Ratio of pasta to water.... finally

I love Italian food. But of course considering my limited gamut in the arena of cooking, I can only boil pasta and then add sauce to it. I prefer 'penne' pasta to others because it can be easily picked with a fork. Rigati is also nice, but angel hair really presents challenge. Now that I have not so subtly bragged about my knowledge of different types of pasta, let me come to the point.

For many days I was not sure how much water I need to add to the pasta. i.e. what should be the ratio of pasta to water when I cook it. I always ended up adding much water and so the wastage of water used to give me a guilty feeling.

So today I took one cup of pasta and four cups of water. First I heated water till it started to boil and then added pasta to it. Occasional stirring and cooking for about 12 minutes resulted in a perfectly cooked pasta and with very little water remaining. I must say that since I have electric cooking range, I switched it off after 9 minutes.

I am glad that I have finally found the correct ratio of pasta to water. Now I am free to experiment more with my Italian cooking. Viva Italia!