into each other,” she sympathises, and in such times it's best to check your basic principles."

"“The water should be fast boiling, add salt, then stir, so you've got that double movement.” She isn't one for adding olive oil, mind. Neither is Klein: “It's just not necessary.” And even if you've added a healthy glug of oil to the water, you're still going to get clumping if you don't stir. This may seem obvious, but make sure your pasta hasn't intertwined in the bag before shaking it into the rolling water, and don't be daft and dump the lot in all at once."

"“As soon as the pasta is in the water, give it a stir with a wooden spoon,” says Klein, who then stirs every minute to ensure those pasta shapes float free. Once cooked, it's a good idea to scoop out the pasta with a slotted spoon or sieve (a spider or a regular one, Roddy says) and put it in a big bowl. You want to be doing this in batches, rather than pouring the lot into a colander—that's just another opportunity for the pasta to clag because the water goes down the sink, the steam comes up and you glue the pasta together in the colander."

"“If you really must drain, meanwhile, Roddy would go for the double—ie, two colanders.” “If you do all of these things—make sure the water is moving, you rain in the pasta, you stir regularly and lift out once cooked—then you should have liberated.”"

Read at www.theguardian.com