I often get asked about adding pasta to slow cooker recipes.
Can you add raw pasta to your dish, or cooked pasta?
Yes you can 🙂
Firstly the fast option is to add cooked or almost cooked pasta at the end of your recipes cooking time.
Like any pasta you wouldn’t want to overcook it, so if it’s been pre-cooked then only leave it in there long enough to heat through with the rest of the recipe.
Or cook pasta separately and serve with your slow cooker dish at plating time instead.
But what if you want to add raw pasta to your recipe?
That’s an option too 🙂
But it has some factors associated with it to remember:
When you add raw pasta to your recipe you need to have enough liquid to accommodate that.
While cooking, the raw pasta will draw up a lot of liquid from your recipe.
I’ve included these two photos to show a bolognaise type dish before and after adding pasta >>
As you can see it has much less free liquid after pasta is added.
This is a great way to thicken your dish if that’s what you want but it can spell disaster if your dish is already fairly dry.
So if you know you will be adding pasta be sure you add enough extra liquid at the start (or with the pasta) to accommodate that – without watering down your flavours 🙂
As a general rule add raw pasta about 45mins prior to serving.
Different types of pasta may of course cook in different time frames based on size and thickness so for the first time just check it occasionally to know when it’s done to your pasta preferences 🙂
Hope this helps with your next slow cooker recipe you add pasta to!
And don’t forget … for actual PASTA RECIPES we have heaps and heaps of tasty and complete slow cooked pasta meals and recipes HERE!
🙂
Thanks for this Pauline. I have tried a couple of times adding raw pasta with not so wonderful results, usually ended up just adding cooked pasta towards the end.
Just be sure to get the liquid balance right then it’ll be good 🙂
Thanks so much for this information I always worried about over cooking my dishes that need pasta so I usually cook it separately.
Am anxious to try this!
Do you think this would apply to gluten free pasta as well?
I’ve never cooked with gluten free pasta’s myself but if they tend to cook the same via other methods as normal pasta then this should be the same for them too
Hi, I use gluten free pasta. I find the best way is to cook pasta separate and mix it in the end with the sauce otherwise my pasta disintegrates.
Thanks for the info helpful as always
With your timing for adding dry pasta (45minutes), is that on low or high?
That’s usually low Richard 🙂
Thank you I will try this
An option if concerned the pasta will absorb much of the slow cooker water from the main stew/dish and over thicken. Pre-soak the pasta in a bowl with room temp (cool/cold from the tap) water for 15 minutes prior to adding to the slow cooker – add enough water to submerge the pasta. The pasta should absorb enough water in this step to minimize excess absorbing from the slow cooker. I usually use spirals or shells and follow this process as it is easier to add to a bowl. Spaghetti/linguini/angel hair would need to be broken into small linear pieces to fit in a round bowl, or use a glass casserole dish with these pasta types.
Great tip Rodney – thanks!