Spaghetti boiling in a potYou may already know that placing huge meatballs on pasta is actually quite un-Italian, and that some nonnas place baking soda and sugar in their pasta sauce to make tinned tomatoes taste less acidic. You might even be aware that nutmeg is a powerhouse ingredient a lot of non-Italians miss in their savoury creamy dishes. But a recent Reddit post was about something seemingly simpler: cooking pasta itself. “Why do pasta instructions always say you need so much water?”, site user u/DiscountConsistent asked members of r/AskCulinary, a forum where non-chefs can ask the pros to spill their secrets. It’s true. A pack of linguine in my cupboard asked me to cook enough carbs for four in more water than my biggest pot could hold – but according to the experts, the advice is baloney.