Cracked Red Pepper Infused Pasta Question

[TheCountofQ]

Maybe this should be in side dishes? I eat it as an entrée often though.

Just playing around, sometime back, I added some cracked red pepper to water, boiled, then added my homemade pasta. After draining, I add a bit of Olive Oil and a nice helping of a quality, freshly grated Parmesan (very 'lemony'). It has become one of my absolute favorite dishes. Simple and quick too.

Here is my question, if greatly increasing the amount of pasta being cooked (typically I just make a couple of servings, but would like to introduce it at a family gathering), would I increase the red pepper based on the amount of pasta, or the amount of water used?

[boftx]

My gut tells me that you would adjust based on the amount of water since each strand (or piece) of pasta has roughly the same surface area that interacts with it.

[Steve Vojtek]

To keep the same ratio i think you should increase each ingredient equally if possible - water, red pepper and pasta. If you double the pasta - double everything else and you should end up with the same profile..IMHO

[Ernest]

What if you heat the cracked red pepper in the olive oil that you'll drizzle the pasta with instead of adding it to the pasta water? You'll use much less, no waste when draining and the pepper will really open up in the warm oil.

[boftx]

If that approach is adopted, I would still think the amount of pepper would be in proportion to the oil, not the pasta.

[Ernest]

BUT, the oil provides better distribution of the red pepper flakes flavor than boiling

[TheCountofQ]

That's an option I hadn't considered. It's pretty easy to just toss a tablespoon or so of pepper flakes in the water though. I'm not much worried about the pepper flake waste, as they are cheap, and most of the flavor comes from them leaching flavor in the water as it boils. It kind of seems like an extra step. I have considered flavoring some oils though. It may be a good option if I had the oil pre-prepared.

[TheCountofQ]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I don't always increase the water with more pasta, as one should really. The fresh stuff cooks so quickly. My assumption was/is to keep adjust the pepper flakes to the amount of water, so as to keep the concentration of the boiling solution the same.