Cooking Dried Pasta

[brokencross]

Not a recipe topic. (moderator please note)

Just cooked some dried pasta.
The instructions said to boil pasta in a pan without the lid on. My question is, "How does the pasta know if the lid is off or on"? And what difference does it make?

[Julia]

Pasta will cook more quickly and evenly with the lid off, not doing so will lead to the pan boiling over or the pasta overcooking as it's hotter with the lid on. It's probably a good idea to keep the lid on until the water is boiling, it heats up faster with the lid on, then take the lid off for the pasta to cook.

[brokencross]

Thanks Julia, just what I wanted to know.

[Buttercup]

Not a recipe topic. (moderator please note)

Just cooked some dried pasta.
The instructions said to boil pasta in a pan without the lid on. My question is, "How does the pasta know if the lid is off or on"? And what difference does it make?

Well I suppose "Recommendations" is different from moving it to "Recipes" :roll:
But, a slap on the hand to you brokencross for attempting to educate the powers that be.;)