Rinse pasta for cold dishes, not hot

Yes, rinse it for cold dishes. Do not rinse for hot dishes.

The starch on pasta is the key. When you cook pasta, it releases starch into the water and onto the surface. For hot dishes, that surface starch is what helps sauce cling to the noodles. Rinsing washes it away, so your sauce slides right off and pools at the bottom of the bowl. Plus, it cools the pasta down, which messes with the texture when you reheat or toss with a hot sauce.

Cold dishes like pasta salad are a different story. You want the pasta to stop cooking immediately so it doesn’t turn mushy, and you want to remove excess starch so the noodles don’t clump together when chilled under dressing. A quick rinse with cool water does both. Just make sure you toss with dressing while the pasta is still slightly warm—it absorbs better.

One exception: if you’re using a very starchy pasta shape like fresh egg pasta or the water is particularly starchy, a light rinse even for hot dishes might be needed to keep it from turning into glue. But in general, save the rinse for cold salads.