How to Cook Pasta Super Fast (Without a Microwave)
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Do you love pasta but don’t love how long it takes to make it? Here’s how to cook pasta fast so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time with your family!
One of my favorite kitchen memories from my childhood was my mother’s spaghetti and meatballs.
My mother worked full-time following my parents’ unfortunate divorce, so convenience foods and fast food were sadly pretty common around our dinner table.
However, there were some classic home-cooked meals that my mom made: one of them being her spaghetti and meatballs, complete with her amazing homemade pasta sauce.
She would let the sauce simmer all day and then let us taste-test it. We would get a slice of bread (sadly, it was white and store-bought) with a ladle full of homemade sauce on top. Mmmm.
Now, I still love pasta, but one thing I’ve never liked is the amount of time it takes to wait for that huge pot of water to boil. You know the old adage; a watched pot never boils.
In this case, whether you’re watching it or not, it always seems that heating the pot of water takes forever.
So when I found this time and money-saving tip for cooking pasta I was thrilled.
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Time and Money Saving Pasta Tip Origin
In a number of other posts, I mentioned Lorna Sass as being a great source for all things pressure-cooking-related. Well, this tip comes from her sadly out-of-print cookbook, Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen.
So here’s how to save time and money cooking pasta.
Turns out that that huge pot of water is totally unnecessary!
You can seriously have pasta on the table lickety-split.
How to Save Time and Money Cooking Pasta
1. Take a small pot (about 1 1/2 quart-sized)
2. Add enough water so that you’ll cover the pasta by about an inch. This should be about a quart for 1 pound of pasta.
3. Add a dash of salt.
4. Boil the water.
5. Add the pasta.
6. Stir occasionally to keep the pasta submerged.
7. Drain and serve as usual.
For more servings, just increase the pot size, pasta, and water amount accordingly.
Voila!
You have just saved:
- Time: You didn’t have to wait as long for the water to boil
- Money: Save on energy and water usage
Here’s another great tip from a reader: To save more energy, but not time, just turn off the heat once you add the pasta and keep a lid on it. Add about 5 minutes to your regular cooking time and check for doneness. Sounds great for a day when you’re not in as much of a hurry!)
More Time-Saving Kitchen Tips
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Do you have a great time or money-saving tip to share?
Or how about a kitchen challenge you could use help with?
I only have two pots a huge and a small, so in my experience cramming all the pasta in the small box creates spills when it boils (I will try the cover the pot tip). Here’s a tip from Jamie Oliver, he boils his water first in the electric teapot (takes 2-3 min) and then puts it in the pot, quickly reheats it and adds the pasta. Time saver!
That’s what I do, saves ages.
Alternatively, cook your sauce in a bigger pan with a little bit more stock than usual and then when it’s almost ready add the pasta. The starch in the pasta will thicken the sauce.
Thanks! Nice tip! Unless you are trying to avoid starch, right :)?
I think my note wasn’t clear… add the pasta to the cold water (instead of boiling) and bring to a boil like that. 🙂