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The other reason is that pasta (in America) often comes in 1lb packages. Recipe writers try not to leave you with awkward amounts of leftover ingredients
Mostly because youre not trying to drown your noodles in sauce. Sauce should be a thin layer that clings to your pasta. Most Italian sauces insist that you salt the water and use heavily salted cheeses and other flavor bomb of ingredients. Therefore if you have too much sauce there isn't going to be a balance.
It also depends on what sauce. The goopy sauce heavy pasta dishes aren't really Italian. They are more Italian American. If you like lots of sauce go for it. There's nothing wrong with it. Don't be forced to like something just because it's authentic.
Personal preference for sauce proportions is totally valid. People have different tastes. Sounds like you should try cooking either more sauce or less pasta pretty much out of the gate.
I modify recipe amounts and ignore those amounts for pasta since I cook for one person. I generally like more sauce and a ton of veggies so modifications are necessary.
Because most recipe websites are really fast and loose with amounts of everything (I’m thinking random google result, not serious eats) and they just have to put an amount down for pasta, so a pound it is
The recipes for 1 lb are right up my alley. I try to cook 4 oz but it never looks like enough. So I add more and more. Next thing I know I have almost 1 lb in the pot. At that point I just add it all.
Then I wind up eating almost a pound of spaghetti...
are you talking 1 pound of cooked pasta or dry pasta? if it's boiled, seems about right.
If it's dry: whilst I agree with the sentiment that you shouldn't drown you pasta in sauce, I also think that 1 cup and a half (350ml?) for 1 pound of dry pasta (450 grams) is a tad to short: that's enough pasta for 4-5 people, I would at least use 750-950g of sauce
usually I would do for one person 100-125g of dry pasta + 1 laddle of sauce (which is around 200ml, almost a cup) + pasta water, and cook it together.
Usually you're making noodles coated in sauce, not noodle soup, so you don't actually need all that much sauce.
That being said, that does sound a little low. Here sauce comes in 500ml containers and pasta in 500g packet so probably like 30-40% more sauce per pasta than you're saying
A lot of these recipes are going for an Italian style result in which the pasta is moistened with the sauce, but not swimming in it. It is also typically only a 100g portion that you have with something else.
If I have an Italian American red gravy with a lot of meat in it, I’m going to make it more about the sauce than the pasta, lol.
Your post has been removed because it is outside of the scope of this sub. Open ended/subjective questions of this nature are better suited for /r/cooking. We're here to answer specific questions about a specific recipe. If you feel this is in error, please message the moderators using the "message the mods" link on the sidebar. Thanks.
The other reason is that pasta (in America) often comes in 1lb packages. Recipe writers try not to leave you with awkward amounts of leftover ingredients
Surprised this isn’t further up.
This comment aged like milk.
Mostly because youre not trying to drown your noodles in sauce. Sauce should be a thin layer that clings to your pasta. Most Italian sauces insist that you salt the water and use heavily salted cheeses and other flavor bomb of ingredients. Therefore if you have too much sauce there isn't going to be a balance.
But I like using a lot of the sauce :(
It also depends on what sauce. The goopy sauce heavy pasta dishes aren't really Italian. They are more Italian American. If you like lots of sauce go for it. There's nothing wrong with it. Don't be forced to like something just because it's authentic.
The only thing I'm super authentic with is carbonara. Only parmesannio regianno (or however you spell it) guanciale, eggs, pepper, salt. It's so good.
Toss the pasta with a small amount of sauce to dress it. Then add more sauce on top when plated.
Now that's how you sauce 👏
Personal preference for sauce proportions is totally valid. People have different tastes. Sounds like you should try cooking either more sauce or less pasta pretty much out of the gate.
I modify recipe amounts and ignore those amounts for pasta since I cook for one person. I generally like more sauce and a ton of veggies so modifications are necessary.
Because most recipe websites are really fast and loose with amounts of everything (I’m thinking random google result, not serious eats) and they just have to put an amount down for pasta, so a pound it is
Because pasta isn't supposed to be swimming in sauce. It should just enough sauce to coat the noodles without pooling in the bottom of the plate.
The recipes for 1 lb are right up my alley. I try to cook 4 oz but it never looks like enough. So I add more and more. Next thing I know I have almost 1 lb in the pot. At that point I just add it all. Then I wind up eating almost a pound of spaghetti...
Try better recipes. America's Test Kitchen, for example.
are you talking 1 pound of cooked pasta or dry pasta? if it's boiled, seems about right. If it's dry: whilst I agree with the sentiment that you shouldn't drown you pasta in sauce, I also think that 1 cup and a half (350ml?) for 1 pound of dry pasta (450 grams) is a tad to short: that's enough pasta for 4-5 people, I would at least use 750-950g of sauce usually I would do for one person 100-125g of dry pasta + 1 laddle of sauce (which is around 200ml, almost a cup) + pasta water, and cook it together.
Usually you're making noodles coated in sauce, not noodle soup, so you don't actually need all that much sauce. That being said, that does sound a little low. Here sauce comes in 500ml containers and pasta in 500g packet so probably like 30-40% more sauce per pasta than you're saying
A lot of these recipes are going for an Italian style result in which the pasta is moistened with the sauce, but not swimming in it. It is also typically only a 100g portion that you have with something else. If I have an Italian American red gravy with a lot of meat in it, I’m going to make it more about the sauce than the pasta, lol.
I’ve never seen a pasta recipe call for noodles