Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share by Gunst Kathy

Author:Gunst, Kathy [Gunst, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2016-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

Cook Those Noodles Separately, Please!

In almost all cases it’s best to cook pasta, noodles, and rice separately and then add it to your soup. The reason is simple. When pasta or rice cooks, it soaks up the liquid it’s being cooked in. If you cook the pasta or rice in your soup, you will end up with a thick, stewlike mess. All your gorgeous broth will have been “drunk” by your pasta. There are a few exceptions to this; such as when you do want a thick, stewlike soup, like Yia Yia’s Greek Avgolemono (page 84) .

Here’s my advice: Cook noodles and rice in a separate pot but just slightly undercook them. The reason? Noodles and rice will continue to cook when you add them to your hot soup, and you don’t want them to overcook. I generally cut down the cooking time by 3 to 5 minutes. For pasta and noodles, that means you are looking for a true al dente consistency; pasta with a real bite. It will soften when added to your soup without soaking up all the broth. The same treatment also works for rice. Remove it when it still has a bit of a bite, let it cool down a bit, and then add it to the soup.

The only time I cook pasta directly in a soup is when I’m working with very tiny pasta, like pastina, ditalini , or acini di pepe . Anything bigger—including orzo—should be cooked separately.

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