Soak Pasta Instead of Boiling for Easier Baking Pasta
Baked ziti, lasagna, and other baked pasta will definitely appeal to the public, but making the pasta in the first place always seems like a tedious extra step. The good news: you don’t have to worry about boiling pasta when a simple soak is enough.
In an excerpt from his book The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking With Science on Serious Eats, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt explains why there is no need to boil pasta and then cook it in the oven: a 30-minute soak in warm water will help make the pasta absorb so much. water, as it would be in a boiled form, and these pre-soaked pasta are perfectly baked in the oven.
But for the home cook, this means that every time you plan to bake pasta in your casserole, you don’t need to pre-cook it. All you have to do is soak it while you prepare the sauce, then mix and bake. Since the pasta is already moistened, it won’t drain the sauce, and the oven’s heat is more than enough to cook it while the casserole is baked. If you try them side by side, you won’t notice the difference between pre-cooked pasta and plain soaked pasta. Think what this means for lasagna! I know of at least six different dental procedures that I would rather do than make lasagna noodles.
This means you don’t have to wait for the water to boil, stand over the stove stirring the pasta, or feel uncomfortable with layers of hot pasta.
We previously noted that soaked pasta can be made quickly in about a minute (great if you’re making large batches of pasta), but soaking is especially useful for baked pasta dishes. It’s easier than boiling – and who doesn’t like it when the results are just as delicious?
Check out the post below to learn more about the science and which pasta sauce to try next.
The Food Lab: For Easier Baking Ziti, Soak Rather Than Boil Pasta | Serious food