Slow Cooker Pasta

As an Italian who’s grown up eating a wide variety pasta, this is “fine”.  That’s a “fine” that means it’s better than the canned stuff.  But, the texture of the finished product isn’t quite right.  At first, the pasta cooks nicely.  Then, as the cooking process continues and the liquid is absorbed, it takes longer to reach “al dente” than you would imagine.  Keep in mind, I’m using this term very loosely.  One minute the pasta is too hard and under-cooked, the next minute it was too soft and gummy.  Why?  Well, you have to estimate the cooking time.  If you open the lid to stir, you loose a lot of heat.  You need every bit of that heat, to soften the pasta with limited amounts of liquid.

Now, it may be possible to achieve a somewhat more enjoyable texture to the pasta if you knew exactly how long to let the pasta cook after the first or second stir.  But, don’t stir too much or your pasta will fall apart in the dense sauce.

Next time (if there ever is one), it would be wiser to turn this into a slow cooker version of pasta e fagioli.

Slow Cooker Pasta
makes 1 big pot

28 ounces tomatoes with basil leaves
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 lb dried pasta, elbows or other small pasta
Romano cheese, to sprinkle on top

In a powerful blender or food processor, liquify tomatoes and basil.  Pour liquified tomatoes into a slow cooker.  Add 3 cups of water, garlic, red pepper, black pepper, and salt.  Stir to combine.  Cover and set slow cooker to high.  Bring mixture to a boil.  This takes about 1 hour (it may take slightly longer) in my very large slow cooker.  Add elbows.  Stir.  Cover and let cook for about 30 minutes.  Stir.  Taste.  Then, guess whether you’d like slightly hard undercooked pasta at 45 minutes or overcooked pasta at 1 hour.  If I were to ever try this again, I’d test the pasta at 50-55 minutes.