My friend Cliffs of Moher, who you might know from her adventures in taste testing, told me that never a day goes by without me giving her some useful advice. She said I ought to write a book.
Apart from the fact that there are a million and one ‘how to’ books out there, I don’t think I have enough nearly enough life enhancing hacks to fill a book. However, I do have one or two pieces of advice that might help a random person searching the internet.
So, how do you avoid cooking too much pasta?
Cliffs of Moher tells me that no matter how hard she tries, she always cooks much more pasta than she needs. And not long ago I watched in horror as someone I know quite unnecessarily cooked an entire packet of pasta without making any attempt at measurement at all. They didn’t seem to think that cooking food for 8 or more people was an issue (there were 4 of us), and made no suggestions for using any of the leftovers. Perhaps they always use a whole packet. I don’t know. Anyway, I’m guessing that too much cooked pasta is a problem that afflicts a lot of people.
I read that you need about 80-100g of dry pasta per person. Or perhaps 60-100g. Maybe 75-115g. But who drags the scales out from the back of the cupboard to weigh pasta? And maybe you don’t own any scales. In any case, not everyone will have the same appetite. Or maybe you live in the USA and might want to cook 2oz, or 3-4oz? And what about a cup of pasta per person? How much is that anyway? And who decides these amounts?
Oof! All these different suggested quantities make cooking pasta seem very complicated, so let’s use the Fabio method.
Years ago - last century anyway - my brother shared a flat with an Italian friend called (as far as I can remember) Fabio. Fabio had this method of cooking just the amount of pasta he wanted to eat. I imagine it was the way his mother and his granny cooked pasta but who knows. Fabio taught my brother and, eventually, my brother passed the method on to me. It’s really simple and seems to work quite well.
Take the plate or bowl that you are going to eat your dinner from. I like to eat my pasta from a wide flat dish that used to be called a soup plate but, as you know, any bowl will do.
Put as much uncooked pasta as looks about right into your bowl. I have come to the conclusion that about 2 small handfuls (or handsful) of this pasta is right for me. It weighs just over 60g. I weighed it specially for you. You won’t be surprised to learn that I have never bothered to weigh pasta before and probably never will again. And you will likely want more in the bowl than I do.
Add the same amount of pasta for each person you are feeding. If you are a bit anxious about quantities add some more pasta, but in my experience this extra bit often turns out to be too much.
Give it a try.
Of course the Fabio method only works for pasta shapes not the straight stuff.
