Pasta – slow cook noodles

pastaslow-cookingtemperature

I’m an avid user of slow cooking due to my schedule and need to budget my meals.

I haven’t tried but wanted to know if I could slow cook noodles.

Best Answer

If by “noodles“ you mean pasta that comes in the dry form with or without eggs, then yes, you can make that in the slow cooker.

There is one caveat though: other than your meat, which won’t be affected by a bit of extra cooking time, pasta tends to become soggy rather quickly - or, at least “quickly“ in slow cooker time. After 30 minutes, plus minus a bit, the pasta is usually done. So the standard procedure for pasta cooked in the almost done soup, stew or other dish with sauce is to add it around 30 minutes before serving. You might have to add a cup or so of extra water, if the sauce is very thick.

If you want to cook pasta alone, you will have to either bring the water up to temperature first or at least partly calculate the warming-up time into the cooking time. As pasta tends to clump together if cooked undisturbed, you will have to stir at least once or twice, which of course will interfere with your slow cooker’s heating process.
In short, for pasta alone I suggest cooking it on the stove.