Starting September 21st, a new recipe series is coming to shake-up your pressure cooking.If you already love your pressure cooker because it cooks foods faster, with more taste and vitamins and less fuel, Hip Pressure Cooking is about to give you another reason: better pasta!
The Hip Pressure Cooking test kitchen is located in Italy, which means that tackling pasta in the pressure cooker is both controversial and it has to live up to the highest standards – which is why we’ve been spending over six months perfecting a technique for cooking pasta in the pressure cooker – which we will teach you in the upcoming 4-recipe series.The new series promises:
- Pasta that will remain al dente – or you can cook it a little more to your preference.
- No Mess – You can cook the sauce and pasta together. No sauce pot, no tomato splatters on your cook top, no pasta strainers.
- Bolder Stronger Flavors – The pasta absorbs the sauce, instead of just being coated with it.
- Faster!
The new series will launch with one of the easiest pressure cooker pasta recipes, ever: Farfalle al’Arrabiata – Spicy Bow Ties. The following recipes will include something veggie, something cheesy and something meaty.
Here are the recipes in this series (links will be added as the recipes are published):
- Farfalle al’Arrabiata – Angry (Spicy) Butterlies
- Casarecce ai Spinaci – Pasta with Spinach “pesto”
- Pipe Cacio e Pepe – Pipes with Cheese and Pepper (the Roman Mac ‘n Cheese)
- Mezzemaniche Pasticciate – “Baked” Half-sleeve Mess
Pop by our facebook page to see preview photographs of upcoming recipes. If you haven’t already, be sure to add yourself to the newsletter so you won’t miss a single recipe from this website!
I can’t wait for this series! (for the veggie one, ya know) ;)
Elisabeth A Rosenthal I am so excited! I have been waiting for something just like this.
E un miracolo!
Elli, Can’t wait, I cook pasta in my PC all the time. The sauce and pasta do cook so well together. look forward to your technique.
oh, please, the suspense is killing me already! I´ve never cooked pasta in a pc, so bring it on, please, I´m always ready to love it even more.
I have been making Lorna sass pene pasta w meat sauce for years now. It takes about 5 min under pressure and it’s always awesome
I can’t wait!:)
Now this sounds interesting! I would never, ever have thought about cooking pasta in a pressure cooker… and it comes out al dente? Can’t wait to read your next post!
JL, of course!! Oh, and you can use whole-grain pasta, too. ; )
Theresa, hahaha! Well, I did kind of write it that way, no? But its a bit of a miracle because now I don’t make short pasta any other way.
Elisabeth, can’t wait for you to try it.
Unknown, thanks for the support!
Lobstersquad, once you start.. you won’t stop. In the time you usually wait for a big pot of water to boil, dinner will be ready. Promise!
Franco, thanks for your open-minded-ness because I fully know that – especially in Italy – I’m playing with fire by messin’ with THE PASTA!
Everyone, when I first heard of pressure cooked pasta a few years ago I was really freaked out about how it might turn out and was fully against it. It was actually my Italian husband who encouraged me to keep trying and working on a technique because, in the end, Italians are always stopping pasta a little early to finish cooking it in the sauce in hopes that some of it will be asbsorbed.
I did not want to publish this method until I got approval from formetioned husband, my sister-in-law and a few more unwitting Italian dinner guests to ensure I would not risk being excommunicated for ruining an Italian staple.
Teaching you “the method” in a addition to a few recipes for inspiration will give you the freedom to adapt your favorite sauces.
I’m looking forward to hearing about all of your experiences, inevitable experiments and adaptations.
Ciao,
L
Ivan, since every pasta is different and each manufacturer has a specific cooking time (even for the same shapes) I will teach you a no-fail formula to figure out the right cooking time for the pasta you are using to ensure al dente results and just the right amount of water no matter the quantity of pasta.
Ciao,
L
Oh, AWESOME!
I find myself cooking pasta in the pressure cooker for an extra 2 minutes. It still saves time and you have less clearing up afterwards. I’ve always cooked pasta a little softer than “al-dente” (but never overcooked). Maybe some people think pasta should be cooked a little more than al-dente?
How would you define “al dente” pasta? I’ve never been completely sure.
David, just so you know.. a couple of things that would slow down your pressure cooker pasta:
– the amount of tomato sauce you add relative to the water will slow down the cooking. Why? Because the pasta will not absorb the thick pulpy part of the sauce only the liquid from it. So if there isn’t enough liquid for the pasta to absorb it will remain partly raw. You might want to check your ratios to make sure you’re doing that correctly.
– Next, if you’re using induction then yes- two extra minutes makes absolute sense and is what I recommend.
Al Dente means pasta that still has a bit of bite to it. It’s “just” cooked. That means when you bite into it you no longer see a white line of “raw” flour in the center of the pasta. Al dente pasta will still hold it’s shape and be rather springy.
Under-cooked pasta will be crunchy and chewy.
Over cooked pasta is floppy and slippery. The shapes may unravel or unfold and even fall apart when stirred. It’s sad, saggy pasta that turns into mush when you start to chew it.
Ciao,
L
Thanks for the info Laura. It appears I’ve been always been cooking pasta slightly beyond “al dente” and I’m used to it tasting that way. I’ve not been overcooking pasta – it never tastes soggy, floppy and slippery.
I don’t have induction, but I cook the pasta a bit longer (2 extra minutes) as I prefer it a little softer than al-dente. One day in the future I will have an induction hob and I will have fun learning how to cope with its faster heating. ;)
It’s only since discovering this website that I’ve cooked pasta in a pressure cooker. I prefer cooking pasta in my pressure cooker and yes it tastes MUCH nicer! I will try covering the pasta with the cooking water, so it’s covered by no more than 1/2 cm; I won’t “drown” the pasta.
Don’t worry.. I won’t chew you out because you’re not used to chewy. ; )
Italian pasta companies are to blame! They write a longer cooking time for the same pasta shapes for packages sold outside of Italy. Spaghetti, for example is 7 minutes in Italy but American spaghetti of the SAME ITALIAN BRAND say to cook for 9!
This is slowly changing as more and more people come to visit the old country and want to replicate the same taste and feel of Italian pasta dishes at home.
Ciao,
L
I ADORE “Angry Butterflies” and make it often. So useful on the boat where fuel and water are limited and an open pot full of boiling water in a sloshy anchorage or when hit by rough seas underway is a disaster waiting to happen. Can’t wait to see these new recipes, if Angry Butterflies is an example they’ll be amazing!
I just spent yesterday playing with my shiney new Christmas Present….Instapot! Beans…Pasta Fazoo…venison roast with all the sides….my family is in heaven. I spent all night reading your awesome website and today the fun continues! Thanks for all your hard work!
HI – I was wondering will you test recipes with freshly made pasta in the pressure cooker also ?
No, you cannot pressure cook fresh pasta. It takes so little time to cook (3-4 minutes) that it will easily over-cook even during the time the cooker is reaching pressure. However, you can pressure cook frozen and dried ravioli and tortellini.
Ciao,
L