While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
skillet. It turned out delicious.

I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?

I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
getting outside opinions.

David Sickmiller wrote:

> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.


Cook the pasta in water 'till it's almost done, perhaps two minutes
remaining... drain. Toss pasta with sauce and cook until the pasta is
done, yet still firm...

~john


--
"Black holes are where God divided by Zero." - Steven Wright

There is no reason you have to separately boil pasta in water. When I was in
Malaysia they would prepare noodles with boiling at all, they would fry the
dry noodles in oil. It worked amazingly well.

-Kent

On 26-Apr-2004, (David Sickmiller) wrote:

> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before?

Perhaps it was fresh pasta, rather than dried. Fresh pasta would work well
in the circumstance you described.

David Sickmiller > wrote:
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.

I really doubt the pasta was cooked completely in the sauce, esp.
a thick dried type of pasta such as rigatony. In all likelihood, the
pasta was partially cooked a head of time and then finished in the
sauce. This is the way many restaurants cook dried pasta.

"David Sickmiller" > wrote in message
om...
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.

I work in a restaurant and we cook the pasta until almost done. We then
spread it out in a single layer on a sheet pan. Then its put in the walk-in
fridge to cool. Once its cool we keep it in smaller containers ready for it
to be used in whatever dish calls for it. The pasta (rigatoni, angel hair,
etc.) is finished with the other ingredients at this time. This is most
likely what you saw.

On 26 Apr 2004 19:38:51 -0700, (David
Sickmiller) wrote:

>While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
>plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
>watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
>thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
>skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
>I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
>on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
>in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
>cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
>I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
>getting outside opinions.


I do it frequently. It makes cooking pasta a little more like making
risotto. But I have never done it with chicken. That would seem to
make it trickier, since you have one more thing that needs a certain
amount of cooking.

Whenever you make a soup with pasta in it, you are effectively doing
the same thing. Some of the liquid goes into the pasta and flavors it.

You have to allow for liquid to be absorbed in the pasta during
cooking, so it doesn't dry out.



Rodney Myrvaagnes Opinionated old geezer

Brutal dictators are routinely reelected by 90+%
margins. Only in a truly advanced democracy can
one win an election by a negative 600,000 votes.

>There is no reason you have to separately boil pasta in water. When I was in
>Malaysia they would prepare noodles with boiling at all, they would fry the
>dry noodles in oil. It worked amazingly well.
>
>-Kent

That's not the same pasta noodle.


---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

"David Sickmiller" > wrote in message
om...
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.

Some restaiurants cook the pasta til it is almost done, rinse with cold
water, and set aside. Then when you order they heat it up and complete the
cooking in the sauce.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

I ate in a Carrabas restaurant and sat at the stools that look at the prep
area. Very interesting how they did the pasta and food. They had pots on
the back burners with strainers that covered the top They would cook the
pasta while they prepared the sauce and what goes in it. Then remove the
pasta and finish it in the saucepan. They had a French fry unit that had
water in it at the boil that they would replenish the pasta pots as they
evaporated. This French fryer had a faucet above it to fill it with water.
They would use a 8 inch skillet to prepare most dishes, They used a tool
that was a spatula at one end to stir the dish with and a 2 tine fork at the
other to gather the pasta from the pasta pots. The dishwasher kept busy
gathering the skillets and bringing new ones. The restaurant was packed
with a 90min wait for a table. There was no wasted movement.


I have tried to fix dry pasta in a sauce without cooking it first and have
never been able to get it done. Fresh pasta will work that way,

"David Sickmiller" > wrote in message
om...
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.

>Some restaiurants cook the pasta til it is almost done, rinse with cold
>water, and set aside. Then when you order they heat it up and complete the
>cooking in the sauce.
>
>Peter Aitken

Those are the restaurants that that aren't worth of calling themself a
restaurant... the nerve of them serving left overs. Any decent dago restaurnt
prepares pasta fresh to order... how freakin' long does it take to cook pasta,
what, 12-13 minutes... certainly way more than enough time from when the order
was recieved and the diners nibbled their appetizers, sipped their drinks, and
swapped a little bs. Real dago joints have huge pots of water (100qts) set at
the boil during the entire shift (in fact all real restaurants do this), then
all needs doing is to cook each pasta serving in a wire basket hung from the
pot rim. The same system is used for cooking veggies to order, of course in
different pots.... good restaurants maintain many pots of water aboil. In fact
that pasta cooking water and veggie cooing water is used for many other
purposes throughout the shift, including preparing sauces and tomorrow's soup.


---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

Sheldon responded to Kent:

>> There is no reason you have to separately boil pasta in water. When I was
>> in Malaysia they would prepare noodles with boiling at all, they would
>> fry the dry noodles in oil. It worked amazingly well.
>>
>> -Kent
>
> That's not the same pasta noodle.

True, it's not the same pasta noodle, but Italian pasta *can* be fully
cooked by frying. Look at all the fried ravioli which have popped up on
trendy quasi-Italian menus. For that matter, a well-known chain uses fried
angel-hair pasta in its "Chinese" chicken salad.

Bob

Emil wrote:

> I have tried to fix dry pasta in a sauce without cooking it first and have
> never been able to get it done. Fresh pasta will work that way,

Well, others have succeeded where you have failed. One of the best-known
examples is lasagna made with uncooked noodles.

Bob

David Sickmiller wrote:
>
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.

That is disgusting. No, you should never cook the
pasta in the sauce. Which is not to say that you can't
cook the pasta separately and then add it to the sauce
in the skillet at the last moment and cook them briefly
together. There are a number of pasta dishes that are
done this way. But I find that uncooked pasta that is
cooked in the sauce disgusting. I had a boy friend once
who always made spaghetti that way. I didn't know this
the first time he offered to make dinner for me. I about
died when I found out what he was doing.

Kate
--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?

>"Bob" virtualgoth squealed like a ****ed deliverance piglet:
>
>Sheldon responded to Kent:
>
>>> There is no reason you have to separately boil pasta in water. When I was
>>> in Malaysia they would prepare noodles with boiling at all, they would
>>> fry the dry noodles in oil. It worked amazingly well.
>>>
>>> -Kent
>>
>> That's not the same pasta noodle.
>
>True, it's not the same pasta noodle, but Italian pasta *can* be fully
>cooked by frying. Look at all the fried ravioli which have popped up on
>trendy quasi-Italian menus.

Nope, those are boiled first... same as fried wontons, kreplach, perogis, etc.


---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

Sheldon wrote:

>> True, it's not the same pasta noodle, but Italian pasta *can* be fully
>> cooked by frying. Look at all the fried ravioli which have popped up on
>> trendy quasi-Italian menus.
>
> Nope, those are boiled first... same as fried wontons, kreplach, perogis,
> etc.

Poking around, I haven't been able to verify that you're right about this.
Instead, I find a host of recipes which start with frozen (uncooked) ravioli
and fry them. I did find some which started from scratch:

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/appetize...is-recipe.html
http://www.cooking.com/recipes/static/recipe1401.htm
http://www.123recipes.net/recipe.php?recipeid=67

But the pasta isn't boiled in those recipe either.

Where are you getting your information?

I suspect that maybe DRIED pasta isn't amenable to frying, but I haven't
found any recipes for fried ravioli which call for dried pasta.

Bob

Bob wrote:
> Instead, I find a host of recipes which start with frozen (uncooked)
> ravioli and fry them.

If they are frozen they are probably fresh. Since they are not dried,
you do not need to boil them nearly as long and I could see not boiling
them at all.

--
John Gaughan
http://www.johngaughan.net/

David Sickmiller wrote:

> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.

I wouldn't be surprised if the parts were all precooked and they were just
rehearing them together. Or making this sauce fresh (its just too quick,
why wouldn't they?) and adding in cooked rigatoni and cooked chicken.
Goomba

David Sickmiller wrote:
>
> While I was in Berlin last year, I went to a small diner and ordered a
> plate of chicken and pasta (rigatoni?) in alfredo sauce. I was
> watching the kitchen most of the time, and it looked like the whole
> thing was cooked from scratch (chicken, pasta, cream, butter) in one
> skillet. It turned out delicious.
>
> I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
> on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
> in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
> cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> I am planning to experiment in the next week or so, but I would enjoy
> getting outside opinions.

Without having seen what you saw, hard to say if the pasta they used was
cooked or not. However, that would probably work with fresh pasta as
opposed to dried.

>> I have tried to fix dry pasta in a sauce without cooking it first and have
>> never been able to get it done. Fresh pasta will work that way,
>
>Well, others have succeeded where you have failed. One of the best-known
>examples is lasagna made with uncooked noodles.
>

I saw Emeril do that once when he was making Lasagna, just putting the uncooked
pieces of lasagna pasta in the cooking dish and layering it up. I tried it and
it seemed like the pasta didn't cook entirely; it was still a little too chewy
for my taste. Next time I will cook the lasagna first.

As far as cooking the pasta and sauce together in one skillet, I've never tried
it except when I prepared Hamburger Helper in my younger days, and the macaroni
always came out cooked perfectly. The trick, I think, it to have more than
enough liquid, and let it simmer in a covered skillet for about 20 minutes.

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

"The likelihood of one individual being correct increases in a direct
proportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".

Mpoconnor7 a écrit :

> I saw Emeril do that once when he was making Lasagna, just putting the uncooked
> pieces of lasagna pasta in the cooking dish and layering it up. I tried it and
> it seemed like the pasta didn't cook entirely; it was still a little too chewy
> for my taste. Next time I will cook the lasagna first.

It works very well *if* you add enough liquid - the trick here is to make a much
more diluted sauce, with lots of water/broth/wine/whatever in it. It will look very
runny when you put it together, but once cooked, it will be perfect, with perfectly
cooked lasagna sheets.

Nathalie in Switzerland

David Sickmiller had something important to tell us on 26 Apr 2004
19:38:51 -0700:

>I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
>on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
>in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
>cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?

If it's a sauce that's amenable to having extra water added to it, go
right ahead! Remember that the dried pasta will absorb liquid as it
cooks. I cook my version of chicken cacciatore on the stovetop in a
single pot - I brown the onion and chicken, add the tomatoes and
vegetables and cook them for awhile, then put in some extra liquid and
the pasta and cook it till the pasta has absorbed the extra. It's
delicious and the pasta takes on a much richer flavour than if it's
boiled seperately.

Just remember you need more liquid... otherwise the pasta will be dry
and hard and burnt.

--
~Karen AKA Kajikit
Lover of shiny things...

Made as of 29 April 2004 - 61 cards, 41 SB pages (plus 3 small giftbooks), 52 decos & more!

Visit my webpage: http://www.kajikitscorner.com
Allergyfree Eating Recipe Swap: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Allergyfree_Eating
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Kajikit > wrote in
:

> David Sickmiller had something important to tell us on 26 Apr 2004
> 19:38:51 -0700:
>
>>I don't have much experience cooking, but after searching for recipes
>>on the Internet, it seems that everyone recommends cooking the pasta
>>in water in one pan and the sauce in a separate pan. Has anyone tried
>>cooking it all together before? Did it turn out well?
>
> If it's a sauce that's amenable to having extra water added to it, go
> right ahead! Remember that the dried pasta will absorb liquid as it
> cooks. I cook my version of chicken cacciatore on the stovetop in a
> single pot - I brown the onion and chicken, add the tomatoes and
> vegetables and cook them for awhile, then put in some extra liquid and
> the pasta and cook it till the pasta has absorbed the extra. It's
> delicious and the pasta takes on a much richer flavour than if it's
> boiled seperately.
>
> Just remember you need more liquid... otherwise the pasta will be dry
> and hard and burnt.
>

Is there a rule of thumb about how much additional water or liquid should
be allowed for the pasta? I have no idea how much water pasta absorbs
when cooking.

--
Wayne

Big on natural foods?? 82.38% of people die of "natural" causes.

Kajikit wrote:
>

> If it's a sauce that's amenable to having extra water added to it, go
> right ahead! Remember that the dried pasta will absorb liquid as it
> cooks. I cook my version of chicken cacciatore on the stovetop in a
> single pot - I brown the onion and chicken, add the tomatoes and
> vegetables and cook them for awhile, then put in some extra liquid and
> the pasta and cook it till the pasta has absorbed the extra. It's
> delicious and the pasta takes on a much richer flavour than if it's
> boiled seperately.

My mother, a cook who pleased and nourished children, would brown
hamburger in an electric skillet, then onions, then tomato sauce, then
add broken spagetti and water and cook on low until dinner time. No
extra salt or even herbs, and our pack-like family never left a
spoonful. Once the two youngest were in their teens, the dish was no
longer made, but a couple of years ago, bumping into someone from the
neighborhood, I got asked "how did your mother make that awesome
spaghetti?"
blacksalt