Made some simple garlic butter noodles pasta, using store bought dried pasta. I am fine with tomato or cream -based pastas turning out well, but anytime I made oil-based pasta, it turns out, well, oily. I've tried adding more pasta water but it minimally helps. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!
(This pasta is just olive oil, butter, tons of garlic, a bit of Parmesan cheese, salt)
by Grasps_At_Straws
19 Comments
How are you incorporating the sauce to the pasta? If you are making an oil based sauce also the pasta will always have an oily element.
I’m not sure I get the issue. The sauce you described is made of olive oil, butter and cheese, how should it be if not oily?
you need emulsionate it. tossing or moving it faster. same way in a Carbonara. then water and oil will emulsionate
More crab
“a bit” of parmesan cheese is where you went wrong
My advice would be to emulsify your sauce without the pasta, so add it to the ingredients you cooked in olive oil. Then add the pasta once you have a first level of desired creaminess, and save some cooling water to further add if you have too many pasta for the initially emulsified sauce.
You need to use much more pasta water. The starchy water, oil, and cheese combine when mixed vigoursly to create that creamy sauce you’re looking for. It’s like when you shake a salad dressing bottle that has oil and vinegar, the shaken dressing is thick and creamy even though you started with just oil and vinegar. So add a ladle or two of pasta water and stir the pasta vigorously. And add cheese while the heat is turned off or the pan is off the stove. If you add it while it’s too hot the cheese will break instead of melting in smoothly with the sauce. If done properly the cheese will help it be creamy too
This happens to me when I use too much butter
This looks like a couple things, leftover ingredient, like leftover pasta or the whole dish is leftover or the pasta sat too long before mixing the ingredients in or before eating.
You just need to emulsify the sauce better. Your butter is probably breaking and then adding oil is definitely not helping.
Keep your heat minimal when you combine sauce and noodles and serve as soon as possible.
Could also depend on the type of cheese you’re using. Any aged or hard cheese (such as parmesan) can separate and leave the oily layers. Try mixing in something mild and “new.”
Also, grating your own cheese vs using pre shredded is the way to go if you want a smooth sauce
Don’t add oil
add some left over pasta water. I get one ladle half full and add it little by little to thicken up the sauce. that’s what helps my pasta get that creamy look without being too saucy.
What is the orange stuff though
that looks like a chopped off finger lol
Emulsify with pasta water.
I thought you asked how to keep the pasta from being unholy😂😂😂
Sounds like your sauce is broken from having too much fat. Your emulsion needs enough pasta water to be stable, the starch from the pasta will help this.
Let it finish cooking in the pan, agitation helps prevent pasta from sticking and starch helps build a proper sauce. Work the pasta until the water starts to thicken(adding more if it starts to get dry). Once sauce is slightly thickened, add a knob of butter and continue working the pasta. Fresh grated parm will finish a sauce nicely, store bought pre shredded isn’t going to melt quite like fresh.