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Why does everyone toss pasta into sauce straight from the colander?
I've been doing prep at a busy joint in Portland for 4 years, and every new line cook ruins a batch by letting the pasta sit and steam before saucing. The sauce needs the starch water right then, so I always tong it into the pan with a splash of that cloudy liquid, and it clings way better. Has anyone else had to retrain a station about this or is it just me?
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ray_hernandez15d ago
Man, this hits home. I used to watch the same thing go down at a spot I worked at in San Diego. Dudes would dump the whole colander into a bowl, let it sit while they messed with the garnish, then try to fix it by adding cold water. Total mess. The ragù would just slide right off the noodles and pool at the bottom of the plate. I finally just started tonging the pasta straight into the pan with a ladle of that starchy water and doing the toss right there. Took a solid month of yelling, but the new folks finally got it. It's like the starch is the glue and nobody reads the recipe notes anymore.
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