Cook Pasta With This Hack For Weeknight Dinners In Half The Time

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There are a few reasons that pasta night is a Hall of Fame dinner scheme in our households: it's inexpensive, impresses most of the picky eaters we know, and it comes together quickly ... with one major caveat. To cook pasta, you have to wait for your pan of water to boil, and that can be a serious bummer. Few kitchen tasks are as infuriating as literally watching a pot, as the saying goes, sensing the precious minutes dragging by while the water comes up to temp. Surely, there's a better way! Actually, the answer involves one of the best uses for your tea kettle besides tea.

All you have to do is boil water in your kettle, put your pasta in a pot, submerge it fully in the boiling water, and cover the pan for however long the cooking instructions call for. It turns out that most pasta does not need a steady boil to cook thoroughly; it just needs water over 180 degrees, which will happen in a covered pan for a short amount of cooking time. Note that this method is not foolproof for either long pastas or thick ones, but it should work for the majority of the pastas you use at home, save maybe fettuccine and spaghetti. 

You can streamline the process and save burner space with a fast-boiling electric kettle like this well-rated cordless model by Amazon Basics. Our European friends overseas are more likely to have electric kettles, but they are useful in any kitchen! Once you've made your speedy pasta, stir in the best store-bought pasta sauce brand, and you have yourself a fine basis for a quick, nourishing meal.

Having to cook dinner on a busy weeknight after a long day of work, school, and/or homemaking can feel like the mental equivalent of climbing a mountain. That's why we value time-saving dinner hacks. Anything that facilitates getting a meal on the table without ordering takeout is a major win, and we say that it doesn't really matter how you get there. When a square meal is the goal, any and all strategies are fair game. Using a kettle to boil water for faster pasta is one step towards a great, easy dinner, but what if you really want to fill out that plate for hungry loved ones?

Adding a meat that you quick-cook with either your oven's broiler or your air fryer is a one-two knockout punch when it comes to pairing protein with your pasta. We like to skip the stove and cook pork chops under our broiler in half the time, for instance ... and who wouldn't love some well-seasoned chops with a white sauce on your pasta? Chicken breasts or thighs and salmon are two more options that lend themselves well to high-heat, quick cooks that require almost no hands-on prep. If you add a microwave pouch of frozen veggies or a bagged salad kit, you have an enviable, well-rounded pasta meal that costs you little in terms of frustration and waiting ... complete goals for the Monday through Friday slog.