On a blog post I did the other week about me eating pasta when I 'Cooked Once and Ate Twice', Happy Introvert commented on a way of preparing pasta that I had never heard of before. So I decided that I would give it a go for myself.
You literally just put however much pasta you want to cook in a bowl, and then leave it to soak well covered in water for a couple of hours. The amount of starch that comes out of the pasta is amazing, and I found myself giving it a rinse in fresh cold water before I actually put it on to cook.
Doing this shortens the cooking time by a few minutes, so as well as making the pasta more easily digestible and slightly healthier, and you are also saving money on fuel.
While it was cooking I found that the pasta didn't clump together at all, and once cooked I tasted it before adding any sauce to the pan and found it to be a better texture and slightly tastier.
Yes, this particular pasta meal looks boring, I was concentrating so much on the pasta that I forgot to drop my peas into the cooking water like I usually do. It was a nice cheese sauce though. 😄
A few days later I decided to try it again with wholewheat spaghetti this time.
At first I was wondering what to put it into to soak, and then I realised it could just go into the central section of the sink. It worked a treat.
Not as much starch seemed to come out of the brown pasta during soaking, but once cooked it was a still a better texture and somehow tastier. I'll definitely be doing this from now on.
Thanks for the tip Happy Introvert.
Sue xx
That's good to know. I've also tried a method where you add the dry pasta to boiling water, bring the water to boil again and then, cover the pan, turn the heat off. and leave the pasta for 8 minutes or so. It continues to cook in the hot water.
ReplyDeleteI've used this method quite a while. Sometimes I put the sauce (today it's ratatouille) into the pan and cook the pasta in the sauce. Saves a pan!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I only use wholewheat pasta and find doing it this way makes it somehow taste nuttier, I assume because of less starch.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great tip for my husband who has diabetes-it will certainly reduce the starch. Thanks to you both for sharing. Catriona
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