Pasta Hacks

One way to save water, energy, and time is with a couple of shortcuts when cooking pasta. With the majority of dry pasta such as macaroni, you can put your pasta into a dry pan, then add water until the pasta is just submerged. Then, bring the pot up to a boil. Be sure to check the pasta and monitor its cooking progress, as packages will often refer to making pasta with boiling water. You can also use a larger pan like a frying pan instead of a standard saucepan to speed up the cooking time by increasing the surface area that’s getting heated. Draining the pasta may be more of a challenge with a larger pan, so keep that in mind. Also, if you find the water has become too thick from the starches in the pasta to effectively drain it, you can add a little more water to thin it out. Just be mindful of how much water you add, and if the recipe calls for rinsing the pasta or not: if it says to not rinse the pasta, you may want to restrict how much water you add to thin it out before you drain it. Some recipes work better if the pasta to retain some of the starchy water, as this starch can help sauces stick to the pasta.