Par Cooked Pasta With Leftovers in Mind

Filed in archive Tricks & Techniques on March 5, 2009

© madaise

Many of us have spent the better part of a day cooking pasta sauce in one form or another. Whether it's spaghetti, ravioli or even goulash (what?, goulash has pasta in it!), we tend to take our sauces seriously.

Making a ton of extra sauce to stick in the freezer for a quick fix is very common, but we rarely take the time to consider making pasta in quantities that will last longer than the initial meal. Since I've been picking up my two boys from school early in the afternoon, and mom doesn't get home 'til early evening, I've been finding more ways to spend less time in the kitchen and more time in the back yard playing trucks or riding bikes.

Having extra pasta sauce in the freezer makes life easy for sure, but it still takes a small and time consuming effort to make pasta. Pasta tends to get "soggy" when you reheat it, so some of us shy away from keeping it for leftovers. Karen has showed us one method of reheating pasta provided you have time and are willing to boil water.

If you truly want to take advantage of a leftover dinner that's microwavable but don't want to have to eat soggy pasta, try this: Stop cooking the pasta about 2-1/2 to 3 minutes before it's normal cook time. Then rinse it in COLD water. Add some olive oil to prevent sticking together. That way, when you re-heat it using my down and dirty method of nuking it, it will not get soggy.

Hint: Usually when you cook pasta, you eat some of it, right? When you plan to make extra pasta for later use, don't empty the entire pot of pasta into the strainer. Leave enough to eat for that meal in the pan and continue cooking it until it's fully cooked, then freeze (or refrigerate) the rest.