How Should I Cook Really Big Pasta?

Faith Durand
Faith DurandSVP of Content
Faith is the SVP of Content at Apartment Therapy Media and Editor-in-Chief of Kitchn, and the author of three cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning The Kitchn Cookbook. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters.
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published Feb 12, 2010
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Q: I am seeing more and more very large dried specialty pastas — ones that are sometimes about two feet long! They look beautiful and I would love to try them at some point but does anyone know how to cook them?

I know that angel hair pasta sits out of the water for 30 seconds and then it softens enough to get pushed into the water, but these look daunting! I’m sure there is a way to cook them without boiling?

Sent by Allison

Editor: Gosh, Allison — we haven’t seen such jumbo pasta yet! Can you give us a tip as to where we can find it? We’d love to try it out!

As far as cooking big pasta goes, we think that the principle always holds true: Just use a really big pot of well-salted water, and coax the pasta into the water as it softens.

Readers, any experience with really big pasta?

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Related: Quick Tip: The Best Way to Cook Pasta

(Image: Market Hall Foods)

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pasta
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