Cook pasta in advance... Help!

[KennethT]

I am having a few friends over for NYE dinner tonight - one is a vegetarian who loves cheese, so I figured I'd make her a truffled Mac n cheese for one of the courses. I have a very small kitchen and only 3 usable burners, two if I have a large pot going.

I'd like to, ideally, cook the pasta earlier today and chill it so I don't need to worry about cooking it while I'm prepping the course for everyone else. Is there any way to do this and still have it come out well?

For those with experience, I'm making a modern cheese sauce using sodium citrate. Would it be ok if I were to fold cold pasta into the hot sauce or would it start clumping/seizing due to the cold shock?

[LizD518]

Would you have enough space to heat up some water (maybe in a kettle or coffee maker) and refresh the pasta in the hot water right before folding it into the cheese sauce? And if you need the starchiness of the pasta water to thicken the sauce, maybe you could reserve some of the original pasta water when you drain the pasta and incorporate it back into the dish? Not sure about that part...

[KennethT]

That's a good idea - I can heat up some water in the microwave and use that to refresh the pasta before adding the sauce. Pasta cooking water not necessary for this application, but could do the same, in theory - just chill and save the pasta water and reheat that in the microwave.... Thanks

[Shel_B]

Have you thought about making the pasta in the microwave? I never did until I read the comment about reheating in the microwave. So, I did a quick Google search on the subject, and sure enough, there are directions available for doing this sort of thing.

http://www.wikihow.com/Microwave-Pasta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CjSb_jX9s8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64KCqUxZh_g

There are other sources, too.

Now, I've never tried this, and don't know how well it would turn out, especially for a nice dinner party. But, since you have a small kitchen, it might be something worthwhile to know. And, since I have a small kitchen, I'm going to try this myself, and have a bowl of microwaved rotini for lunch.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Shel_B (log)

[nickrey]

I've seen cooks in restaurants pre-cook pasta and reheat it in a frypan with a bit of added water (and sauce) for service.

Looking this up on the web, I found this link.

It is worth a pre-try to see if it works.

[djyee100]

If I were doing this, I would toss the hot cooked pasta with just enough bland oil (vegetable oil) to keep it from clumping, then let it cool. Toss the pasta with your hands to minimize breaking the pasta. At time of service, I would reheat the pasta in the microwave with a small bit of water, then toss it with the hot cheese sauce.

I vaguely remember using the hot pasta with oil technique long ago when I was assisting a chef in a cooking class (5 pasta dishes!) and that was his method to hold the pasta.

If you have some truffle oil, add a few drops to the hot pasta, along with the vegetable oil, and that will give the mac & cheese even more truffled oomph.

have fun at your NYE dinner!

Edited December 31, 2013 by djyee100 (log)

[KennethT]

Djyee - you read my mind... It is actually a truffled Mac n cheese, made with aged gruyere and parmigiano reggiano.

All good ideas... Unfortunately I've got no more time for trials. I may wind up having time/space to make the pasta fresh... We'll see...

In the meantime, if anyone has other ideas, keep 'em coming!

[Lisa Shock]

I started out in an Italian place (mostly pizza) when I was a teenager. I did the AM prep for a couple of years. We'd cook spaghetti until it just became flexible, with a tough interior. Then it would be drained, rinsed with cold water, weighed and placed in sandwich baggies. We had a pasta station on the steam table. When an order came in, the pasta went into the hot water pot on the table for a couple of minutes, then was drained and sauced with sauce that was being held.

I am wondering if you can get ahold of a slow cooker and a colander that fits inside it? Then you could prep the pasta in advance, heat up water in the slow cooker with the colander in it, dump in the pasta for 2-3 minutes and just pull up the colander when done.

My other thought is that you should just make the dish in a ramekin, refrigerate, and reheat in a low oven.