I really have no respect for that kind of cooking or thinking when it comes to cooking. If you want to save water and energy – a laudable goal – cook something else.
No one in Italy who knows what they are doing adds olive oil to boiling water to cook the pasta. Stir the pasta.
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Please don’t attribute that quote to me. It was in the link I referenced and while it’s a good example of Old (Italian) Wives’ Tales, it’s not one to which I subscribe.
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aaaah. thanks!
I admit to trying it too! It managed to turn out both tough and mushy at the same time. Plus it requires you to cook the entire box at once and Mr. Muss and I generally don’t eat a whole pound of pasta at one sitting. (I mean* I* could, but generally shouldn’t.)
how big of a kettle do you have?
Today’s America’s Test Kitchen Radio episode, featuring Magnus Nilsson, was a repeat which discussed pasta with mushroom sauce. It featured cooking dry pasta right in the mushroom “broth”, which was sufficiently dilute to allow for this. It was explained that this method optimized the amount of starch from the pasta that became incorporated into the sauce. Precise amounts were absent but the recipe is on the show’s website.
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My experience is that heating water in a microwave is even faster.
Sorry, I forgot all about this thread! Don’t worry, I didn’t attribute any of these things to you, and sorry if it came across that way. I was just expressing my own thoughts and reactions.
I have taken to using McGee’s method for spaghetti: putting the noodles into a large skillet covered with cold water and bringing to a boil. Same amount of time as boiling water in a large pot, gives a bit od starchy water if needed for the recipe and dirties one less pot.
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Thank you so much for the tips and the recipe from Nilsson, I have tried several times to reproduce a creamy strong mushroom porcini sauce pasta that I have tasted in a restaurant, so far not very successful yet. (sauce is good but it’s not very integrated into the pasta) Even by using some dried mushroom pasta didn’t achieve the same effect.
So I guess this is the hack!
In this case, is it possible to cook pasta in a microwave? Anybody tried that?
Yes. You can buy plastic gizmos for that, but really, it’s just a matter of having a large enough vessel so there’s no boilover. The boiling water behaves the same as on the stove and as long as you are using dried pasta, the activity of microwaves is moot.
If by pasta, you mean the Italian product, I would say no. You shoudn’t cook pasta in plastic or insufficient water, either fresh pasta or dry pasta, or put it into water that isn’t boiling. It won’t cook properly, and microwaving is likely to mean it will continue to cook past being al dente. It likely to pick up unwanted flavors from the plastic. There are a few recipes using italian pasta that are sucessful where pasta is not boiled in abundant water on the stove, but none of them involve microwaving in plastic.
As for other types of noodles from other countries, I don’t know.
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That recipe wasn’t his, it was the test kitchen’s makeover, at the end of the show. I just mentioned him to help anyone who is trying to identify which episode it’s on. I dug around and found it: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/americas-test-kitchen-radio
Yes. I would never use hot water from the tap, for any cooking. The hot water heater tank is made of regular steel. From the day you hook it up, it begins to corrode from the inside. And also, there will definitely be calcium deposits.
Using hot tap water is akin to cooking in a rusty pan.
you might want to look into the glass lined tanks - they’ve been available for several generations.
Um, not to get all plumbing, but glass-lined does not mean the entire tank is covered in glass. There is still exposed steel, that’s why they still rust out.
Plus, they still have a sacrificial anode rod. So either way, your getting crap in the water. Enjoy if you like.
I wonder if this went to a blind taste test, if people could tell the difference in the flavor of the pasta between using cold tap water and hot tap water to boil it.
Wow…so much fear. I guess growing up in NJ sorta makes me a little immune from the hot water is dangerous syndrome. I also wash my dishes in that hot water so trace materials are probably all over my dishes, my pans are metal, I see my plastic spatulas have a few dings and I probably have eaten a few egg shells.
I start with hot water, add salt, bring to a boil and cook to doneness.
I have a question for all the posters wanted to save a smidgen of energy, why do you not only eat capellini since it takes a fraction of the time as thicker pastas? Seems a bit counter-intuitive if penne and ziti are on your rotation.
