Pasta has been part of my life since uni days. It is quick to rustle up, cheap, filling and you can't really go wrong when making it.
My usual method for cooking dried pasta is slinging it in a pan, pouring over boiled water and cooking it over a rolling boil. Around 15 minutes later, the job's a good 'un and you have a pasta base ready to add pour-over sauces or simply cheese and pepper if you want to go down the cacio e pepe route.
Now, I prefer cooking durum wheat pasta instead of fresh pasta (darn dietary requirements) which means I have always cooked this hardier pasta the longer, traditional way. If I had known there was another method, an easier way that requires no kettle, I would have done this a long time ago.
Peanut butter pasta is one of Nigella's recent recipes that cooks pasta in boiling water for two minutes, then lets the pasta steep for a further eight minutes in freshly boiled water, cooker turned off. If you think of pasta like rice, then the following will make sense - soak dried pasta overnight, hydrating it so it requires minimal cooking and no boiling.
When it comes to assembling your dish, simply reheat till piping hot either in a sauce, garlic butter or whatever floats your boat, and enjoy the fruits of your not-so-hard labour. This recipe is great if you're looking for ways to cut down energy usage and reduce bills, as you won't need to boil a kettle or simmer the pasta on the stove-top for longer than four minutes.
I normally cook pasta sauce from scratch, but for this recipe that reduces cooker usage and slashes time, I have opted for a readymade, pourover sauce. Here is the shortest method for a recipe I have ever written.
Note, it will only work with dried durum wheat pasta and not fresh egg pasta, as the latter does not need rehydrating like durum wheat pasta.
Recipe for no-boil pasta
Ingredients
- 150g Aldi Cucina fusilli pasta
- 200g Aldi Cucina onion & garlic pasta sauce
- Enough cold tap water to generously cover pasta
Method
- Place dried pasta in a deep bowl (75g per person is perfect), cover with cold tap water and soak overnight.
- The day after, discard water, place pasta in a saucepan with your preferred pasta sauce, heat on high for around four minutes - getting it piping hot is imperative - and serve.
This next step is not imperative, but because I love the taste of grilled cheese and had some left over that I had to use, I sprinkled the pasta generously with cheese. I then baked it in an air fryer for five minutes.
I used Chevington Grated Light Cheese from Ocado which tastes great. But because it's a lower fat variety, I found it didn't bubble up like its chubbier counterpart, full-fat cheese.
Other ways I saved money was to cook with a cheaper non-branded pasta sauce. I used Cucina Onion & Garlic Pasta Sauce from Aldi which cost 65p for a 500g jar.
The Dolmio version called Bolognese Original cost £2 from Tesco, is considerably more expensive than Aldi's version - over three times more costly. I found there to be no real difference in taste between the two.
This pasta recipe is so simple, I will now use it going forward. I also slashed cooking time meaning I can prepare this the day before, for a super speedy lunch when I'm working from home.
Preparation is key for this recipe and won't work if you want to cook pasta spontaneously. I left the pasta to soak overnight, however I am sure the soak time could be shorter if you prefer slightly more al dente pasta.
I will experiment further over the coming weeks and report back. In the meantime, this is a great way to make super fast pasta by slashing cooking time.
