How to Prepare for a New Career Without Quitting Your Day Job

Online education could provide the flexibility you need to prepare for a new career.

Want to go back to school but need some flexibility to make it happen? Online education may be the answer.
Thomas Boyd, dean of Kaplan University's School of Business and Management, says online education can be a good solution to a common problem for students in today's fast-paced society. 
It Only Takes a Minute!
Click to Find the Right Online Degree for You
"Our students choose online programs for a wide variety of reasons, but the majority of them cite convenience as a major factor," Boyd says. "For people who are working full time, have kids at home, or a sick relative to care for, this flexibility gives them the freedom to do their school work at times that work best for them."
Boyd says that preparing for a new career without abandoning your current one has its advantages.
"Online education helps working adults avoid the two- to four-year hiatus from work that would be required to attend a fulltime program," he says.
Want to Go to School Online? Find the Right Program for You.
The flexibility to decide when and where you will do your school work and "attend" class is a big reason why people are choosing online education in huge numbers. In the fall 2009 term, over 5.6 million college students took at least one online course, according to the non-profit Sloan Consortium.
"However, people should not confuse convenience with easy," Boyd says. "It takes maturity and self-discipline to do well."
Think online education may be right for you? Keep reading to learn about four popular online degrees and the careers they could prepare you for...

#1 - Online Business Degree

Want to get ahead in the business world without giving up your current paycheck to do it? Pursuing a degree in business online, whether it's at the associate's or bachelor's degree level or as high as a master's of business administration (MBA), can help you advance your education without taking a step backwards in your work life.
Start a Business Degree - Find the Right School Now
"While the degree is desirable to employers, experience is just as, if not more, desirable," says Boyd. "Getting a degree while working provides students with opportunities to apply what they are learning as they learn it, instead of having to wait until they graduate to put their new skills to work."
Possible career paths: Typical careers for those with an undergraduate degree include payroll clerk and marketing specialist, while those with an MBA might be ready for more advanced roles like financial analyst and marketing manager.
Earning potential: The average starting salary for a grad with a bachelor's degree in business is $41,100, according to PayScale's 2010-2011 College Salary Report.
The U.S. Department of Labor, meanwhile, breaks down average salaries for various careers:

• Advertising Sales Agent: $53,190
• Accountant: $67,430
• Market Research Analyst: $67,500

Are You Ready to Start Your Business Degree? Search for Business Schools Now!

#2 - Online Health Care Degree

Looking to transition into a health care career but don't know where or how to begin? Immersing yourself in one of many health care fields online is a flexible way to get pointed in the direction you want to go.
Want to Study Health Care? Find Online Schools Now.
Orange Coast College (OCC) in California, for example, has a variety of health care classes and programs for its community college students and is working to increase its online offerings due to increasing demand, according to Jill Golden, OCC's online faculty coordinator.
OCC's School of Allied Health Professions offers medical assisting and dental assisting programs. But regardless of the school you choose, some courses, like patient records and health information technology, work well in an online format. Health care administration is another popular choice.
Find Health Care Administration Degree Programs
Possible career paths: Typical careers for health care degree grads, depending on the program of study, include medical assistant, dental assistant, and medical and health services manager.
Earning potential: The average starting salary for a grad with a bachelor's in health care administration is $37,700, according to PayScale's 2010-2011 College Salary Report. The U.S. Department of Labor breaks down salaries for various health care careers. Here are a few, along with their 2009 average incomes:

• Medical Assistant: $29,450
• Dental Assistant: $34,000
• Medical and Health Services Manager: $90,970

Search for Online Health Care Programs

#3 - Online Graphic Design Degree

Are you a creative type who likes to think and work visually even though your current career doesn't require it? We have good news: By earning your associate's degree in graphic design online, you could prepare for a creative career in graphic design without leaving your day job.
Find the Right Graphic Design Program for You
"Many students don't have the time to travel to school on a specific day or time," says Golden, online faculty coordinator at OCC, which offers a program in digital media arts and design. "Others like to be awake in the middle of the night and do their work from home."
Possible career paths: Typical entry-level careers in graphic design include junior desktop publisher and graphic designer.
Search for Graphic Design Degree Programs
Earning potential: The average starting salary for a grad with a bachelor's in graphic design is $35,400, according to PayScale's 2010-2011 College Salary Report.
The U.S. Department of Labor breaks down average salaries for various careers:

• Desktop Publisher: $38,960
• Graphic Designer: $47,820
• Art Director: $91,520

Search for Graphic Design Programs

#4 Online Degree - Criminal Justice

Working to keep communities safe is a common thread that runs through just about every criminal justice career. If you want to transition into this line of work but can't find the time to enroll in a traditional school, you may want to consider earning your criminal justice degree online.
Boyd says that online learning formats like Kaplan's are helpful in the sense that students can repeat a lesson as often as they'd like until they feel comfortable enough to push forward in the course. "...[W]e provide interactive learning tools that can be useful for a busy adult who also wants to master a concept, rather than just passing an exam," says Boyd.
Search for Online Criminal Justice Programs
Possible career paths: Typical entry-level careers in criminal justice include community service coordinators and police officer.
Earning potential: The average starting salary for a grad with a bachelor's in criminal justice is $35,600, according to PayScale's 2010-2011 College Salary Report. The U.S. Department of Labor breaks down average salaries for various criminal justice careers:

• Security Guard: $26,430
• Private Detective: $47,130
• Police Officer: $55,180

Things Fast-Food Companies Won't Say

The secrets aren't only in the sauce.
1. We have healthy options, but they'll cost you more.
After years of serving 1,000-calorie meals, most fast-food chains have started to offer healthier options salads, fruit cups and other un-fried options. But if you reach for the lower-cal options, be prepared for some sticker shock. On average, the salad with chicken at a fast-food restaurant tends to be the most expensive option on the menu ($4.85 on average) and costs $1.90 more than a large burger, according to a study published in December 2010 by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. And the healthy chicken sandwich costs $3.73 on average, about 26% more than a large "red-meat sandwich."

More from SmartMoney.com: • 10 Things TSA Won't Tell You • 10 Things Hotels Won't Tell You • 10 Things the Beauty Industry Won't Tell You

This pricing, in addition to the heavy marketing of unhealthy food options, undercuts what the fast food industry says is its commitment to healthy options, says Jennifer Harris, a spokesperson for the center. People typically look to get as much food for the price, which makes the healthy options look less appealing, she adds. But Sue Hensley, a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association, says that the industry has plenty of affordable healthy options and that fast-food restaurants are "offering more nutritious children's options" and have "an increased focus on produce."
2. Don't expect much from our school fundraisers.
To raise money for the Eldersburg Elementary School in Sykesville, Md., the parent-teacher association enlists the help of local fast food restaurants. Some of the restaurants make it easy, says Meghan Lyons, a Sykesville parent who coordinates the restaurant fundraisers: The school may simply get a percentage of sales during certain hours, typically about 15%. Others require a coupon and at least one hasn't paid up, she says, despite several events. For the effort, the PTA nets about $1,000 to $1,500 for participating in several of these events each year, says Lyons; some of the events earn as little as $100 per.
Those small gains aren't surprising, researchers say. Cash-strapped schools are increasingly turning to fast-food restaurants as benefactors, asking them to sponsor sports teams and scholarships, donate free food and other treats as academic incentives, and help raise money in other ways. But these programs aren't as lucrative as schools might hope, according to a 2006 report by Arizona State University's Commercialism in Education Unit. The report found that almost three out of four schools participating in these so-called income-generating advertising activities didn't receive any income in the 2003-2004 academic year. In addition, 12.6% of schools received $2,500 or less and less than 1% of schools received more than $50,000.
3. Those value meals can be awfully expensive.
Ah, the combo meal a delicious combination of food and soda at a discount. Call it genius, call it lunch, but don't call it cheap: That bundled meal option may encourage customers to spend more than they would otherwise. It's true that the value meal is typically cheaper than the sum of its parts, but research suggests some people don't actually want all the parts, or not in such large sizes. Some 15% of customers who wouldn't have bought fries in an a la carte-only offering do purchase them when there's a value-or-combo meal option, and even among customers who bought fries in the ala-carte-only offering, more than one in four of them increased their portion size when combo or value meals were offered, according to a study published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing in 2010. In effect: They chose a bigger, more expensive size over a smaller, sometimes cheaper option.
As a result, customers may spend more money than they would otherwise. Consider the person who wouldn't have ordered fries if it weren't for the combo meal option at McDonald's, she could spend $6.39 on a Big Mac Medium Value Meal, about $1.30 more than if she'd just bought a Big Mac and a drink. But Hensley says that these combo meals aren't the wallet busters critics claim. Not only do the meals provide good value, "many national chains offer a wide variety of sides to accompany 'combo meals,' which in most cases includes side salads and/or sides of fruit. Most also offer the option of choosing water or milk as a beverage option," she says.
4. Our smiling faces make you spend.
While good customer service is a goal across the restaurant industry, the fast-food chains seem to have it down to a science. McDonald's, for example, trains employees on how to greet customers -- one suggested greeting: "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?" and how long they should take to serve them, says Paul Facella, a former VP at McDonald's and the CEO of Inside Management, a business consulting firm. Experts say the focus on customer service is shared by others in the fast-food industry. Hardees' employment ads, for example, say "our people are the key ingredient" and on the Wendy's career site, the first job duty listed for restaurant operations staff is overseeing a team "to ensure exceptional customer service." "The quest for improvement in the area of service is never ending," Facella says.
McDonald's, Wendy's and Hardees declined to comment, but industry insiders say a good customer-service experience is important to retaining customers. It's also true that smiling faces actually can get you to spend more. According to Gallup research from 2011 an "engaged fast-food customer spend 16% more than a customer who is not engaged" and "the most powerful driver of engagement in a fast-food restaurant is 'being treated as a valued customer,' followed by 'the warmth of the greeting' and 'taste of food.'" And, on average, a fully engaged consumer will spend $33.90 on fast food per month 16% more than the $29.24 a "non-engaged consumer will spend.
5. Good luck opening a franchise.
The biggest fast-food franchises are also some of the most successful, from the business-owner's standpoint. The average McDonald's restaurant earned on average $2,313,000 in revenue 2010, according to Technomic's Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. In contrast, Scoop's Hamburgers earned only $750,000. But the only piece of the pie you're likely to get is at the drive through. Small-business experts say it's currently very difficult to open a large fast-food franchise unless you're already an owner, related to one or are a long-time manager or employee at the company, says Dick Adams, a former McDonald's owner, who now is president of Franchise Equity Group, a consulting firm.
Thanks to the slow economy and intense competition, many fast-food businesses are sticking established owners, who are better able to withstand short-term challenges with a new franchise than a rookie owner. At Subway, for example, about 75% of new franchises are purchased by owners already in the Subway system, says Les Winograd, a company spokesman. And with lending still tight at many banks, would-be owners also need sterling credit or a whole lot of cash, they say. "The trend is to go with the large franchisee," says Adams. "It's a handful of people who can open a new franchise." Becoming a franchisee "is a highly competitive process," says a McDonald's spokeswoman.
6. Food isn't the only thing we serve fast.
Because fast-food and other high-volume restaurants serve so many customers, any outbreak of food-borne bacteria can spread before you can say "Medium #5 with a large soda." As careful as many fast-food restaurants are, there have been Salmonella, E. coli and other food-poisoning bacteria outbreaks in recent years, including a rare but serious 2006 outbreak of E. coli linked to Taco Bell by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that sickened hundreds in the northeast. The very business model serve as many people, as quickly as possible means if the food is contaminated, it "puts more people at risk," says Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, declined to comment. But a spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association says outbreaks at fast-food restaurants have been declining in recent years. "There's no greater priority for the restaurant industry than food safety," she says. "As standard practice, employees who are sick are always strongly advised to let their employer know and discuss options on scheduling."
Click here to read the full list of Things Fast-Food Companies Won't Say

'My Biggest Money Mistake'

More from

• 11 New Tools for Your Money
  at CNNMoney.com
• Fix Your Money Mistakes
  at CNNMoney.com
• 100 Best Money Moves
  at CNNMoney.com

Everybody has messed up at some point. These folks share their biggest goofs, but are now on the right path.
Bought a Vacation Home as an Investment
Christine Flood, 37
Software engineer
Denver, Colorado

Courtesy: Christine Flood

"I have been in the rental market since I was in college and thought owning a ski condo would be a good idea. What I didn't know is that vacation rentals are a whole new beast that I didn't understand.The operational costs differ greatly -- for example, you need to hire a management company for guest services and housekeeping. That's 30% to 50% of your gross rents. And my vacation home is now worth $30,000 less than when I bought it."
My fix: "My dad told me vacation homes are a rich man's game -- I should have believed him. When the market turns around, I am going to sell this baby as quickly as possible and settle with a traditional rental."

Courtesy: Daniel C.

Kept Too Much Money in Employer's Stock
Daniel C., 52
Engineer and consultant
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
"I had over 10% of my net worth in a single equity -- my employer's stock, and held on to it even when the market went south. I held on to it out of sentiment because it was my own company. In 2010, $50,000 worth of stock turned into a $27,000 tax loss."
My fix: "I know not to invest with sentimentality, and I pay more attention to my portfolio."

Courtesy: Phyllis Goodman

Trusted a Pro's Picks and Ignored Fund Fees
Phyllis Goodman, 63
Retired
Fort Worth, Texas
"After retiring, I rolled my 401(k) over to the company that had serviced my insurance needs for more than 30 years and blindly took the agent's recommendations without researching management fees or the funds. I lost money and was charged a great deal."
My fix: "I withdrew the money, started doing research on my own, and invested at Vanguard and T. Rowe Price. I manage my own accounts, insist on diversity, and do everything I can to stay up to date."

Courtesy: Sin Hang Lai

Too Risk-Averse for My Age
Sin Hang Lai, 33
Project manager
Cos Cob, Connecticut
"When I quit my job in 2002, I converted my 401(k) into a IRA at a brokerage and left it in cash for the next seven years. I wish I had invested that money during the strong post-dotcom recovery. It wasn't until after 2008 that I thought about what to do with my savings, and then I stupidly tried to trade and lost money."
My fix: "I regret not having a personal finance education, either formally or through friends and family, so now I read, observe, and carefully manage my own money. I've opened a Roth IRA and an individual account I play with -- I let myself get creative with that account."

Courtesy: Paul Jarvis

Put Short-Term Savings into Growth Stocks
Paul Jarvis, 29
Money manager
Fargo, North Dakota
"I was 16 when my father passed away nearly 15 years ago. I inherited the house and a life insurance policy, which combined would have been enough for college and hopefully a payment. I followed my broker's advice and invested the life insurance money in a growth portfolio. The market dropped substantially over the next year, and while it eventually came up, I needed the money for tuition and couldn't afford market fluctuations."
My fix: "I think about my short-term needs and balance that with long-term money, which can take additional risk. I rebalance my portfolio in large market declines, as well as cut extraneous expenses and save aggressively."

Click here to read the full list of 'My Biggest Money Mistake'

The best and worst dressed players at the 2011 French Open

All 256 players entered in the 2011 French Open have taken to the red clay of Roland Garros which means it's time for Busted Racquet's quarterly look at the best and worst Grand Slam fashions.
For the second straight major, top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Kim Clijsters make an appearance on the worst-dressed list. On the other side of things, Maria Kirilenko and Roger Federer continue their reign as the best-dressed tennis players on the court. As for Novak Djokovic? Let's just say winning matches doesn't equate to looking good in them.
The best dressed list

1. Maria Kirilenko

The neon racquet strings are a nice touch, as is the Karate Kid headband.

2. Roger Federer

Simply and classy as always.

3. Maria Sharapova

Though I'm not sure how much Eiffel Tower-inspiration is in the dress (I think Nike says stuff like this so saps like me will use it in headlines), it's an undeniably great look on her.

4. Fernando Verdasco

He makes it because of the shoeless relaxation and because he could double as a crossing guard if, and when, he loses in the tournament.

5. Ana Ivanovic

Her outfits don't change much from Slam to Slam, which is a good thing. Her results don't either, which isn't.

6. Dominika Cibulkova


7. Flavia Pennetta

Not too many stripes this year in France (does Dominique Strauss-Kahn count?), but Dominika and Flavia pull them off well.

8. Gael Monfils

The Frenchman has long been on the worst-dressed list until we came to the realization that he wouldn't be Monfils if he didn't wear the colorful, sleeveless shirts with ridiculous patterns. It's just Gael being Gael.

9. Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Same goes for the American, Mattek-Sands, who will move ahead of Venus Williams in the post-French Open rankings. Nobody else in the field pulls off that outfit, let alone the eye black.

10. Varvara Lepchenko

Crazy knee-tape patterns are the new black.

The worst dressed list
1. Kim Clijsters

In her second-round loss, Kim played like her clothes looked: ugly. It looks like daughter Jada spit-up all over that shirt. The new haircut looks great though.

2. Novak Djokovic

Dude's won 40 straight matches. The least they could do is get him a hat that fits.

3. Johanna Larsson

Forty-five years ago, Bob Dylan sang "and these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn." How prophetic.

4. Juan Ignacio Chela

In its spare time, Juan Ignacio Chela's shirt doubles as a map of the human genome.

5. Sam Stosur

The racquet frame looks good, at least.

6. Alex Bogomolov Jr.

Sorry Lleyton Hewitt, I still don't see how a backwards hat on the tennis court makes any sense.

7. John Isner

If those bars represent the attractiveness of player's shirts, Isner's would be the shortest.

8. Caroline Wozniacki

True story: Wozniacki got the idea for the ruffles from a display at Versailles and designer Stella McCartney stole the idea from her dad's jacket on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's." OK, it's not actually true, but you believed it.

9. Thomas Schoorel

My elementary school class picture called and wants its shorts back.

10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

The shirt? Let's give it a C-. The dance moves? Is there anything higher than an A+?

Parents keep child’s gender under wraps

When many couples have a baby, they send out an email to family and friends that fills them in on the key details: name, gender, birth weight, that sort of thing. (You know the drill: "Both Mom and little Ethan are doing great!")
But the email sent recently by Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto, Canada to announce the birth of their baby, Storm, was missing one important piece of information. "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now--a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...)," it said.
That's right. They're not saying whether Storm is a boy or a girl.
There's nothing ambiguous about the baby's genitals. But as Stocker puts it: "If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs." So only the parents, their two other children (both boys), a close friend, and the two midwives who helped deliver the now 4-month-old baby know its gender. Even the grandparents have been left in the dark.
Stocker and Witterick say the decision gives Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be. "What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It's obnoxious," adds Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school.
They say that kids receive messages from society that encourage them to fit into existing boxes, including with regard to gender. "We thought that if we delayed sharing that information, in this case hopefully, we might knock off a couple million of those messages by the time that Storm decides Storm would like to share," says Witterick.
"In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, 'Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!." she wrote in an email.
How did Stocker and Witterick decide to keep Storm's gender under wraps? During Witterick's pregnancy, her son Jazz was having "intense" experiences with his own gender. "I was feeling like I needed some good parenting skills to support him through that," Witterick said.
Stocker came across a book from 1978, titled X: A Fabulous Child's Story by Lois Gould. X is raised as neither a boy or girl, and grows up to be a happy and well-adjusted child.
"It became so compelling it was almost like, How could we not?" Witterick said.
The couple's other two children, Jazz and Kio, haven't escaped their parents' unconventional approach to parenting. Though they're only 5 and 2, they're allowed to pick out their own clothes in the boys and girls sections of stores and decide whether to cut their hair or let it grow.
Both boys are "unschooled," a version of homeschooling, which promotes putting a child's curiosity at the center of his or her education. As Witterick puts it, it's "not something that happens by rote from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in a building with a group of same-age people, planned, implemented and assessed by someone else."
Because Jazz and Kio wear pink and have long hair, they're frequently assumed to be girls, according to Stocker. He said he and Witterick don't correct people--they leave it to the kids to do it if they want to.
But Stocker and Witterick's choices haven't always made life easy for their kids. Though Jazz likes dressing as a girl, he doesn't seem to want to be mistaken for one. He recently asked his mother to let the leaders of a nature center know that he's a boy. And he chose not to attend a conventional school because of the questions about his gender. Asked whether that upsets him, Jazz nodded.
As for his mother, she's not giving up the crusade against the tyranny of assigned gender roles. "Everyone keeps asking us, 'When will this end?'" she said. "And we always turn the question back. Yeah, when will this end? When will we live in a world where people can make choices to be whoever they are?

Pink pork won't kill you according to the USDA

If you're one of those pork connoisseurs who prefers your chop or tenderloin to be pink in the middle, rest assured: As of Tuesday, the USDA says you're in the clear as far as food-borne illness is concerned. More from The Stir: Exploding Watermelons Are Da Bomb for Summer Barbecues

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service has lowered its temperature recommendation for cooking pork to 145 degrees -- down from 160. (This means that pork will be held to the same standard as beef, veal, and lamb.) Moreover, it is recommended to let the pork rest for three minutes after removing it from the grill or oven; the temp will continue to rise slightly while killing any remaining pathogens.

Of course, there's an inherent irony in the fact that the USDA is lowering pork's minimum temperature ...
It's that professional chefs have been cooking pork this way FOR YEARS! Now home cooks and backyard barbecuers can finally catch up to the restaurant standard without worry. But the question is: Will they?
The USDA's longstanding 160 degrees recommendation is so ingrained in our minds, it may be difficult for some to adjust to the new temp, explains Rob Weland, a chef at an upscale restaurant in Washington:

People have been taught this for generations and it's going to take a long time to get this removed ... It will be good for the next generation not to be so fearful so they can enjoy pork in a way they may not have been able to in the past.

Pork producers have been lobbying the USDA for years to lower the recommendation, arguing that improved feed and housing methods -- namely, moving hogs into bird- and rodent-proof buildings -- reduced the risk of pathogens and disease. From the consumer point of view, it's surprising to learn they were successful this time around given all the recent horror stories in the media about how factory farms are harmful to animals, the environment, and most important, the public.

Use a Pan Instead of a Pot and 9 Other Surprising Steps to Perfect Pasta

Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes

The BA Pasta Manifesto

1. Forget the pot. Use a pan. Ever notice that the pasta you get at top-flight restaurants is different from what you make at home? It's glossy and luxurious, each strand of pasta coated with sauce. The key to pasta this transcendent is a sauté pan. That's what the pros use to cook almost-done pasta and sauce together—until there's pomodoro clinging to every bite of bucatini, until each raviolo is lacquered with sage-flecked brown butter. It's a unified, flavor-packed dish, not a bowl of noodles with a bunch of sauce dumped on top. To make your own restaurant-worthy pasta, grab a sauté pan (use one that's either 10" or 12" in diameter) and get started.

2. Build the Foundation. At its most basic, a pasta sauce requires just a handful of ingredients and 20 minutes of cooking time. To make a classic pan sauce, heat olive oil, sauté garlic, add a vegetable or two and then—here's the important part—a generous amount of pasta water. The starchy water and oil simmer together, forming the foundation of a sauce. We love a long-simmered ragu, but this is the technique we return to again and again.

Related: Bon Appetit's Favorite Pasta Recipes

3. You're not using nearly enough salt. Add a small handful of kosher salt to a pot of boiling water, then drop in the pasta. The noodles absorb water as they cook, so you're actually seasoning the interior of an otherwise bland starch. Mark Ladner, executive chef at Del Posto in New York City, says the water should taste "almost as salty as seawater." For Ladner, that's about 1 Tbsp. salt for every quart of water, but you don't have to be so particular—just throw it in there.

4. Don't dump the pasta water. Starchy, salty pasta water is the secret ingredient in most sauces. Scoop out some of the cloudy water (it's supposed to look like that) with a coffee mug or measuring cup, and pour a few splashes into the sauce. Save the rest; you might need more than you'd expect. Then simmer until the water and oil emulsify and begin to form a slightly creamy sauce. It's a little like deglazing a pan with stock or wine, a simple step that gives a dish body and flavor.

5. Trust the Tongs. While the pasta is cooking, grab a pair of basic metal tongs (12" ones are best for pasta prep). They are an indispensable tool: Use them to pick up a noodle to test for doneness, to transfer long noodles from pot to pan, to toss noodles in sauce, and, finally, to plate it all beautifully.

6. Now work that pan. It's where the magic happens. Bringing it all together in the pan is as easy as it is important. Undercook the pasta by about two minutes (you should see just a hint of white when you bite into a piece) and finish cooking it in the sauce's flavorful liquid. To coat the pasta with sauce, try some fancy restaurant fry-pan flips. Or, if you don't feel like cleaning the range after dinner, use tongs as if you're tossing a salad until the pasta is completely coated. Keep an eye on the sauce: Is it too tight? Remove it from the heat and add a bit more pasta water. Too brothy? Let it cook 20 seconds longer. Just remember that the pasta will continue to absorb the liquid and the sauce will thicken off the heat: What's loose in the pan will firm up in the bowl.

See Also: The Best Meatless Main Courses

7. Everything's Better with butter. The other secret to rich, silky sauces is extra fat—and yes, all the restaurants use it. "I finish the pasta with a little bit of olive oil, butter, or both," says Andrew Carmellini of New York City's Locanda Verde. "In Italian it's called mantecare, which means 'to make creamy.' " He adds cold butter to the pasta and sauce in the pan, off the heat, to give it an unctuous texture.

8. Cheese is not just a garnish. Whether you know it or not, restaurants enrich pasta sauces with cheese even before grating it tableside. When a little bit is added to the sauce, it melts and becomes a binder, a stealth ingredient that lends texture and flavor. Here are three simple steps to getting the most out of it: Skip pre-grated cheese. It's more expensive and it doesn't taste as good. Grate it finely so it'll melt easily into the sauce. You're making pasta, not a quesadilla. Think beyond Parmesan. Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, of New York City's Frankies Spuntino, use Pecorino, a sheep's-milk cheese with a tangy bite. "It has a stronger flavor," Castronovo says, "so we use less of it in the food."

9. It should looks as good as it tastes. Like a wineglass, a well-designed pasta bowl not only makes for beautiful presentation but also serves a purpose. A broad bowl with high sides keeps food warm (especially if you heat the bowl in an oven first), and a white one makes the colors in the sauce pop. We like Crate & Barrel's Bistro Large Bowl ($7; crateandbarrel.com). Use your trusty tongs for plating. "It should look like a bird's nest," says Thomas McNaughton, executive chef at San Francisco's Flour + Water. To get the look, twirl the pasta, lift it out of the pan, lower it into the bowl, then re-twirl.

10. Practice Makes Perfect Now that you've learned the principles of great pasta, practice the technique on these four classic recipes.

Get the Recipe for the Pasta Pictured Here