How to Cook Spaghetti and Rice
Cooking pasta and rice seem simple enough, but there’s always room for improvement. Learn how to make them better from dealing with water boiling over to reaheating with these helpful kitchen tips.
Bruce and Jeanne Lubin
Stop Stove Disasters
Keep pots of pasta or rice from boiling over by adding a tablespoon of butter to the water when you add the pasta or rice.
Perfectly Cooked Pasta
Stop your pasta water from spilling over with this trick: Add a long metal spoon to the pot, and it will absorb the excess heat and let your pasta cook at the correct boiling point. Just be careful, because the spoon will get quite hot!
Chef’s Pasta Trick
Before you drain pasta, scoop out a cup of the cooking water. When you toss the pasta with the sauce, add a little bit of the water. The starchy water will help the sauce to cling to the pasta, making for a tastier dish.
Keeping Pasta Warm
Here’s a trick that will keep freshly cooked pasta warmer longer. Place a large mixing bowl underneath your colander as you drain the pasta. The hot water will fill the bowl and heat it up. Once the bowl is warm, dump out the water and put the pasta in the bowl instead. Then cover the bowl, and take your time as you finish cooking the rest of your meal.
A Nutritional Powerhouse
Brown rice is always a healthy choice, but did you know you can make it even healthier? If you allow it to soak for few hours before cooking, it will start to germinate, dramatically increasing the vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant concentration in the rice.
Pasta Water Pass
Your recipe calls for a cup of water left over from the pot of pasta, but you accidentally poured it all into the sink when you were draining the noodles. Luckily, there’s an easy substitute: mix one cup of water with a quarter teaspoon of cornstarch and microwave until warm.
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Image by Shutterstock.
About the Author
Bruce Lubin and Jeanne Bossolina-Lubin are the proud parents of three boys and more than a dozen books. After saving thousands per year using everyday tips and simple lifehacks, they started their own business in the hopes of sharing their knowledge with others. They have been known to go into their friends’ refrigerators to turn their eggs upside down so that they last longer.