Quick Pasta

[Jason Perlow]

a few nights ago Fat Guy was bellyaching tme over instant messenger that all he had in house was a bag of frozen ravioli, but as it was late he didnt feel like going through the hassle of making his own sauce -- and adding that he never bought jarred sauces. I quickly chided him for being such a prima donna, and that some brands were good and not just sugary concoctions resembling ketchup. There are times when boiling up some pasta and quickly heating up some sauce without major additional preparation can be a satisfying meal.

The other end of the spectrum however reveals jarred sauces in the 8 bucks a jar and over microbrew sauce category (such as Rao's, Patsy's, etc) which arent quite worth the money although they do taste very good.

Rachel told me after her experience working for Lipton that 5 Brothers is actually a decent sauce since apparently, unlike its brother Ragu, is made in 1 day from a process of reducing fresh tomatoes to sauce, whereas ragu is made from paste. And its fairly cheap.

Anyone else got brand recommendations?

[mamster]

I vigorously second the recommendation of Five Brothers, particularly the Marinara with Burgundy Wine flavor.  It often goes on sale for Ū/jar near me.  I use it as the basis for my vodka sauce:  saute some pancetta, add vodka and reduce, pour in a jar of 5 Bros and some cream, and you're set.

I remember liking one of the Barilla sauces, too, but I haven't bought anything other than the 5B in a while.

Also, what does Fat Guy's homemade sauce entail?  I mean, smash a clove of garlic, toss it in a skillet with some olive oil, pour in a can of diced tomatoes, and boil it for ten minutes.  That's called sauce in my house.

(Edited by mamster at 7:34 pm on Oct. 20, 2001)

[Jason Perlow]

Also, what does Fat Guy's homemade sauce entail?  I mean, smash a clove of garlic, toss it in a skillet with some olive oil, pour in a can of diced tomatoes, and boil it for ten minutes.  That's called sauce in my house.

It was 10:00 at night and he didnt even have the energy to do that. He gets totally immobilized and kvetchy, you know.

[Bux]

smash a clove of garlic, toss it in a skillet with some olive oil, pour in a can of diced tomatoes, and boil it for ten minutes. That's called sauce in my house.

Sometimes it's even better after five minutes than after ten. Canned tomatoes should be a stable. I don't think prepared pasta sauces need be although we often freeze our own. More to the point, depending on the filling, ravioli are fine with just some warm olive oil and grated parmesan. A few spoonfuls of some very concetrated stock or meat glaze and grated cheese are another thought. Olive oil may be more likely to be on hand, but Fat Guy says he freezes concentrated home made broth in individual portions.

[Fat Guy]

Actually my main complaint that night was that I didn't want to cook anything at all and I really had a craving for pizza but the one good pizza place in my delivery radius had stopped delivering at 10:00pm.

Robert, can you elaborate on how you'd use some concentrated poultry or veal stock to make a simple sauce for ravioli? Are you saying just add some salt and toss with the pasta? Is that actually good? It's a use for stock I've never thought about.

How long does it take you all, from start to finish (from the time you pull the first pot down from the rack and start filling it with water to the time you have pasta on the table), to make pasta and marinara? It takes me about 35-40 minutes, because I use a really big pot of water and it has to come to a boil. So the limitation for me isn't really the time it takes to make the sauce. My resistance to making sauce in that instance had more to do with the labor and cleanup requirements. I also use only whole canned tomatoes, not chopped. The chopped never taste as good to me, and I think based on their taste they typically have too much salt bound up in their molecules. So I force myself into an extra step of deconstructing the canned tomatoes, which means I have to deal with the blender or the food processor, though I've also had decent luck with Martha Stewart's method of using poultry shears right in the can. This yields a pleasantly chunky sauce.

I must be in a minority, but I don't buy into the notion that pasta is such an easy meal to make. It is a production requiring multiple utensils and -- even if you use too small a pot of water (which most people do, even professional chefs) -- I can't see getting the process down much below half an hour.

In very close to that time, since I always have stock on hand, I can prep and cook risotto. In less than that time, I can cook hamburgers, steaks, chicken parts, chocolate chip cookies, lots of stuff. I think it's more correct to say that cooking pasta can be done in the time it takes to cook the average home meal, and that it requires less skill -- though I can barely stomach a pasta-and-sauce dish made by an unskilled cook.

In that time, I can make ten omelettes. My omelette choreography has developed to the point where I can make myself an omelette in about seven minutes, and then I can generate additional ones at two-three minute intervals thereafter. Now that's an easy meal. It is in fact what I had. One omelette, not ten, that is.

I've never had a packaged pasta sauce as good as a basic marinara made from high-quality canned whole tomatoes. And I've tried some costing as much as ผ for a jar. The main problems, I think, are that they're too salty, the pepper has lost its flavor in the solution, the herbs have lost their freshness, and these sauces are universally overcooked. You can add more salt or more pepper or more herbs, but then you have too much of each of those things in there.

I'll happily spend eight or ten hours, or even three days, cooking a meal I want to cook. But when I'm looking to nourish myself at 10:00pm, and I have work to get done, the pasta meal just isn't on my short list of candidates.

[Jason Perlow]

How long does it take you all, from start to finish (from the time you pull the first pot down from the rack and start filling it with water to the time you have pasta on the table), to make pasta and marinara? It takes me about 35-40 minutes

25 minutes tops, even when making a quick homemade sauce out of canned tomatoes. Your pot is too #### big Shaw. :)

[Fat Guy]

Well, pretty much no matter what you do with the sauce -- with the possible exception of an all-day-reduced grandma-style sauce -- the sauce will be done before the pasta. The sauce is not a contributing factor to the overall duration of the project. It's merely a hassle. Whether or not I make a sauce, it still takes me the same amount of time to get pasta on the table.

What size pot are you using, for how much and what kind of pasta? Frozen ravioli need about 12 minutes cooking time, so you're saying you can boil a sufficiently large pot of water for that in 13 minutes? Jeez, from my sink it takes almost that long to fill the pot. :)

[Jason Perlow]

Okay you have a point about frozen ravioli. But no way in #### should a box of barilla spaghetti /penne /rigatoni take that long.

Firstly if you are only cooking for 1 or 2 people you dont need a huge pasta pot, thats for restaurants dude. If I am just cooking for rachel and myself a 6 quart pot will do fine. You'll need to break the sphagetti in half or push it down to get it in there, but it will work -- which is why I prefer penne or ziti or radiatore or other compact pasta shape for this purpose.

First fill the pot with hot water -- it should not be cold. Next you want to salt the water and add a little olive oil to prevent sticking (a lot of chefs say you dont need to do this, but a little old lady that taught me how to cook pasta properly did it, and I still do it out of respect). Boil the sucker with the pot covered and slightly ajar, it should happen in like 5 minutes or less, especially with your big-ass DCS 14K burners.  

Throw the pasta in. Throw the lid back on. Come back in 5 minutes. Stir it up. Taste a peice of pasta. If still a little hard, give it another minute, it should be slightly underdone. Throw the pasta into the colander in the sink and let it sit there. Dont rinse it.

With the same pot, and dont bother to wipe it down, throw in your pre-prepared sauce, or chop your canned tomatoes, throw in the garlic/olive oil/, heat it up good for 5 mins, then toss in the pasta. Add fresh basil, cheese, etc. Kill the heat and plate.

Entire procedure -- 15 / 20 minutes tops.

Here's another real simple dish that I make for myself when I am hungry late at night, ate it all the time in college. The recipe uses a pot and a pan, but I've done it with just one pot, transferring the pasta into the colander, doing a quick wipedown with a paper towel and making the sauce in the pot the pasta was in. I also add a pat of butter to this when the sauce is done.

SPAGHETTI AIO OIO

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced, or more to taste

1/2 a dried red pepper, crumbled, or more to taste (don't overdo it)

1/4 cup plus two tablespoons good olive oil

1 pound spaghetti

Grated Parmigiano

Bring 6 quarts of lightly salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti.

Meanwhile, mince the garlic, crumble the red pepper, and sauté them in the oil until the garlic begins to brown. Turn off the heat (the garlic will continue to brown; you don't want it to overbrown and become bitter).

When the spaghetti are done, drain them well, transfer them to a bowl, and stir the sauce into them. Serve with grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano on the side; I've also used Romano as well.

[shugga]

I always heard that you should not use hot water when cooking.  I think it has something to do with the hot water leaching out unwanted chemicals from the pipes.

[franklanguage]

Actually, isn't this why we freeze basil and oil for the off-season? If I'm really short of time, I make pesto: take a chunk of the frozen basil and oil out of the freezer, a clove of garlic, a chunk of reggiano and/or gruyere, pour in a dash more oil, put it all in the Cuisinart, and get a nice thick paste. Add some boiling water from the pasta, then add pine nuts (so you can see them in the sauce). How long can that take? It takes me less than half an hour.

Pesto is great on ravioli, too: there are plenty of places that serve it. Enjoy.

[franklanguage]

Quote: from shugga on 12:12 pm on Oct. 21, 2001

I always heard that you should not use hot water when cooking.  I think it has something to do with the hot water leaching out unwanted chemicals from the pipes.

As a matter of fact, you should always use cold water and bring it to a boil. I'm not making this up; it's just what I always hear from People Who Know.

[NewYorkTexan]

If you have some fresh herbs around, a brown butter sauce is an option.  There are few things I can make faster than a good brown butter sauce.

[Sandra Levine]

Quote: from NewYorkTexan on 1:04 pm on Oct. 21, 2001

If you have some fresh herbs around, a brown butter sauce is an option.  There are few things I can make faster than a good brown butter sauce.

I agree.  A few sage leaves sauteed in butter makes a classic sauce for ravioli.

[Bux]

I doubt that hot water leaches chemicals out of the pipes. Hot water pipes and hot water heaters do tend to build up more scaling from minerals in the water.

I'm with Shaw. I'd prefer to err on the side of too big a pot and too much water than attempt to cook pasta in too little water. Perhaps that's also the reason I agree with him that the cooking of the pasta will determine the minimum time from start to table. My earlier response was to Jason's remark about the hassle of making sauce. I feel the same way Shaw does about boiling water when I think of eating a few Chinese dumplings. They cook in less time than ravioli and I can make do with just hot oil and vinegar in a pinch, although it doesn't take much longer to use black vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, scallion, etc. It's filling and washing the pot in addition to waiting for it to boil that takes too long. Putting the lid on it helps.

With canned tomatoes, it's probably the brand that's more important than whether they're whole, chopped or crushed. The nice thing about whole tomatoes is that you can chop or puree them quickly and chop them as you want. Thus a can of whole tomatoes is more versitile. By the way, canned tomatoes should not be a "stable" as I earlier noted, but a "staple." ;)

Ziti, penne, shells, bowties, etc are all fine. Athough some seem better suited to certain sauces than others almost all will do in a pinch. Spaghetti broken in half is unacceptable for much the same reason Jason puts oil in the water. It's a question of respect for those who taught me all I know about pasta. ;)

can you elaborate on how you'd use some concentrated poultry or veal stock to make a simple sauce for ravioli? Are you saying just add some salt and toss with the pasta? Is that actually good?

Totellini, won tons and kreplach have been served in broth for what I assume has been centuries. It's really just a variation. In recent years I've noticed that fine restaurants will often serve featured ravioli with just a little broth and maybe some other garnishes in the bowl. It's not a big step to serve a reduction that almost sticks to the pasta. In fact it will combine with a bit of the grated cheese and you will not need a spoon, although the latitude of how much to use and how concentrated it should be, will allow you to create many different dishes. A current favorite of ours is the green spinach ravioli from DiPalo's (on Broome and Mott). I don't like tomato sauce with this and we often have it with thinly sliced mushrooms, a bit of reduced stock and freshly grated parmesan.

[Fat Guy]

Jason, I agree that six quarts should be sufficient. Six quarts of water that is. I'd never cook pasta, particularly spaghetti, in any less than that. So the minimum pot size I ever use for pasta is eight quarts, which can hold six quarts of water when filled to the rivets. But usually I prefer to use a twelve quart pot.

The two reasons a larger pot is better are: 1) The more water you have, the faster it will return to a boil after you add the pasta, and 2) the additional volume will minimize sticking because a) there's simply more space; and b) the starch granules on the surface of the pasta swell up and pop when you add pasta to boiling water, which makes the surface sticky; when you have more water, the starch gets washed away more quickly and the noodles won't stick to each other.

There are a few reasons to start with cold water. Some of these are specific to certain regions of the country where water treatment systems are common in homes. I don't think those concerns are relevant in New York or New Jersey. But what I do think is that hot water has been sitting in the hot water heating tank in the basement for hours, or possibly days. If you pour a glass of hot water from your sink, let it cool, and drink it, you'll see what I mean. So I never cook with hot water.

My stove is pretty powerful, but it still takes me around twenty minutes to boil enough water to cook pasta the way I insist on cooking it.

I don't like to break spaghetti or other long pasta. I enjoy eating it at its full length, and I suspect that if the pot isn't even large enough to hold the pasta then it's certainly too small.

Oil added to the water mostly floats to the top and doesn't come in contact with the pasta. It does not in my experience work to prevent sticking, and seems to me a waste of perfectly good oil. Even if you add enough to reduce sticking, who wants boiled oil in pasta? If you use a large pot, sticking won't even be an issue, though.

One important factor is salting the water. Most people don't add enough. The water should be very salty, like the water from the ocean. This is the only way to push enough salt into the pasta to give it even a slight flavor boost.

Jason, when you say you put the lid on for five minutes after adding the pasta, and then you stir, are you saying you don't stir at all for the first five minutes? It would seem that if you did it that way, you'd have a lot of pasta sticking together, and to the pot. In my experience the most important time to stir is during the first two or three minutes of cooking, and especially in the seconds right after you add the pasta.

I also wouldn't cook the sauce after draining the pasta. Pasta is at its sauce-absorbing best immediately after being cooked and drained. It is at that point that the sauce should be ready and added, for best results.

I don't like to cook pasta at a rolling boil. I add it to a pot at that temperature, but as the pot comes back to the boil I lower the heat and cook the pasta at a simmer. I don't know if this really makes a difference, but enough chefs have sworn by the method that I'm sticking with it.

I have no idea why, but I've never seen a traditional Italian cook cover the pot while cooking pasta. I assume there's a reason for this, or maybe not. Perhaps one of our scientific types can help.

Thanks to all for the quick sauce suggestions. There's a whole thread in that, no doubt. As for packaged sauces, though, I remain unconvinced that there are any worthwhile ones.

[Jason Perlow]

The amount of water, heat of the water and the oil/no oil thing I think is up for debate. I use somewhat less than six quarts of water to 1lb of pasta -- and it never sticks. I presume this is the oil, but I am sure someone has some snotty food science explanation of why its not needed :) I do it because Mrs. Ventemiglia, a nice 75 year old lady from Siclily, who first taught me how to make sauce from scratch told me to do it that way some 15 years ago. Whenever I make pasta I think of her.

My pasta never sticks. Ever. :) As to the stirring... yeah, once or twice for good measure.

[NewYorkTexan]

Steven - you alluded to, but did mention what I think is the most important step in making good pasta.  

Drain the pasta slightly before it is al dente and finish cooking it the final minute or so it in the sauce.  This way the flavor of the sauce is absorbed by the pasta, instead of just coating it.  I learned this a few years ago and it makes all the difference in the world.

[Rosie]

Steven--If you want really FAST sauce use ketchup!

Actually, if I use a jar of sauce I always add a can of crushed or whole tomatoes and some red wine.

[Fat Guy]

NewYorkTexan, my procedure is to remove the pasta from the water (I use a scoop/basket strainer, rather than dumping the whole contents of the pot into a collander, because I like to save or re-use the pasta water sometimes) when al dente and to add it to a skillet with approximately a cup of the sauce per pound of pasta (that's for a marinara-type sauce; a butter-based sauce would require less sauce). After the pasta has absorbed most of that sauce, I plate it and pour additional sauce on top.

[NewYorkTexan]

How would you use the pasta water?  

Sometimes I add a little to my sauce if it has become too thick.  Are there other uses for the pasta water?

[Jason Perlow]

The pasta water contains starches which are helpful for allowing sauce to stick to pasta. Which is why you should never, ever wash your pasta after it has been transferred to the colander because all those starches are on the surface of the pasta.

Sometimes I reserve some, sometimes I dont. Usually just the pasta being unwashed itself leaves more than enough starch for the sauce to cling just right.

[jhlurie]

What a debate.  I mean unless you have a big craving for Tomatoes, it's pretty easy to make a super-quick sauce.  

It's especially easy with good ravioli, because if you take them out of the boiling water a bit early and put them into a large cast iron frying pan for a few minutes--pre-heated with Olive Oil, Black Pepper and Garlic--you are half way home.  I, at least, usually don't need much else.  Maybe a bit of parsley or some hot pepper or chili oil.

[Fat Guy]

Quote: from NewYorkTexan on 10:56 am on Oct. 22, 2001

Are there other uses for the pasta water?

Aside from adding a little of the starchy water to sauce, one use is to boil more pasta! Or anything else. Once I have a big pot of boiling water going, I'll sometimes take advantage of it for various purposes. Last time I made pasta, afterwards I used the pot to sterilize my dog's Nylabone and Kong toys. You can also reverse the order of things, using a pot of water to blanch vegetables and then cooking the pasta in that water, which will impart some flavor to the pasta. But the main reasons I use a basket-type strainer instead of a colander are convenience and safety. Dumping a giant pot of water into the sink is both awkward and potentially dangerous. Much better just to lift the pasta out and leave the water to cool, for later disposal.

[NewYorkTexan]

"I used the pot to sterilize my dog's Nylabone and Kong toys."

Your dog must have the most highly seasoned Kong and nylabone in Manhattan.    

[Fat Guy]

By Upper East Side dog-pampering standards, I don't even register on the scale!