14 Slow-Cooker Pasta Recipes That Basically Make Themselves (2024)

FAQs

Can you cook uncooked pasta in a slow cooker? ›

Broth-based slow cooker dinners need their dry pasta added at just the right moment — add the pasta too early and your noodles will be mushy before they get to the table. Adding dry pasta 30 to 4o minutes before serving means you'll have perfectly cooked pasta in your soup.

You can use slow cookers to make pasta as long as you don't mix the pasta in with the sauce and leave it sitting in the slow cooker for an extended period of time. Doing so will result in pasta that is mushy, soggy and unappetizing. For best results, keep the pasta separate until serving.

Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours or on high for 1 to 2 hours. Check at the 3 (on low) or 1 (on high) hour mark to ensure the pasta does not over cook. To check for doneness, use a fork to pull a “test” noodle from the center of the slow cooker. Once it is tender, the pasta is done.

All you must worry about, is that you have added enough liquid in the liquid to pasta ratio so that the pasta will not end up dry because it has soaked up all the liquid. There is also no need to partially cook dry pasta before slow cooking.

By skipping the separate boiling of the pasta and instead adding the dried noodles straight to the sauce, you can make a weeknight-friendly meal in just one pot. Bonus: It makes the pasta more flavorful, too.

When cooking pasta in the slow cooker, we recommend using thicker pasta noodles to help prevent overcooking. Try out fettuccine or bow tie, especially if it's your first go at it. Once you've started cooking, check the noodles every few minutes to see if they're fully cooked.

A cornstarch slurry is a mixture of a cold liquid with cornstarch. It is used as a thickening agent, and is particularly common in Asian sauces. As a rule of thumb, dissolve 2 parts cold water and 1 part cornstarch. Add the slurry to your sauce as it simmers in the slow cooker.

A general rule of thumb from Luis Sanchez, senior category manager for the appliance manufacturer Breville: To go from "High" to "Low" (or vice versa), multiply (or divide) the original time by 1.5 to 2.5 hours. And as with the cooking times for specific ingredients, these times are approximate.

Slow cooker recipes are often designed for an eight-hour cook so that the food is ready when you return home after a long day. Is it safe to leave a slow cooker on for 12 hours? Yes, you can use your slow cooker for longer than eight hours, as long as you keep an eye on it.

What's the longest you can leave a slow cooker on? ›

How long is it safe to leave a slow cooker on for? As long as there is something inside cooking, preferably with liquid, and the top is on, your slow cooker could run for 24 hours or longer. Some liquid will slowly boil out, so the less liquid, the less time to leave it unattended.

Because starch needs to be heated to gel properly, soaking pasta in cold water will allow you to hydrate it without worrying about it sticking together. Once it's fully hydrated, you've just got to finish it off in your sauce and you're ready to serve.

One large-size egg weighs about 2 ounces; one cup of flour weighs about 5 ounces. Use one large-size egg for each full serving you want to make, to that add 1 ½ the egg's weight in flour. (You can do this with a simple kitchen scale.) If you don't have a scale, use 2 eggs per 1 cup of flour to make 1 serving.

Cover pasta with cold water in a relatively small pot. Put it over a burner. Stir it a few times as it heats up, then leave it alone. And it comes out perfectly fine.

In fact, it actually pays to cook pasta directly in the sauce, so just view it as part of the culinary process. Pour it back into a pot and add some water to prevent the sauce from thickening too much. Stir the pasta every now and then and try a piece to ensure it's fully done before taking it off the stove.

Most dried ribbons of pasta such as linguine, spaghetti and tagliatelle take between 8-10 mins. Shorter, thicker pasta shapes like bows or penne take 10-12mins and fresh pasta such as ravioli and tortellini will be done between 3-5mins.

Technically you can cook raw meat in a slow cooker, but it's tricky and requires a bit of preparation in order for it to be really worth it. If you simply pop some raw meat in your slow cooker, it won't have a chance to brown, which adds some much-needed flavor and cuts down on plenty of unappealing grease.