FOOD NEWS
When Cooking Baked Pasta, Avoiding Boiling Completely
BY NIKKI MUNOZ
If you love pasta, then you know the first step is to boil the pasta. However, there is a way to avoid boiling altogether when you’re creating a baked pasta dish.
J. Kenji López-Alt, author of "The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science,” recommends soaking the uncooked pasta in salted hot water for about 30 minutes.
In order to cook, the pasta needs to absorb about 80% of its own weight in water. López-Alt notes that the soaking method was discovered by H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa.
The method is useful for baked dishes because it “won’t rob your sauce of liquid,” and cooks well in the oven, says López-Alt. In the meantime, make a salad, sauce or simply relax.