Do you have picky eaters in your house? We can relate. Luckily, it seems that there are a few foods we can all agree on. Fruit tends to be a crowd-pleaser with our kids when they want something sweet and we want them to have something healthy, but they’re not a huge fan of vegetables. Luckily, we have a solution.

We sometimes try to sneak vegetables into our kids’ diet with pasta. Many red sauces are packed with veggies, and even some noodles have veggies listed as key ingredients. 

That’s why, when it’s time for dinner and we want something quick that the whole family will love, we often turn to pasta. It seems pretty fool-proof – boil water and follow the cooking directions on the box, but it turns out that cooking pasta correctly is not that simple.

Have you ever cooked a pot of pasta and all the noodles stuck together? Has your pasta ever been tough or chewy? It’s important for pasta to have an appealing texture and flavor, or nobody will want to eat it. We’ve been there, and it left us scratching our heads wondering where we went wrong.

We found ourselves saying, “But, I followed the directions on the box!” Guess what, according to America’s Test Kitchen, the directions on most boxes of pasta are wrong.

We were shocked too. What’s the point of printing directions on the box if they’re not correct? We’re sure that following the directions will leave you with cooked pasta, but it won’t be perfectly cooked. 

To find out exactly how to cook perfect pasta every single time, watch the video below. The steps are a little bit different than what you’re probably used to, but they aren’t complicated either. There’s even a trick to give your sauce the perfect consistency!

Putting a measuring cup in the strainer is something we never thought about doing before this video. We love this tip! It’s so easy and effective. We also love mixing the sauce on our pasta in the pot so that it stays warm longer. After all, nobody wants to eat cold pasta…unless it’s a pasta salad.

Warming up your plates or bowls for a few seconds in the microwave is another great way to keep your food warmer longer. This works for almost any food, not just pasta.

What was your favorite tip from this video? What’s your favorite type of pasta? Are you going to use these tips the next time you make pasta?