Welcome to Fact or Fiction, a new online column in which we dive into the truth behind some well-accepted foodie wives’ tales – and reveal whether they’re fact or fiction. Adding oil to pasta water prevents the noodles from sticking together. Fiction: When you add oil to pasta water, most of the oil will float to the top. And while a small amount of the oil will actually stick to the pasta, this only creates a slick texture on the noodle and makes it more difficult for sauce to adhere to the pasta – an essential element of any good pasta dish. The best way to make sure pasta noodles don’t stick together is to cook them in a large pot using plenty of water (a good rule here is four to six quarts of water per every pound of pasta), so the noodles have room to move around. Also, make sure you stir the pasta regularly, especially in the first one to three minutes of cooking, as that’s when the noodles are at their stickiest.
This article appears in Aug 1-31, 2010.