No matter which pasta you are cooking, do not overcook. The timing can be gauged only by lifting a piece from the pot and tasting it - not once, but several times. The perfect state is al dente - or literally, to the tooth - reached when no taste of raw flour remains, but the pasta still offers very slight resistance to the bite. Start testing fresh pasta and very thin shapes after 30 seconds, spaghetti and linguini after 4 minutes, and macaroni and other short, tubular shapes after 8 minutes.