Gordon Ramsay's Pasta Draining Tip Is One You Should Definitely Try

Gordon Ramsay knows a thing or two about cooking. The celebrity chef, T.V. personality, and MasterClass instructor is famous for seemingly everything, from his many television shows to his Michelin-starred restaurants. When it comes to culinary tips, Ramsay always gives solid advice, even when it comes to something as simple as a tip for draining pasta.

Most home cooks will boil pasta and then drain it into a colander when it's cooked, but just like breaking spaghetti before adding it to the pot or rinsing your pasta, it's not recommended. On his YouTube channel, Ramsay urges home cooks to only partially drain the pasta, then finish it in the pan with the sauce. This allows the sauce to permeate the noodles and intensify the flavor.

Other chefs have urged viewers to do much the same; for instance, Giada De Laurentiis employs a similar technique with her pasta. Not only does she move the pasta from the water to the waiting sauce, but she also adds a bit of the starchy pasta water to pot to achieve the right luxuriant consistency. The salt added to the water before cooking will also add extra flavor to the sauce.

In his YouTube short, Ramsay is seen using a set of tongs to move the spaghetti from the water to the waiting pan — with no colander in-between. When deciding how much to add to the pan, he said that he looks for the perfect balance of pasta and the colorful vegetables in the topping. After all, visual appeal is just as important as taste.

To remove the pasta, you can use a long pair of tongs as Ramsay does, or a wooden spaghetti server like this one. Ultimately, anything that allows you to safely lift the pasta from the boiling water in the pot will work. If you decide to follow Ramsay's advice and use this draining technique, you'll want to keep one thing in mind: Act quickly to remove the pasta from the hot water. Pasta left in boiling water will continue to cook and not moving it right away could affect the texture.