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How to Keep Spaghetti Noodles Warm
When reheating pasta, the primary issues are that the pasta will stick and burn to the bottom of the container, the noodles will stick to one another, and the noodles will overcook. Other approaches, like reheating them in the oven, may cause the noodles to become dry.
With the help of these three techniques, you can enjoy hot, steaming noodles that aren’t burnt, overcooked, or sticky.
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A common method used by restaurants is to prepare the pasta in advance and keep it in or near ice water. After briefly immersing the chilled pasta in boiling water, it can be served.
It should not be kept warm as this could cause it to overcook and steam. In order to prevent it from absorbing water for the hour that it is sitting around, you must get it cold and fairly dry as soon as possible. Then, at the last minute, quickly reheat it.
Cook the pasta for a minute or so less than the recommended doneness to make it incredibly chewy rather than crunchy. Remove it, being careful not to spill the hot water, and submerge it in as much ice water as you can catch. Remove the pasta from that water as soon as it’s cold.
Since the pasta’s surface is still coated in wet starch, as it sits, the pieces will begin to adhere to one another. To prevent this, coat all of the pasta pieces with a small amount of oil (you can use any kind; it won’t matter how you wash it off later). If you plan to use the pasta soon, you can leave it out on the counter, though you might want to cover it. When you’re ready to eat, return the boiling cooking water to the boil and add the pasta. Depending on a number of factors, including how quickly you cooled it down, how thick it is, how much you dried it off, and how cold it is when you drop it back into the water, cooking will take a little longer than the subtracted minute. As usual, the only way to know if something is done is to taste it.
It should remain usable for a few days at the very least if you refrigerate it.
I’m not sure why you wish to cook your pasta in advance, but if you want to reduce the amount of time it takes to cook it all at the last minute, you might want to consider pre-soaking it—a fascinating but completely heretical suggestion that Harold McGee recently made.
*Those who are concerned about food safety would advise refrigerating it if you plan to keep it for longer than two hours.
I would cover it with butter or olive oil and heat it slowly over a double boiler. Alton Brown might use an electric blanket instead.
Still, its always best to make pasta just in time. Simply maintain the water’s heat and add it last.
As Kyri says, make the pasta just in time (JIT). However, if you are unable to, you should either reheat the pasta in a cold Bain Marie with butter or olive oil, or under cold running water (which is not the best option). After it’s cold and still loose, store it in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
To reheat, add the pasta to a skillet with hot olive oil or butter. Stir until its warm. Mix the pasta in the skillet with the warm salsa.
Mom approved 100% of the time (she is 100% 20100% Sicilian), so I cooked my noodles for the allotted amount of time. I then added a little olive oil and salt to the water and rinsed off any leftover starch.
Next, rinse the pot to remove any leftover starch, and put it back on the burner to absorb the heat from the recently turned off burner. Add a tablespoon or two of real butter, and mix it in with the noodles. This helps to remove any extra water from the rinsing process.
I think the butter and olive oil help to seal in most of the moisture in the noodles; returning them to the slightly warm pot helps ensure that there isn’t a pool of water forming around the noodles when they’re on the plate.
As an alternative, I’ll put any leftover noodles in a container after the first meal is prepared and served, layer them on top of each other (don’t mix; store in the refrigerator in two layers), and then use “press firmly” to seal the top of the container. It works out just fine for us.
Note: I prepare the sauce the night before and simmer it on low all night. The sauce is ready when it turns dark red, or brownish red, rather than bright red, as it appears initially. This is also the reason why most sauces taste better the next day.
I Hope this helps someone a little.
I would have to concur that adding olive oil to cooked pasta prevents it from sticking together. Many may advise using olive oil for cooking, but if you store it in a colander and discard the oil, it will last for a while. Making the sauce and meatballs first and cooking the pasta last is the best course of action. Most sauces will flavor up nicely if you simmer them for a while, so you can keep the sauce simmering while you finish the pasta.
Pasta can be slightly undercooked in advance and finished cooking by adding sauce just before serving.
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