Pasta is a wonderful thing to us off-gridders. Long storage life, high in carbs, you can make it at home, and you can add just about whatever is handy to have a delicious meal in no time.
There is a dark side to pasta however … That dark side … is ENERGY.
Pasta requires a long period of boiling in order to turn it from an inedible stick into a tender slippery string. That sustained boiling requires large amounts of energy. You may be using energy from your solar panels … You may be using energy from burning wood or propane … But, at the end of the day you are expending your valuable resources. Resources that cost money to initially procure and replenish. Resources that could be better spent on making dessert ;-)
What if I told you there’s another way?
1) Place pasta in a ziplock bag (any container will work really)
2) Cover with room temp water
3) Allow to sit and soak for 90 minutes
4) Boil salted water
5) Drop in your presoaked pasta
6) Remove from heat
7) Drain when your pasta is tender
Al dente takes about 1 minute from the time the presoaked noodles hit the water. Fully cooked is about 3. (Times will vary based on elevation and noodle type.
The only energy you’ve expended is enough to get that water to an initial boil. No added energy needed to keep it there with this method.
Enjoy!
(Don’t forget to save the water! It contains starches that are great for gravies and soups!)
7 Responses
yeah applying more heat once water is at boiling only serves to create steam. Putting things like oatmeal (or pasta) in boiling water and turning the heat way down low (or off entirely for oatmeal) allowing time to soften doesn’t really use much more energy than this method. Taking the tap water from faucet temp to boil is the largest expense of energy. Granted you can use little less water if the pasta is pre-soaked.
Thank you I will trey this
I go ahead and dump the water in with the noodles. It would no doubt work better if you scooped out the noodles alone because you wouldnt have as large of a temp drop. I use JUST enough water to cover the noodles after expansion. If using spaghetti you can lay it in a flat dish and use very little water to cover.
Two questions Corey, when you pour the presoaked noodles into the boiling water, do you drain the water from the presoak or just pour the whole thing into the boiling water?
What is the ratio of soaking water to dry noodles?
Wretha
I wrote an article on this site a couple of years back about low energy cooking, it’s a good way of using less fuel to cook
https://off-grid.net/2009/07/24/the-new-old-way-to-cook-book-review-video/
Wretha
JBB- I also use the method you mentioned but I noticed it’s much harder to gauge doneness. Opening the lid early to check firmness prolongs the cooking time. If you always cook your pasta to the same firmness I suppose Its not an issue.
As for fresh pasta I tend to make big batcjes at a time so all my pasta goes through drying to promote storage
tp
Er…How does this compare to just dropping the pasta in the boiling water and removing it from the heat, and giving it a couple more minutes than you say above?
BTW, this situation is entirely caused by drying pasta. Fresh pasta cooks almost instantly. Ah, solving problems we create ourselves. :)