If you’ve ever noticed pools of leftover sauce at the bottom of the bowls of pasta you just served, but every bit of pasta has been devoured, it probably has nothing to do with the flavor of your sauce. More likely, you’re just serving too much of it. How much should you use? The answer depends on the type of sauce, the type of pasta, and, of course, personal preference.
When Italians cook pasta, they do so with a reverence for the pasta itself. The pasta is considered the star and the sauce is the supporting actor, meant to complement the flavor, shape, and texture of the pasta. That’s why you’ll find that Italian chefs like to pair specific types of pasta with specific sauces: Short pastas go with chunkier sauces, while long, thin pastas do best with cream- or oil-based sauces and denser pastas are matched with meat sauces.
Make sure the sauce just coats the pasta
When making a tomato-based sauce, the general rule of thumb is 1½ cups of sauce per pound of pasta. With cream- or oil-based sauces, you want to use even less sauce: One cup per pound of pasta. You want to make sure the sauce clings to and coats the noodles. Of course, if your guests want to sop up the extra sauce with a little bread, you can pour on a bit more. You just don’t want your pasta swimming in sauce.
Of course, it’s hard to make a mistake if you’re combining your pasta and sauce the right way. Whether you’re making homemade pasta sauce or making store-bought sauce taste like homemade, the correct method is to add the pasta to your saucepan and add in some of the pasta water. This will give your sauce a silkier texture and help it cling to the noodles. You’ll never bring out that giant pot for pasta sauce again.
