The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Even Harold McGee, in a New York Times article in 2009,
has mentioned the small-pot method of pasta cooking. So
what gives? Exactly what is the best way to cook, sauce,
and serve pasta? In this chapter, we’ll get into all of that,
along with discovering what I call the “mother sauces” of
Italian-American cookery, the five simple sauces that form
the base for countless variations: olive oil and garlic sauces,
tomato sauces, pesto, cream sauces, and meat ragù.
But first, what exactly is pasta?