Science

& Cooking SPU-27

Lab 1: Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta has been a favorite for lazy college students since the beginning of time. Its tasty,
filling, and easy to impress your friends with. As with many classics, however, people
around the world have come up with tips and suggestions on how best to cook this dish,
often based on anecdotes and personal experiences. Some common suggestions include
pasta to water ratios and the addition salt or oil. The following is an excerpt from the
instructions on a Barilla Penne Pasta box:

1. Fill a large, tall pot with water and place over high heat.
2. When the water begins to boil, add salt to taste. After the salt has dissolved and
the water is really boiling, add pasta to the water and stir frequently the first two
minutes, then occasionally until the end of the cooking process. Before draining
the pasta, taste it to see if it is cooked to your liking.
3. If the pasta is al dente, you should feel a slight resistance when you bite into it
or cut it with a fork. There should also be a thin white vein at the center.

While it is hard to think of anything that is easier to cook than pasta, even a short and
simple recipe like this one raises a number of scientific questions. Do you really need a
tall pot of water? Cant you just get by with a little water? Do you need to wait for the
water to boil before you add the pasta, or can you just add the pasta straight into the
cold water? Is the salt doing anything? And if so, what?

In this weeks lab, we will do a few simple experiments to see if we can answer some of
these questions. The equation of the week will help us understand the underlying
science of the recipe. We will pair our pasta with Puttanesca sauce, known in Italy as the
simplest of sauces since it contains only the most common ingredients in the Italian
kitchen

Equation of the week:

Q = mcpT

Q
m
cp
T

Description
Heat

Units
J

Mass
Specific heat
Temperature change

g
J/gK
o
C

Science & Cooking SPU-27

NOTE: Your TF will assign 2 experiments from the options below. All teams will share
their results with the rest of the group, and you will use everyones results to answer
the questions on the worksheet.

Part I: Small Pot or Large Pot? Salt or not? Add before the water boils or not?

Materials:
Induction burner
Metal bowl for weighing
Temperature probe
Bucket for straining water
Pot
Scale
Strainer
1 teaspoon measurement

Plastic container for weighing

Ingredients:
Water
2 tsp salt
200 g pasta
Olive oil

Procedure:
Your team will be assigned 2 experiments from the list below, either 1 + 2, 1 + 3, 2 + 4,
or 2 + 5.
1:
a pot with 1 L water
2.
a pot with 2 L water
3.
a pot with 4 L water
4.
a pot with 2 L water and 2 tsp of salt
5.
a pot with 2 L water and the pasta added from the beginning, i.e. pre-
boiling
1. Add designated amount of water and salt to pot. If you are doing #5, also add
the pasta now. Set induction burner to 10. Dont change the setting for the rest
of the experiment.
2. Record how long it takes for the water to boil and the temperature of the water
at boiling. Make sure the tip of the probe does not touch the bottom of the pan.
3. Keep the temperature probe in the pot. Once boiling, add the pasta . Record the
lowest temperature of the water immediately after adding the pasta. The
temperature changes quickly.
4. Cook pasta until done. Decide when it is done by tasting (~10 min).
5. Strain pasta carefully, and weigh. Make sure to tare the weighing container
before adding the pasta. What is the difference in weight? How much water was
absorbed?
6. Taste the pasta and compare. Does adding salt make a difference to the taste?
To the boiling time?
7. Add some olive oil and salt to your favorite pasta from the experiments above
and enjoy while finishing the worksheet! Or wait for your TFs to cook you up
some Puttanesca sauce to go with it

Science & Cooking SPU-27

Part II: Puttanesca Sauce

Your TFs and some volunteers will prepare pasta puttanesca. Follow along the
instructions and answer the questions on the worksheet.

Ingredients: (for 6 servings)
5 garlic cloves
cup pitted Kalamata olives
2 teaspoons finely chopped
2 tablespoons drained capers
anchovies
Pinch of sugar
teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
Salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
pepper
1 (28 oz) can whole tomatoes
cup coarsely chopped basil

Procedure:
1. Heat oil in large skillet.
2. Add garlic and saut until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add olives, capers, and crushed red pepper to skillet, and saut for 2 minutes
more.
4. Pure tomatoes, then add to skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir
occasionally until sauce is ready. Stir in sugar if desired.
5. Add drained pasta to skillet, toss with sauce and basil to combine.1

1 From: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pasta-Puttanesca

Science & Cooking SPU-27

Lab 1: Worksheet
Name: ________________

Part I

Mass of pasta

1 L water

2 L water

2 L water +
salt

TF: _________________
2 L water, add
before boil

4 L water

Room


temperature



(Ti of pasta)
Time to bring





water to a boil
Temperature of


water when



boiling
Water temp


right after



pasta added
Pasta cooking





time
Final mass of





pasta

Summary:

1 L
2 L
2 L + salt
2 L pre-boil
4 L
Time (total)





mpasta,i





mpasta,f





mpasta





%water







1. How does the addition of salt to the pot affect the cooking time? The water content
of the done pasta? The taste?

Science & Cooking SPU-27

2. How does the total cooking time compare for pasta added to boiling water versus to
cold water? How do the water percentages of the done pasta compare? The taste?










3. Compare the pasta cooked in 1 L, 2 L, and 4L of water. How do the cooking times
compare? The water percentage of the done pasta? The taste?










4. Consider pasta cooked in in 1 L, 2 L, and 4L of water. When you added the pasta to
the water the temperature dropped. Would you expect the temperature to drop more
in the case of the smaller or larger pot? Why or why not? We will explore this question
further in the homework this week.









5. The instructions ask for you to determine when the pasta is done by tasting. Is there a
preferred water content of done pasta in your team? In our lab group?

Science & Cooking SPU-27

6. As a student in Science and Cooking, your friends now consider you an expert cook
and want advice on how to cook their pasta as quickly, and tastily as possible. Based on
this lab, what do you tell them?




Part II:
7. What do you think is the purpose of steps 2 and 3 in the recipe for Puttanesca sauce?
How would you expect the outcome of the recipe to be different if these steps used
water or vinegar instead of oil?