Cooking pasta should be easy, but a few sneaky missteps can turn your dinner into a fail. Sound familiar? Don’t worry – we’re serving up the most common pasta pitfalls and simple fixes for perfect pasta every time.  

Mistake #1: Not using enough water 

The boiling water level of the pot that you’re cooking the pasta in should always be checked (and checked again). Using too little water can result in unevenly cooked pasta, where half of it is still hard and the other half is a mushy, overcooked mess. Since pasta expands when it cooks, the result will be the same when you use a pot that’s too small for your yummy pasta dish.  

Mistake 2: Not adding pasta water in your sauce 

Do you immediately chuck out the water that the pasta was boiled in after it’s done cooking? It’s essential to reserve a cup (or two) of the pasta water before draining the pasta. The cloudy pasta water is the perfect addition to your sauce, making it thicker while infusing your dish with a burst of flavour!  

Mistake #3: Adding oil for the pasta when cooking 

While it’s important to add seasoning to your pasta, adding olive oil is a no-go when boiling your pasta. Although the oil will prevent the pasta from sticking to the pot, it will also fend off any flavour of the sauce that sticks to your pasta. When you add oil, the pasta becomes slippery – this will prevent the sauce from mixing well with the pasta.  

Mistake #4: Not seasoning the pasta when boiling  

Although making pasta is relatively easy, it’s important to add the necessary salt, herbs and spices to the water before you add the pasta. “When cooking the pasta in salted water, the dough absorbs the salt throughout, rather than having to steal some from the surface sauce or not at all,” says Chef John Underbrink. “Also, the salt acts as a stabiliser in the gelatin of the pasta starches, yielding a much better texture.” 

Mistake #5: Not cooking the pasta in the sauce 

Do you serve your pasta and pasta sauce in two separate dishes? “A chef once told me to cook my fresh pasta 70 percent in the water and 30 percent in the sauce,” Chef John Underbrink says. “This is because cooking the pasta in the sauce allows it to absorb the flavors, as well as coat itself in the sauce much more nicely.” Before your sauce is completely done, add in your almost-ready pasta and cook it in the sauce for another 5 minutes for the flavour to really soak into the pasta.  

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