What do restaurants do to prepare pasta so the noodles don't soak up so much sauce?

use fresh pasta and cook it properly

Al dente' is the phrase you're all looking for...it means to the tooth..if you cook pasta with oil the sauce tends to slide off...you must cook pasta in LOTS of BOILING water and add salt; it flavors the pasta... You must cook it NO more than the time specified and maybe a couple of minutes less if you are cooking it again(as in lasagna)or if you want it a bit more al dente'..Airtight containers and rinsing are the keys to pasta the next day(or later).

I just made Italian Wedding Soup. I made the pasta separately so that it is not mushy day after tomorrow or whenever I might want the soup again...if it is in any liquid it will get mushy eventually.

They cook it aldante. It is still semi firm. Depending on the pasta you will just have to do a taste test a few times during cooking. Drain the pasta when it is Semi-firm. (usually 2-3 minutes less cook time)

My wide-unfold sauce for pasta is an person-friendly white mushroom sauce. garlic onions stable mushrooms (porchinni or morels etc) + mushroom water if using dried mushroom mascapone creme fraiche lemon juice a sprint of the pasta water oil, butter salt, pepper (i haven't given any parts through fact I tremendously plenty tweak it as I prepare dinner. only play around with it). Saute the onions with a sprint oil, till delicate and caramelized. upload garlic and mushrooms and a sprint butter, including the fairly some mushroom water if the pan seems too dry. A sauce made up of basically mascapone will supply a very prosperous sauce, whether it somewhat is only too prosperous for you, decrease it down with some creme fraiche (I oftentimes use a ratio of two:a million). Use some extra mushroom water or pasta water to water down the sauce whether it somewhat is only too thick. salt and pepper to style. mixture with pasta. end with a squeeze of lemon juice, and grated Parmesan. you additionally can end it with a sprint truffle oil. take exhilaration in.

try adding some salt to the pasta water my mom does this and the pasta can be kept for a week before drying up

when making pasta cook it AL den ta but after you strain it put it in a ice water bath to shock it when cooled strain it and store in refrigerate or store in air tight storage container for freezing when you want to use thaw or take out of refrigerate and toss in a sauce pan with your favorite sauce i worked in a few Italian restaurants

maybe the cheif puts extra sauce on it.

the person who cooks your pasta is probaby a proffesional so he knows all these things u can do to pasta. that is why the restraunts tastes better than yours.

Use a good quality of pasta like Barilla. It really does make a difference.

I put olive oil in the pasta water. It keeps the noodles firm and adds flavor, also it keeps the water from foaming up.

You want to make sure you don't overcook the pasta. Make sure it still has some "bite" to it. And use fresh pasta.