Baked Pasta 101: Save Yourself 20 Minutes With One Simple Tip

Dried pasta is largely made up of flour and water, and cooking it to the right degree is no less than an art form. While making fresh pasta is largely considered the superior approach for some plated dishes, dried pasta is the absolute norm for baked pasta dishes. Rather than boiling your pasta and then cooking it again in the oven, why not skip the extra stovetop step and simply soak your pasta in hot water while you prep the rest of your comforting bake?

Instead of investing your time cooking pasta that is already going to absorb liquid while baking in the oven, you can focus on the pasta sauce itself. Homemade pasta sauce is worth its weight in gold and particularly shines in baked preparations, as the flavors that call on everything from San Marzano tomatoes to Parmesan rinds and herbs carry through right to the table. Whether you are attempting a classic cheesy baked ziti or a simple, layered lasagna, homemade pasta sauce will never disappoint. If you are light on time, you can always call on one of these top store-bought tomato sauces that serve to cook the pasta in the very same way.

The flour in dried pasta is made up of starch and protein, which need to absorb 80% of their weight in water to be cooked through. This process renders the proteins stretchy and the starches melted enough to leave the pasta "to the tooth," also known as the highly sought after al dente texture. You can save yourself a step (and a bowl to clean) for baked pasta dishes by simply letting the noodles sit in hot, salted water in your baking dish until you are ready to drain and use them.

You could also go rogue and bypass the soaking step completely if you use enough tomato sauce (or other moisture) in your recipe, like in this three-ingredient baked pasta hack that is a favorite of Alan Alda. Tomatoes are notoriously water-heavy (as in up to 95% of tomatoes are water), so the water inherent in the tomato sauce does the same job of plumping up and cooking the pasta while it bakes in the oven as that water soak. Just make sure that any recipe you use has an ample sauce-to-pasta ratio so that the resulting pasta combo turns out unctuous and gooey, rather than dry and sad. You may never boil your pasta before baking again.