Pasta & Noodles

It’s faster and easier.

It's not what everyone else says it is.

Freeze it now to enjoy later.

And it cuts down on prep time, too!

Oh, and it all happens in three minutes!

It’s easy to look to jarred pasta sauces, but this hack is clever and resourceful.

A super-creamy pasta without the cream? Count me in!

Soba noodles are favored for their texture, taste, and nodogoshi.

Noodles are not only food, but also an essential part of Japanese culture.

Chinese noodles have become an integral part of Chinese regional cuisines, and they have evolved over the years.

Please don't try to substitute one for the other.

A versatile ingredient, its unique flavors and consistency is great in soups, salads, and more.

Dry pasta is sold by weight, but that measurement doesn’t tell you how much cooked pasta you’ll actually end up with. Here’s a handy guide to estimating how much dry pasta you’ll need to make one serving of cooked pasta. All of these estimates are based on a 2-ounce serving of dry pasta. For long pasta shapes, the measurement is based on the circumference of the dry pasta bundle; short shapes can be measured in a measuring cup.

Shoot for this, and you're already on your way to eating more healthfully.

Plus the best sauce to pair with each.

Obviously, pizza.

Traditional shirataki noodles are pretty much the perfect food for those who may have food allergies or are on special diets; they're vegan, gluten-free, and keto-friendly.

Here's the absolute best way to freeze lasagna.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to make a recipe that called for soba, udon, or any other kind of Asian noodle, you had to also find your nearest Asian grocery store. Happily, these noodles have become much easier to find in recent years. Here’s a quick guide to the most common kinds!You generally cook these Asian noodles the same way you cook any other kind of pasta: in a large amount of salted boiling water until the pasta is al dente.

Here's why you should keep both on hand.

In this week’s Cure assignment, Cure-takers are planning a menu. All along I’ve been encouraging people to cook by feel a little more and use formal recipes a little less, so I hope these menus involve some cooking by feel. The way this is done is by arming oneself with skills, but you also need ideas. Here’s a great idea for making pasta: bake it. Baked pasta doesn’t need to conjure up memories of school cafeteria baked ziti.

We’ve talked a lot about homemade pasta here on The Kitchn, but I had never made homemade pasta noodles myself. Well, that has changed, and now I’m wondering: why did I wait so long? I did have one secret weapon, though: my Italian mother-in-law. To see what I learned from her about homemade pasta, read on! When my husband and I were married, we received a wedding gift certificate to a major cookware shop, and I wanted to use it on something we’d both enjoy.

If you thought mac and cheese couldn't get better, think again.

I'm a culinary school graduate, a food editor, and a cookbook author, and I *still* learned a ton.

It's supposed to make your ramen broth taste like it's been simmering for hours.

It's part science, part magic.

There's a whole world of delicious (and approachable!) techniques and ingredients out there.

Beyond sauce!

The verdict is in. We've been cooking pasta all wrong.

Quit throwing that magic water down the drain!

As bread bakers, the differences between these four breads has been a real source of confusion for us. They often seem to be used interchangeably in restaurants, bakeries, and even some cookbooks. It’s quite distressing to expect one kind of bread and wind up with something completely different, we think! So is there a difference?We would argue that, yes, there is definitely a difference. Or at least there should be!

How boring is it that I learned the secret to making perfect pasta in Italy? Yes, fresh made pasta is amazing, and no, that’s not the technique I’m about to share with you. (Now that you know I’m not going to talk about fresh made pasta, are you a) disappointed, b) disgusted, or c) totally excited, because pasta should be easy?) My friend’s Italian husband Peldi taught me the five steps to a perfect bowl of pasta: Use the biggest pot you have.

My kids love pasta. When they found out I was writing this series, one of the things they wanted to know was how to make pasta into a meal. Pasta is a great one-pot meal, and the possibilities for it are endless. My lucky, lucky children learned how to boil pasta from an Italian, in Italy. We spent a few weeks there one summer. We stayed with a friend, and ate everything in sight. If the kids loved pasta before, they were connoisseurs after.

How often do you introduce new foods to your kids? If I’m being completely honest, my family falls into these deep seasonal ruts with dinner vegetables and it looks a lot like us eating broccoli once a week from January through April. Then when the markets overflows with radishes, spring greens, and asparagus, I want to go wild with new (or forgotten) vegetables. It can be frustrating to see tiny noses turn up at vegetables they loved last year but haven’t seen in months.

As a parent, I love pasta more than I ever thought possible. I keep plenty in the pantry and it solves many dinner (and lunch, and occasionally breakfast) dilemmas. Got a picky eater? Pasta. Trying to introduce a new food? Pasta. Just need a dinner that everyone will love so the dinner table is quiet? Pasta! There is a subtle art to making a pasta dinner that is tasty enough to satisfy grown-ups without alienating tiny diners.

A recent Reddit thread unearthed a pasta-cooking hack courtesy of Alton Brown — and it’s going to turn your life around.

This combination is asking you to take two of life’s greatest pleasures — macaroni and cheese and avocados — and bring them together in cheesy, creamy harmony. When you’re running low on ideas for a fast and truly enjoyable dinner, this quick mac and cheese hack is the one to turn to. Avocado adds an extra dose of creaminess to your mac and cheese without actually throwing in any more cheese or milk — although that is always an option.

Making such a basic pasta seems like it should be easy, but there’s a lot that can go wrong.

See you later butter and cream.

Q: Has anyone found good Kosher for Passover noodles? Years ago Manischewitz had great egg noodles, but now I can’t find anything that doesn’t taste awful. I even tried making some from scratch, which was a total disaster. Sent by try2cope The Gefilteria’s Jeffrey Yoskowitz: I think we need a quick intervention. Why do you want noodles for Passover?

Try these! You may find a new go-to noodle.

Make pasta more delicious — and have it ready when you are — without boiling.

Did your pasta turn into a giant sticky ball? We can help.

Whoa!

In all their many forms, noodle soups are comforting and seriously delicious. But sometimes they can also prove a little confusing, especially when it comes to choosing the best type of noodle to add to your soup. Pasta or egg noodles? Soba or rice noodles? Wonder no more! Here’s your guide to picking the best noodles for any type of soup. While similar to traditional pasta, these noodles contain a higher egg-to-wheat ratio. There are two varieties of egg noodle.

Dear Kitcheners,Paula Franzese (a lecturer with a company that gets future lawyers ready to sit for the bar exam), claimed in a lecture that her father invented Penne alla Vodka while working as a chef in an NYC restaurant in the 1970s. Could this be true? Does anyone know who invented the dish? When? Where?thanks, Sarah (photo: accompanies a Penne alla Vodka recipe at Williams-Sonoma.

Fresh udon noodles are thick, chewy, and delicious. Frozen udon noodles are very nearly as good. But dried udon noodles cooked like spaghetti in boiling water are notoriously sub-par. If dried is all you have access to, don’t give up hope! We recently learned of a different kind of cooking technique that might help!In How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman describes a way of cooking dried udon that we’d never heard of before.

We picked up this tip in a blurb at the end of a recipe in one our favorite cookbooks, A New Way to Cook by Sally Schneider:If you simmer beans in an uncovered pot, they will end up firmer and more intact. This perfect for dishes where you really want the beans to keep their shape without smooshing, like salads and pasta dishes.

When we think of gnocchi, our mind jumps straight to those soft little potato dumplings served in a lot of Italian cooking. But did you know there are actually several different kinds of gnocchi, each one very different from the next?There are three main kinds of gnocchi that we see called for in recipes and on restaurant menus:Gnocchi di Patate – This type of gnocchi is featured in a lot of Northern Italian cuisine and is probably what most of us actually know as gnocchi.

We wish we’d discovered this one back during Vegan Week! The Italians might call this topping “poor man’s parmesan,” but toasting bread crumbs in olive oil until they’re golden and crispy sounds pretty rich to us. Who knows? We might ditch the parmesan altogether.We’re not sure that poor man’s parmesan was ever intended to actually simulate cheese or convince your taste buds that it actually is cheese.

I’ve been to a lot of Japanese restaurants where the noodle soups have an option of udon or soba noodles. While they’re both Japanese noodles and are sometimes used interchangeably, there are quite a few differences between the two. Here’s what you need to know! Udon noodles are made by kneading wheat flour, salt, and water. These white noodles are sold dried, fresh or frozen. Dried udon noodles can vary in thickness and can be quite dense.

If you’ve been to Vietnam or even just the noodle aisle of your neighborhood Asian market, you might have been overwhelmed by the sheer variety of noodles available. Which ones are good for a stir-fry? Which should you buy fresh, and which are better dried? What even is the difference between all of those white, gray, translucent, and yellow noodles?

Fresh or dried, slurped or twirled, rice noodles are a great way to fill out a meal. They add texture and fun, no simmering required. What’s not to love? Here are five ways to eat more rice noodles this summer. Make a stop into your local Asian or Vietnamese market, and head for the refrigerated section first. If you’re lucky, you’ll find packages of fresh white rice noodles labelled bánh phở or bún, often translated to English as rice vermicelli.

Here's my go-to method.

“Resting time” in recipes is the bane of my existence. I’m a big fan of instant gratification, and I’m constantly forgetting to leave time for things like letting the meat rest or waiting for the cake to be completely cool before attempting to frost it. My puddings are always full of little fingerprints because I’m constantly poking them to see if they’re set yet, even though the recipe says they’ll need another three hours.

You’ve been making pasta for yourself since college or maybe even high school or earlier, right? You probably have a million (or at least a dozen) pasta dishes in your repertoire that you can make without even thinking about it. What if you’ve been making one big mistake this whole time, though?

If you’ve never made homemade pasta before, you might assume that it’s a lot of work and just opt for the boxed stuff instead. At least, that is, before you find out that all it takes is two ingredients (flour and eggs), a little elbow grease, and a sense of humor. Allow me to explain.

Watching cooking competitions on television like Chopped is one thing, but actually being in a real kitchen stadium and seeing, smelling, and even tasting what the chefs are making? File that under amazing. I just attended the Barilla Pasta World Championship in Milan, Italy, and saw 18 chefs from around the world compete in the ultimate carb-cooking contest. The championship is the Olympics in pasta cooking, complete with lots of patriotic flag waving and a gold trophy for the winner.

Plus, three grocery-store brands that actually taste good.

Pasta salad, when assembled correctly, is sublime. A great pasta salad is the star of any backyard barbecue or picnic potluck. All too often, though, it is subject to mediocrity, thanks to too much mayo, squishy pasta, and not enough salt. Don’t make these common mistakes! Let this be the year you master the perfect pasta salad. The wrong pasta type or size can make pasta salad soggy, slimy, or just plain hard to eat.