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In recent times I'm experimenting with different techniques to cook pasta, the pressure cooker is an inspiration I had from Davide Scabin (link in Italian), even though he's surely not the first one who did it. There is indeed even some, not much, "literature" about it on the web.

After a few tries I still have the following problems:

1) The pasta pieces stick gently one to another, but they cement themselves on the bottom of the pot.

2) The consistency of the pasta is tenacious, very different from the usual one but not necessarily unpleasant.

I was wondering if anybody else had the same results, and is eager to share her solutions to the problems listed above.

Thank you for your attention!

Giovanni De Gaetano
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  • Tenacious pasta - now I've heard it all! – ElendilTheTall Mar 05 '15 at 12:18
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    What does tenacious mean? Al Dente with attitude? – GdD Mar 05 '15 at 12:22
  • I'm sorry for the unprecise term. I do not mean al dente, I think it can be described as tough, hard, a bit elastic though. If I were to venture a comparison I would say that it is close to a "well-done" steak... Does it make any sense now? – Giovanni De Gaetano Mar 05 '15 at 12:26
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    A while back I saw a recommendation to soak gluten free pasta before cooking, as it would change how it cooked. (I thought it was on Serious Eats, but I couldn't find it). If you're feeling adventurous, it might be worth a try at least once. The article that I had found talked the soak shortening the cooking time, but too long of a soak (overnight?) being problematic. You may also want to shake the pot some as it cooks (to try to keep them separate, or bring it back to a boil and give it a few stirs to make sure this aren't clumping together before you cap it. – Joe Mar 05 '15 at 13:23
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    Personally my suggestion would be to not use the pressure cooker unless you need to offset a high altitude. Unless you have a big one you won't have much space for your pasta to move around, and it's going to stick. Also you won't be able to test whether it's done without depressurizing. – GdD Mar 05 '15 at 14:08
  • I thank you all for your comments. I actually master other ways of doing pasta quite well, I'm specifically interested in learning how to cook it in a pressure cooker. @Joe Thanks, I'm going to try what you suggest! Even though shaking a pressurized pot makes me feel kind of scared. And do you have a clue why soaking the pasta before use could work? Would it release some amid that would otherwise make my pasta sticky? – Giovanni De Gaetano Mar 05 '15 at 15:32
  • @Giovanni : it softens it so that you reduce the cooking time needed ... the article said that kept it make it easier to cook through without it going to mush like often happens with gluten free pasta. You might also want to try rinsing it a few times like you might for cooking rice when you want individual grains, to remove any loose surface starch. – Joe Mar 05 '15 at 17:36
  • @Joe Thanks again! But I do not have gluten free pasta, was it a misunderstanding or you actually think soaking would improve the situation also for a regular hard wheat pasta? – Giovanni De Gaetano Mar 05 '15 at 18:39
  • @GiovanniDeGaetano : I was hoping that the issues might be similar enough that a similar strategy would work. Of course, if your goal is just to reduce the cooking time of the pasta, it's possible that a pre-soak might cut it down enough that the pressure cooker isn't even necessary. – Joe Mar 05 '15 at 19:39
  • I agree... the pressure cooker seems a bit extreme when pasta is so simple to prepare the normal way. Other than your own curiosity is there a reason you're attempting this? I'm all for learning alternate methods if the alternate does something special but I'm not sure what the benefit of this method would be. – Catija Mar 05 '15 at 22:52
  • @Catija Thanks for your interest! Actually the supposed advantages of the pressure cooker are manifolds, it uses only one pot, so less energy, less water, less salt, less fat needed, and, last but not least, less time than regular cooking. If these advantages are real or not I'm trying to understand. Morever I like to have a variety of techinques for cooking pasta (or anything else), each producing a slightly different result, to have for each recipe its perfectly matched cooking technique. – Giovanni De Gaetano Mar 06 '15 at 14:36
  • @GiovanniDeGaetano I appreciate your interest in trying a different technique. Can you edit your question to specify exactly what you do (type of pasta, amount of pasta, amount of water, pressure, time...etc), that way readers might be able to offer more specific adjustments, rather than criticize your interesting approach. – moscafj Sep 11 '15 at 11:44

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I've seen Lagostina pressure cooker recipe booklets from the 1930's that contain pressure cooker pasta recipes. So it's been done for a while.

I make pressure cooker pasta in sauce at least twice a week - we cook all of our short pasta this way so I came up with a technique to address some of these problems.

1) the pasta pieces are sticking together and to the bottom of the pot because there is not enough water (or cooking liquid like stock). The pasta is absorbing all of the cooking liquid before the cooking time is finished.

2) since you're using less water in pressure cooking pasta, the starch will not leach out into the big pot of boiling water and then be thrown down the drain through the strainer. So this extra starch remains and creates a more chewy "al dente" texture.

My technique uses low pressure, water to cover the pasta and half the recommended cooking time on the package. If your pressure cooker only has one pressure (and its the oldy-kind like the one pictured with Davide Scabin) then you only have to pay attention to the cooking time - those pressure cookers already operate at "low pressure."

Here are all the details of my pressure cooker pasta technique.

All of my online pressure cooker pasta recipes.

Catija
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Laura P.
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  • While you're more than welcome to link to your site for reference, please consider editing your answer to include **all** of the necessary information rather than requiring someone to visit your site to get the process. – Catija Jan 21 '16 at 17:16
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    I did. It's in the paragraph before the link. It starts with "My technique uses low pressure..." The web page has more detailed explanation of my technique. Ciao, L – Laura P. Jan 21 '16 at 19:51