How do you stir long pasta in minimal water before it has softened?
While small pasta shapes are relatively easy to stir such that they break contact with anything nearby right from the beginning, long pasta tends to move together when stirring until they’ve softened - at which point they’ve already started sticking together.
You can try to stir it so that the pasta isn’t all running parallel before it softens, but then you get ends start sticking out of the water until it softens more, leading to uneven cooking.
For long pastas, I’ve found using more water and just adding a little flour while cooking to be a lot easier.
I use kitchen tongs to pick up and jostle the noods as another commentator mentions. It starts out parallel as you say. Flour would add a flavour I didn't want and I don't have an issue with uneven cooking or clumping so I don't need to.
While small pasta shapes are relatively easy to stir such that they break contact with anything nearby right from the beginning, long pasta tends to move together when stirring until they’ve softened - at which point they’ve already started sticking together.
You can try to stir it so that the pasta isn’t all running parallel before it softens, but then you get ends start sticking out of the water until it softens more, leading to uneven cooking.
For long pastas, I’ve found using more water and just adding a little flour while cooking to be a lot easier.