A Better Way to Make Pasta

Not long ago, I discovered, quite by accident, a great way to make rice in Glad's new Microwave Steaming Bags. I wrote about it here:

www.gomestic.com/Cooking/Steamer-Bags-Not-Just-For-Vegetables.77159

I mentioned that it is important to let the food rest in the bag a little while after the first 5 minutes of microwave cooking. This prevents the bag from building up steam too fast and exploding inside your oven. We sure don't want that to happen, do we?

Since writing that article, though, I have been experimenting with making different kinds of pasta in these bags, as well, with equally great results. For pasta dishes, I like to steam a few vegetables for a bit in the bag first, then set them aside before adding pasta and water to the same bag to cook for the first 5 minutes. After the pasta absorbs the liquid and reaches the right consistency, I put the veggies back in the bag, add ingredients for a nice sauce (butter, cream cheese, shredded cheddar, seasonings, or whatever), seal it and stick it in the refrigerator until shortly before meal time.

Then I pull the bag out of the refrigerator, double check to ensure that it is properly sealed, and re-heat it long enough to melt the cheese and/or butter, usually up to 5 minutes. Be sure to allow the bag to rest a few seconds again to let the steam escape before opening. Then stir, serve, and enjoy! That is all there is to it. If we don't finish all of this food, I just zip the leftovers back up in the same bag, refrigerate it again to reheat and enjoy the next day. Then I throw the bag away!

Used in this way, these steaming bags seem well worth the small price they cost because they save so much time cooking great tasting food in small batches without dirtying a lot of dishes.

At first I wondered why Glad did not provide recipes for rice and pasta dishes using their great new product, but today when I opened a new box of the Glad bags, they had, in fact included a recipe for Beef Stroganoff made entirely in just one bag. I haven't tried their recipe yet, but this confirms for me that they and I are on the track. I'd love to hear what some other people are making in these bags.

This is a wonderful product, right up there with the Reynold's Handi-Vac sealing system, which also makes food handling faster, easier and more enjoyable.