The Big Lie about cooking pasta

[Jenise]

So I had a bit of a cold this weekend, the short-lived kind in which your nose is hot and you're so groggy for the first 24 hours you can but watch TV between naps. And so it was that I caught an episode of Cook's Country on PBS, and watched some woman demonstrate making spaghetti and meatballs. The big deal about her version was that she didn't separately brown the meatballs first, they went straight into the sauce raw. I'll get back to that part in a sec.

Once her meatballs were in the oven she proceeded to cook her pasta, once again repeating the thing that everyone repeats about how if you add oil to the cooking water, your sauce won't cling to your noodles. And then I watched her spaghetti, dull and flat looking, which supposedly won't cling to sauce, cling to each other like a big sticky clump and refuse to accept the sauce which she tried to blend in and gave up on. It pretty much just sat there on top.

Have any of you people who believe that actually tested this theory or do you just accept it as truth and pass it on? It's not true! I'll get back to this.

Now back to the meatballs. I probably haven't had spaghetti and meatballs but five or six times in my life. The first time was a game changer for me--a batch made by an Italian boyfriend's mother when I was about 19. Really good with an intense and slightly sweet and smooth tomato sauce, lightly caramelized from long cooking. Very different from any Italian sauce I'd had before. I've ordered it a few times in restaurants and the reality on my plate has never impressed. And I had it once at a friends, wherein she loaded the meatballs raw into the sauce just like on this show but when it was supposedly done, some of the meatballs were still raw in the middle and this did nothing to sell me on the method. Funny enough, the finished meatballs on Cook's Country were also fairly rare. (The guest cook mentioned that she'd doubled the recipe so I'm guessing she didn't adjust the cook time--only 40 minutes--for the increased volume). Of course, as usual on TV cooking shows, they pretended everything was fine.

The meatballs on the show were made with saltine cracker crumbs. 22 crackers for 2 lbs of meat, beaten with a rolling pin, and no egg. The crackers, she explained, were drier than fresh bread crumbs would be therefore eggs weren't needed. That made my eyes roll. I actually thought she'd say something like the cracker crumbs being flat would add some kind of architectural integrity but no. Not a scientist but I'm pretty sure the egg is about the nature of ground meat.

Anyway, so last night for dinner I made spaghetti and meatballs. I wanted to test using raw meat. I wanted to test garlic-only and no onion (as was their sauce). But for the rest I did what instinct told me to do. I used veal instead of beef because I had some in the freezer, a smooth pureed tomato vs. chunky, added both white vermouth for seasoning and water to thin the puree out and prepare it for the long cook, and seasoned my sauce with both salt and sugar to get closer to that long ago boyfriend's mother's version. And guess what, I added an egg to the meat because my balls were going to simmer for at least two hours--where the TV version had no trouble staying together for 40 minutes, I'd be willing to bet you they wouldn't have made the long haul. And unlike them, I had plenty of time and there was no point in missing out on the elegantly deeper flavor afforded by the caramelization of longer cooking.

Now back to the pasta. Bob saw me adding olive oil (about two tablespoons) to the cooking water (4 qts in an 8 qt pot) and remembered the lecture on the show about that and asked. I said, simply, "they lie. Just watch." And then I drained the pasta, scooped in a ladle or so of the sauce, and stirred with tongs as each lovely (and shiny!) noodle perfectly coated itself with sauce and allowed easy twirling into a pretty pile for the meatballs to come.

Have to admit, it was the best version of spaghetti and meatballs I've ever had. The meatballs ate like pound cake. So, cook in the sauce from raw? YES. Leave out onion and only use garlic? YES. Add egg and cook longer? YES, of course. And put oil in the cooking water for the pasta? HELL YES!

Brava. I must admit that I've never heard that canard before but it seems ridiculous on its face and I'm glad you disproved it directly.

I've read a lot of Italian recipes that use half veal half pork for meatballs.

Well done Jenise, I do like an open mind and a scientific approach.

An Italian once told me oil was not needed in the pasta water, but gave no reason, so I don’t, for that reason! I just use plenty of rapidly boiling, salted water and have no problems with the pasta sticking to itself or the sauce sticking to the pasta. But I am a firm believer in tried and true and that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (How many do you have at the moment BTW?)
The meat ball, ah the meatball. I don’t think I have ever made spaghetti and meatballs, so I’m unqualified in this discipline.

However I do, occasionally, make a meatball dish my mum made which the family called porcupines.
A splendidly simple thing we all loved. Shouldn’t work but does. No idea of quantities I just throw it together. Minced beef, chopped onion, raw rice formed into balls and dropped into simmering canned tomato soup, half an hour usually is enough to be cooked through but can let them go longer, and leftovers get reheated. Served with boiled spuds of course being good, little AngloSaxons.
They might not, as you suggested, stand up to long cooking, but then again they’re not going to develop a whole lot of complexityLOL
Something I have read and see also seen onTV is working the minced meat, by slapping it around to work the proteins til sticky and this apparently binds the balls without eggs. Need to try that.
Damn now I have to go get some mince and slap it around

I also once tried a method I read about of cooking dried pasta in sod all water. My recollection is that it worked. Have I ever done it again? No.

I used to use oil (because my mom did, but pasta was definitely not her speciality) but haven't in years. Pretty happy with results so don't feel need to switch but glad it works for you. I'm stuck in a rut but someday (for environmental reasons) will try cooking in less water
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/how ... d-lab.html

When we do meatballs more likely to be more Greek/Turkish style (not a lot of sauce) so need to brown, but if we do Italian in winter will try the raw/long cooked.

[Robin Garr]

Like Dale, I respect the outcome of kitchen research and, of course, doing what works for you. But I quit using oil in the 1970s when I got Marcella Hazan's books and fell in love. As much as her Bolognese roots pushed her toward abundant use of butter and oil, she called for nothing but water - and enough but not an excess of that - for cooking pasta. I'd been using oil because that's what everyone was told to do back then, and the only difference I saw when I went to plain salted water was that the pasta pot was no longer a greasy, hard-to-clean mess after dinner.

Here's Marcella ...

Marcella-on-Pasta.jpg

Regarding pasta, I've always added a dab or two of oil before bringing the water to the boil, to break the surface tension of the water more than anything else. I sometimes add EVOO and toss just after draining the pasta, especially if it's going to have to sit around a bit before being served.

Regarding the meatballs, I don't see how one can get away with omitting egg or some other binder. And without caramelization, the meatballs would come out an unappetizing grey and probably have a slimy outer texture. So in my book, yes to eggs and initial browning.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Brava. I must admit that I've never heard that canard before but it seems ridiculous on its face and I'm glad you disproved it directly.

I've read a lot of Italian recipes that use half veal half pork for meatballs.

I've been disproving it all my life. And I've compared with and without in the past--definitely prefer 'with'. It was Bob who didn't realize what I already knew. And yes re the half veal and pork thing--it's a great combo. I would have been happy to use that or even beef but veal is what I had a pound of in the freezer and this saved me a trip to the store.

[Jenise]

Well done Jenise, I do like an open mind and a scientific approach.

An Italian once told me oil was not needed in the pasta water, but gave no reason, so I don’t, for that reason! I just use plenty of rapidly boiling, salted water and have no problems with the pasta sticking to itself or the sauce sticking to the pasta. But I am a firm believer in tried and true and that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (How many do you have at the moment BTW?)
The meat ball, ah the meatball. I don’t think I have ever made spaghetti and meatballs, so I’m unqualified in this discipline.

However I do, occasionally, make a meatball dish my mum made which the family called porcupines.
A splendidly simple thing we all loved. Shouldn’t work but does. No idea of quantities I just throw it together. Minced beef, chopped onion, raw rice formed into balls and dropped into simmering canned tomato soup, half an hour usually is enough to be cooked through but can let them go longer, and leftovers get reheated. Served with boiled spuds of course being good, little AngloSaxons.
They might not, as you suggested, stand up to long cooking, but then again they’re not going to develop a whole lot of complexityLOL
Something I have read and see also seen onTV is working the minced meat, by slapping it around to work the proteins til sticky and this apparently binds the balls without eggs. Need to try that.
Damn now I have to go get some mince and slap it around

I also once tried a method I read about of cooking dried pasta in sod all water. My recollection is that it worked. Have I ever done it again? No.

Three cats: Jailbait, Bob Marley and Maestro.

Slapping the meat around? Now this is new!

Soda water? Should work but is it better?

Porcupine meatballs was a popular trend in my childhood. Different approach, though, wherein one buys a seasoned rice mix, puts the plain rice and some chopped onion (usually) in the ground meat, adds water to cover and adds the packet of salty rice seasoning to it. I could still eat a big bowl of that!

[Jenise]

I think a lot of the difference oil makes would depend on whether you sauce the pasta immediately or not. The spaghetti of my childhood was based on downtown L.A.'s most famous Italian restaurant and second home of former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, Little Joe's. And they served the pasta bare with sauce ladled over.

So at home we did the same. Believe me, the oil in the cooking water (we cooked two pounds for each meal) was necessary because of the crowded pot and the fact that once the pasta was done, we left it to drain while we ate a first course salad. If yours goes straight to table or sauce, I can appreciate not needing oil but even then I consider it cheap insurance. And I'll bet I use less water than most of you.

But what remains true is this: cooking the pasta with a bit of oil does NOT prevent the sauce from clinging to it.

[Robin Garr]

But what remains true is this: cooking the pasta with a bit of oil does NOT prevent the sauce from clinging to it.

Sold! No doubt in my mind! I'm just torn by 45 years of loyalty to Marcella, though. That, and you're right, all the way back to childhood, the spaghetti gets drained, goes in the bowl, and the sauce lands on top. Sometimes, depending on the recipe, the pasta goes into the sauce pot and mixes right there.

So yes, if I ever wanted to make and hold pasta to sauce after the first course, I'm now 100 percent on board. Oil would be important. But this may explain why Italians serve the salad after the meal, and the pasta course is the Primo, before the main dish Secondo.

[Jenise]

Oh I'm sure of that (re the order of food). Cold food can wait, hot food can't. And now mama can stay seated once she sits down.

I'm definitely in the camp of browned meatballs. Raw is for matzoh balls.

Not sure I'm fully onboard with your dish-order reasoning. I do agree that the salad came after because it was cold and could wait, but I think pasta came first because it was necessary to blunt the ravening hunger of men who worked outdoors all day before they get to mama's real star attraction. Wolfing down her expensive ingredients and long labor could lead nowhere good so....

However I do, occasionally, make a meatball dish my mum made which the family called porcupines.
A splendidly simple thing we all loved. Shouldn’t work but does. No idea of quantities I just throw it together. Minced beef, chopped onion, raw rice formed into balls and dropped into simmering canned tomato soup, half an hour usually is enough to be cooked through but can let them go longer, and leftovers get reheated. Served with boiled spuds of course being good, little AngloSaxons.
They might not, as you suggested, stand up to long cooking, but then again they’re not going to develop a whole lot of complexity

As a kid I absolutely loved porcupine meatballs. They were very popular in the US in the 1960s. My mother used to make them exactly as you describe, except she used tomato sauce seasoned with basil and oregano instead of tomato soup. There's a traditional Chinese dish made from minced meat mixed with raw rice and formed into meatballs, but the meat is pork, the meatballs are much smaller, the dish is steamed, and there are no tomatoes.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

but I think pasta came first because it was necessary to blunt the ravening hunger of men who worked outdoors all day

I agree that this could figure in. It does, in fact, figure in at my house--not that we work outdoors all day, but it's the best reason I know for serving salad first instead of last. I know a lot of males who wouldn't bother with salad if it came last.

As a kid I absolutely loved porcupine meatballs. They were very popular in the US in the 1960s. My mother used to make them exactly as you describe, except she used tomato sauce seasoned with basil and oregano instead of tomato soup. There's a traditional Chinese dish made from minced meat mixed with raw rice and formed into meatballs, but the meat is pork, the meatballs are much smaller, the dish is steamed, and there are no tomatoes.

-Paul W.

Your mum maybe had a European background? Basil and oregano would have been way too exotic for my plain cook mum in the 60s.
I think the Chinese dish is known as lion’s head meatballs, and pork makes great, meatballs. I don’t think the Chinese used egg in meatballs.
As a grown up I still secretly love porcupines, shh don’t tell anyone.

but I think pasta came first because it was necessary to blunt the ravening hunger of men who worked outdoors all day

I agree that this could figure in. It does, in fact, figure in at my house--not that we work outdoors all day, but it's the best reason I know for serving salad first instead of last. I know a lot of males who wouldn't bother with salad if it came last.

As the thrifty Yorkshire folk served Yorkshire pudding with gravy prior to serving the meat to fill the belly and eke out the expensive meat.

I think the Chinese dish is known as lion’s head meatballs, and pork makes great, meatballs. I don’t think the Chinese used egg in meatballs.
As a grown up I still secretly love porcupines, shh don’t tell anyone.

According to what I found on Google, the dish I had in mind is also called pearl meatballs. Lion's head meatballs are much larger, don't involve rice, and egg is used as a binding.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I just love meatballs period. Funny thing, growing up--hated them. I don't know why but I couldn't stand ground meat in any form but for taco filling. Meatballs, meat loaf, hamburgers--hated it all. And now it's one of my favorite things. Love the textures and the saturated seasonings.