Pasta meals are pretty easy to cook. The pasta itself just needs to be placed in boiling water and can be cooked in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the type of pasta of course. And while the pasta is boiling you can already prepare your desired sauce, whether it may be tomato based, pesto or cream based, you can be finished in now time. You can have a pasta meal in a flash, provided you know what you’re doing.
To those experienced in the kitchen, this kind of meal is easy to make. But to the novices might still find pasta a little daunting or troublesome. One thing that you should watch out when cooking pasta is the noodles. You need to test every now and then to see if the noodles are done. The pasta cooks pretty quickly and leaving it too long can result to soggy noodles.
Avoid placing the pasta when the water is not yet boiling. This will help prevent the pasta from becoming all mushy, soft and sticky. Also, keep the water at a boil at all times. You can help make the pasta firmer if you add salt into the boiling water. Note that you should not cover the pot when you already placed the pasta. When the pasta is done, take it off the boiling water. The pasta will continue to cook if you leave it there. With that, one half of your pasta meal is done. The other half would be the sauce.
The good thing about pasta is having several choices for sauces. Actually, at some point you will be stumped on what kind of sauce to make due to the varieties. If you’re a pasta person then having a couple of sauces stored in your refrigerator would be the best ways to go. If you have pesto, you can use that to sauce your pasta. Add additional garlic, some mushrooms or even Italian sausages and topped with cheese and you can have a good meal.
Bottled or canned sun-dried tomatoes can go well with pasta. I always try to have some sun-dried tomatoes ready since you can just pour it over your pasta and voila! A tomato based pasta without the traditional tomato sauce and pastes. Top with grated cheese and partnered with bread and you can have a fulfilling meal in no time.
If you want a cream-based sauce, just prepare some sliced olives, cream, oregano and grated cheese. Mix the cream, olives and oregano together with your pasta and finish off with grated cheese on top. A simple cream-based pasta but can be quite joyous to the palette.
Olive oil is also a staple sauce for pasta and can be quite easy to use as well. You can mix olive oil with canned seafood or slices of meat or sausages to create a sauce for your pasta. You can add basil for flavor and don’t forget the grated cheese. If you want to experiment, try adding spicy flavored meat or canned seafood. Spicy pasta may not be for everyone but still a good dish in my account.
A pasta meal in a flash is really just that. In a span of 15 to 20 minutes you would have already prepared a good, hearty meal of pasta in either tomato, cream or olive-based sauce. It is a quick meal that I personally won’t get tired of.