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How about extra virgin olive oil in the pasta cooking water? Truth or urban legend?
It’s an old grandmother’s trick to add a teaspoon of olive oil to boiling water when we’re about to throw in the pasta: but does it really work?
The opinions on the matter are quite discordant, there are some who recommends it and some who are still hesitant about it.
Of course, giving a precise answer is not easy because there are many factors to consider when cooking pasta.
However, many agree on the fact that, while cooking “regular” pasta, a teaspoon of olive oil in boiling water does not do much good, indeed in some cases there is even the risk of worsening the cooking of the pasta itself.
In fact, it is common practice to think that pouring a little extra virgin olive oil into the pasta cooking water ensures that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot during cooking.
Under normal conditions, however, it appears to be a bit of a myth with no scientific basis.
On other occasions however, it seems that adding a spoonful of olive oil to the pasta water has other rather interesting functions and now let’s see why together.
1. When olive oil comes into contact with the pasta cooking water, it insinuates itself between the starch particles floating on the surface and separates them, thus opening passages for the steam and preventing the formation of a lid of compact foam, which would risk causing the boiling water to overflow.
2. The trick of a spoonful of oil in the pasta cooking water instead seems useful on other occasions and with other types of pasta: let’s take for example the cooking of fresh pasta or, in the case of gluten intolerance, rice pasta which, having different consistencies compared to traditional pasta, the mere presence of olive oil can be strategic not only to prevent everything from sticking to the bottom of the pot, but also to prevent the pasta from “sticking” during cooking between them.
Even in this case, however, there are discordant views and there are those who say that there are no scientific foundations that can prove what is being claimed.
On the other hand, those who have a passion for cooking know very well that to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom, it will be enough to stir it every now and then during cooking, bearing in mind that each type of pasta should be cooked in different ways and adapted to the format… just think spaghetti or linguine, which, to prevent them from “sticking” together, should be dropped in a twisted bunch.
But in the end, if there is a tradition of putting a teaspoon of oil in the pasta cooking water, keep doing it! If it’s the culinary trick handed down by your grandmother, mother or aunt, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to use such an innocuous creed; on the contrary, we always try to preserve family customs, it is the culinary baggage that they have handed down to us and that we will continue to hand down.
