Pasta cooking time question.

Forums: Food, Pasta, Noodle Confusion, Al Dente
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I have to mix my noodles tonight as I don't have enough of any one kind.

I have half spaghetti and half perciatelli.

I thought I would have to add ther perciatelli before the spaghetti since it is about twice as fat.

But nooooooooo.

According to the package the perciatelli cooks in 8 minutes while the spaghetti cooks in 9 minutes.

Why do the fatter noodles take less time to cook?

Thanks!

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[+3] - parados - 02/12/2009spaghetti - 9 letters - cooks in 9 minutes perciatelli - 11 letters - cooks in 11 minutes. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Probably because the perciatelli are tube shaped and have the hole in the middle so the pasta gets cooked from both the inside and outside while the thicker, denser spaghetti noodle is a solid mass.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Perciatelli.jpg

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They actually don't. Pasta cooks from the outside in, and the thicker ones
take longer (despite what the label says). Good example would be Angelhair
and Macaroni.

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@boomerang,

density, and probably testing by the company.

Skip all that and taste them yourself.

But for purists, all of a type can matter.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Not to be obnoxious, but good pasta cooked just right is fabulous.

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@ossobuco,

I'll add that I've personally hated perciatelli in italy. And, no, I don't dislike al dente pasta.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Oh man. I LOVE perciatelli! LOVE it.

I hate really thin pastas. I don't even understand angel hair pasta..

Anyway....

I wanted to cook it all in the same pot which is why I was checking the times.

My experiment shows that the spaghetti cooked faster -- it basically turned to mush.

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@boomerang,

Are they both made with the same type of flour? That makes a huge difference in cooking time.

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@boomerang,

spaghetti - 9 letters - cooks in 9 minutes
perciatelli - 11 letters - cooks in 11 minutes.

Don't let anyone tell you different.

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@boomerang,

I've had various execreble perciatelli dishes - which always sounded good when I ordered them. Uniformly horrible.

Perhaps it can be done well. Perhaps at an a2k get together.

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@boomerang,

why would you do that?

You hate thin pastas.

Lord a goshen, do some reading.

Sorry, I've no patience.

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I like my pasta al dente...to a fault.

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Why would I mix the two pastas together?

Uhhh.... because I didn't want to go to the store and the pasta didn't care.

The flour question is interesting!

I've already thrown away the packages so I can't check but I most certainly will next time.

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@boomerang,

I mix pasta all the time when I have not enough of one package left. My kid
doesn't mind, she eats pasta in any shape, form and consistency.

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I've never tried it before because I've never had the need to try it.

But I really don't worry about matching my pasta to my sauce.

Most nights I cook a scratch meal but dinner is mostly about getting food into bellys.

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@boomerang,

Boomer,

My favorite Cooks Thesaurus website will tell you more than you need to know about pasta, the shapes, ingredients, cooking times, etc. Click on the various categories to learn even more about the items there. It is an interesting read.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Pasta.html

You might want to bookmark the site for yourself. I find it an invaluable resource.

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Mixing different shapes of pasta is no big sin.

But, ceteris paribus, thicker pasta takes longer to cook.

I never pay attention to cooking time stated on packages. It's always wrong. There is no better measurement than the one you do with your own teeth, every 2 minutes or so.

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@fbaezer,

General rule of thumb: thick, chunkier sauces for thick pasta shapes.
Thin pasta for light sauces.
That's why I personally wouldn't mix the two types of pasta in one dish, though it's certainly not a culinary "crime". Wink

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Pasta cooking time question.

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