Why Pasta Tastes Better at Restaurants, According to a Former Line Cook

Some like it smothered in a robust Bolognese or tossed with a simple fresh tomato sauce. Others like it swirled in a creamy spinach sauce or mixed with pungent garlic and anchovies. However you like it best, there’s no denying that pasta is one of the most popular dinner choices. And for good reason. It’s fast, simple and delicious and just about everyone loves it. But have you ever noticed that pasta at a restaurant just tastes better than homemade? Well, there’s a reason for that, and it’s not necessarily that chefs are adding more salt or fat. In fact, there are simple techniques (and a little culinary know-how) that can help you replicate restaurant-quality pasta at home.

Early in my line-cooking career I made pappardelle in a rich meat sauce. I’d finish the dish to order in a hot skillet, gently twirling the noodles in the simmering ragu. The restaurant also served tender orecchiette with a crisp white wine and butter sauce with fresh peas, and we finished that to order in a single skillet too.

In culinary school when I worked the pasta station at the school’s Italian restaurant, my partner and I made fresh meat-filled ravioli in a savory brown sauce and trofie in a light spring vegetable ragu. Learning how to roll handmade noodles from our Italian chef instructor was an eye-opening experience. He was originally from northern Italy, where rice dishes like risotto reign supreme, but he had a deep understanding of and passion for pasta. “Finish with some of this cooking liquid to make the pasta dish perfect, and don’t cook too much,” he’d instruct, mimicking chewing unpleasant gummy pasta. It was a simple yet effective technique to ensure that each order was perfect during our busy lunch rush.

Over the past two decades, I’ve taken these professional pasta-cooking experiences and translated them to restaurant-style pasta at home. I want to share with you what I learned about making mouthwatering pasta in restaurants and culinary school and show you some simple ways to replicate that perfect pasta at home.

Nail the Cook Time

There may be no better way to ruin perfectly good pasta than overcooking it. Perhaps you too have been at a dinner party where the host serves a very overly al dente pasta dish. You take a bite of the mushy noodles and smile politely with an approving nod or thumbs-up. But, really, that overcooked pasta is the sole reason you question the longevity of your friendship. Who overcooks pasta, really? Well, let’s cut the host a little slack. Overcooking pasta is incredibly easy, especially if you are juggling multiple dishes at once.

Relying entirely on the package instructions to know when pasta is finished cooking really doesn’t cut it. Pasta is a product of an agricultural ingredient, and there are simply too many variables to rely on the time range listed on the box. That’s why the best way to tell when pasta is done is by tasting it.

At nearly every restaurant I worked at, we would cook dried pasta in large batches (20 or more servings), toss it in a bit of olive oil to prevent clumping and then chill it so it was ready to quickly be cooked to order. The key here was to cook the pasta to about a minute or two less than al dente. While I don’t recommend cooking pasta ahead of time (unless you too are cooking for a very large party), take a tip from chefs and start tasting the pasta several minutes before you think it should be al dente. Your goal is to cook the pasta just under al dente, when it barely sticks between your teeth, and this will help with the next tip for restaurant-quality pasta.

Finish Pasta in the Sauce

Undercooking pasta (just a bit) allows you to finish cooking it in the sauce. Restaurant chefs will often grab a skillet, ladle in some sauce, drop precooked pasta into a big pot of boiling water and then transfer that hot yet still undercooked pasta straight to the sauce in the skillet. They’ll simmer and stir the pasta, allowing the sauce, not the water, to finish cooking the noodles. This coats the pasta thoroughly with the sauce and allows the sauce to soak right into the pasta as it finishes cooking, enhancing the flavor of the dish.

This is how I do it at home, whether I made an hours-long Bolognese or used a great-quality jarred sauce. Some of the sauce goes into a large skillet, followed by the almost al dente pasta. I’ll simmer the pasta in the sauce for a minute or two, just until the pasta is perfectly al dente. Then I’ll turn off the heat and serve the pasta table-side right in the skillet or plate individual servings if I’m feeling fancy. But there’s another critical step that happens in this process that makes a significant difference in the final pasta dish.

Reserve Pasta Cooking Liquid

Whether I’m making carbonara, lemon-pepper linguine or pesto penne with asparagus, I always reserve some of the pasta cooking liquid. There is a good amount of starch in this liquid, which when used to finish a sauce, creates a silky, slightly luscious finish. This is a great way to add a velvety texture to a sauce without jamming it full of saturated fat from butter or oil.

There are all sorts of methods for capturing that pasta water, including placing a strainer over a bowl when draining the pasta, but I typically reach for a ladle: it’s less fussy and I don’t risk boiling water splashing out of the sink. Reserve about 1 cup of that starchy cooking liquid (ladle it out just before draining) and add a bit to the sauce in the skillet. Yes, I even do this when using jarred sauce, as the cooking liquid encourages the sauce to stick better to the noodles. Pasta cooking liquid is also ideal stirred into wine sauces, vegetable ragus and even cream sauces.

None of these methods have an impact on the nutrition of the final dish, but these simple steps will make your homemade pasta dishes taste like those served at your favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant.