Eight Tips for making great pasta dishes.

1. Always be sure the sauce is ready before the pasta. Cooked pasta doesn't keep it all. You don't want it waiting for the sauce.

2. Add pasta to the sauce, not vice versa. This is the way the Italians do it. Then you can toss it or stir it to see that the pasta is covered evenly with sauce.

3. Fresh herbs should be added at the end of the sauce cooking cycle. Cooking them will reduce their flavor. This is true for almost all dishes that use fresh herbs.

4. Cheeses should be added at the end of the cooking cycle. Don't cook the cheese. You just want it melted.

5. Pay attention to cooking times. Sauces like Marinara cook slowly for a long time. Sauces like carbonara are ready to go in a minute or two.

6. Cook pasta until “al dente” or slightly firm in the middle. Pasta will continue to cook after it has been removed from the heat.

7. Boil pasta in a large pot with a large volume of water. Crowding it makes it sticky.

8. Boil pasta in salted water. Do not add oil to the water. Oil will make the pasta slick and the sauce won’t adhere to it very well.