in college once we were cooking pasta in the kitchen of our fraternity housing collective consciousness. he was really drunk, and he's an angry drunk -- always has been -- so he just kept getting madder and madder that i'd added salt to the pasta water. he thought you should add oglio and maybe a smidge of butter, but… Read more

in college once we were cooking pasta in the kitchen of our fraternity housing collective consciousness. he was really drunk, and he's an angry drunk -- always has been -- so he just kept getting madder and madder that i'd added salt to the pasta water. he thought you should add oglio and maybe a smidge of butter, but no more salt than was already in the butter. he kept ranting and raving, he was screaming that salt made pasta chewy. finally, he just broke. he stuck my hand in the pot of boiling water. i screamed for him to stop, but he just laughed. the pasta was kind of chewy, so i guess he was right to do that. he was also right about rinsing the pasta in cold water immediately after draining it -- that stops it cooking, firms up the outside of the noodles, and keeps it from sticking. god how i wished he'd let me run my hand under that cold water. god it hurt so bad.