Pasta Cooking Calculator
Calculate exactly how much pasta, water, and salt you need for any number of servings. Covers all shapes of dry and fresh pasta.
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Pasta Cooking Guide
How Much Pasta Per Person?
Dry pasta: 80–100g per person for a main course (80g is more Italian-proportioned; 100g is a UK restaurant-style portion). As a side dish: 40–60g. Fresh pasta: 100–130g per person for a main course (it is denser and heavier than dry). For long pasta (spaghetti), a useful guide is a bundle with a diameter matching a 10p coin weighs approximately 80g. Short pasta is best measured by weight for accuracy.
What should I know about The Water and Salt Rule?
Use at least 1 litre of water per 100g of dry pasta — 1.5 litres is better. Under-watering causes pasta to stick and cook unevenly because the starch concentration in the water becomes too high too quickly. Salt generously: Italian tradition calls for water that tastes 'of the sea' — approximately 10g of salt per litre. This is not optional for flavour: pasta absorbs salt during cooking, and under-salted pasta cannot be rescued by seasoning the sauce.
What do I need to know about Al Dente Explained?
Al dente (Italian for 'to the tooth') means cooked but still firm with a slight resistance when bitten. There should be no raw white flour core — check by cutting a piece and examining the cross-section. Overcooked pasta becomes mushy because the starch granules absorb too much water and burst. Timing on the packet is a guide — start tasting 1–2 minutes before the stated time. Pasta will continue cooking in the sauce for 30–60 seconds after draining, so pull it slightly underdone from the pasta water if you're finishing it in a sauce, to avoid ending up with overcooked, mushy pasta by the time it's actually served.
What should I know about Pasta Water is Liquid Gold?
Reserve a mug or two of pasta cooking water before draining — it is starchy, salty, and hot, making it the best sauce-extending liquid available. Adding pasta water to almost any sauce (tomato, cream, butter, oil) creates a velvety emulsion that coats the pasta evenly. This is the restaurant technique for silky pasta sauces. A pasta dish that seems too thick or too dry is almost always rescued by a splash of pasta water rather than more fat or sauce.