When I fix spaghetti, I generally cook the stuff, drain it in a collander
and then plate it with sauce added before it has a chance to set up and
stick together. For a larger group - - - ten or so - - - I generally drain
it, cool off the pot with cold water, empty it and return the sketti to the
pot and toss it with a little olive oil. While this keeps the pasta from
sticking together, it also does a pretty fair job of keeping the sauce from
coating the pasta. Any suggestions as to how to get around this kuffuffle?
Has anyone tried draining the stuff and then tossing it with a cup or so of
sauce? I don't know if this would keep it from sticking and don't have time
for a trial run to find out.

Oh pshaw, On Fri 18 Aug 2006 11:00:05a, Bubba was muttering about...

Yes, this works. While the spaghetti is draining in the collander, I add a
cup or so of sauce to the empty "still hot" pot, then return the spaghetti
to the pot, add another cup of sauce or so, then toss. It *never* sticks
together. Work quickly so as not to lose the heat.

Occasionally I add 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil to the pasta water before I
add the pasta for cooking. It's not so much oil that it prevents the sauce
from sticking when added later, and will help to prevent the pasta from
sticking to itself in those cases where you don't want the pasta to absorb
too much sauce.

--

Wayne Boatwright
__________________________________________________ ________________________

I often wonder ...
What do people mean when they say the computer went down on me?

That's an astute observation. There are folks who so love olive oil
that it cures all ills in their minds. But if you're not one of them

Yes, this will work. If you like your sauce better than olive oil,
this is the way to go. For a loarge quantity of pasta I will
sometimes add back a bit of reserved pasta cooking water, toss, and
then toss again with some sauce. -aem

Yes, when cooking for a larger group use some other shape
of pasta such as penne riggate. It's less fussy than
spaghetti.

S.

Keep about a cup of the water you used in cooking, and mix some in the
drained pasta before you put on the sauce. You could also drain your
pasta in a colander, and rinse with HOT water before adding sauce. In
restaurants, thats how they do it. Cooked pasta is portioned out, and
cooks reheat it under hot running water as they need it

Huh... broken spaghetti... try Gorilla Glue.

Try here: http://www.chefboyardee.com/pages/home_flash.html

Sheldon Posterio

Steve Pope, after taking an infinite amount of time, finally, on 18 Aug
2006, typed out:

With spaghetti, when I plate some and add sauce and toss it, that
unsticks the spaghetti (if stuck), then add the parmesan cheese.

I use rotelle for pesto. I started using linguini with pesto but I'd end
up with a puddle of pesto in the bottom of the bowl, requiring a slice or
two of Italian bread to sop it up . With the rotelle, the pesto gets
caught in the threads. PLUS you can stab a few at a time onto a fork
without twirling. A real time-saver.

Andy

I'm missing something-- If you mix the sauce in for fewer than 10
people, why can't you do it for more than 10?

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

I'm assuming the issue is that with the larger quantity,
the process of plating it takes longer and it has cooled
off more to the point that it clumps.

Steve

Yes, or even mix some of that water with some of the sauce.

You could also drain your