When you make soup from scratch, you have plenty of details to worry about. You probably need to prepare many of the ingredients before tossing them into the soup pot. With so many tasks to complete to simply make soup, the last thing you need on your plate is another preparation detail. Fortunately, you can use a shortcut when adding pasta to soup. Instead of cooking it separately, you can add dry pasta to the soup and let it cook in the broth.
Make the soup as your recipe dictates. If at any point it tells you to boil or cook the pasta separately, ignore that part of the instructions, and simply continue making the soup.
Add the pasta to the soup five to 15 minutes before the soup is finished, according to the recipe. Stir well to distribute the pasta throughout the soup, then stir every one to two minutes while continuing to simmer the soup.
Check the pasta every few minutes by scooping out a single piece with a spoon. If you are using particularly small pasta, start checking it four to five minutes after adding it to the soup, then every few minutes thereafter. For larger pasta, start checking it five to seven minutes after adding it to the soup, then every few minutes thereafter. You can use the directions on the box or bag of pasta to give you a rough estimate of when the pasta you added will be done. Allow the piece of pasta to cool, then eat it. Pay attention to its texture, and remove the soup from the heat when the pasta reaches the doneness you desire.
Adding dry pasta directly to the soup will cause your finished soup to be cloudier than it would have been otherwise. In some recipes, this might not matter, but in others, you might decide that the convenience is not worth the extra cloudiness. Consider using some extra liquid when you begin your soup to make up for the liquid that the pasta will absorb as it cooks. If you do not add extra liquid, your final soup will be thicker than it would have been otherwise.
When you make soup from scratch, you have plenty of details to worry about. You probably need to prepare many of the ingredients before tossing them into the soup pot. With so many tasks to complete to simply make soup, the last thing you need on your plate is another preparation detail. Fortunately, you can use a shortcut when adding pasta to soup. Instead of cooking it separately, you can add dry pasta to the soup and let it cook in the broth.
Make the soup as your recipe dictates. If at any point it tells you to boil or cook the pasta separately, ignore that part of the instructions, and simply continue making the soup.
Adding dry pasta directly to the soup will cause your finished soup to be cloudier than it would have been otherwise. In some recipes, this might not matter, but in others, you might decide that the convenience is not worth the extra cloudiness. Consider using some extra liquid when you begin your soup to make up for the liquid that the pasta will absorb as it cooks. If you do not add extra liquid, your final soup will be thicker than it would have been otherwise.
Check the pasta every few minutes by scooping out a single piece with a spoon. If you are using particularly small pasta, start checking it four to five minutes after adding it to the soup, then every few minutes thereafter. For larger pasta, start checking it five to seven minutes after adding it to the soup, then every few minutes thereafter. You can use the directions on the box or bag of pasta to give you a rough estimate of when the pasta you added will be done. Allow the piece of pasta to cool, then eat it. Pay attention to its texture, and remove the soup from the heat when the pasta reaches the doneness you desire.
Add the pasta to the soup five to 15 minutes before the soup is finished, according to the recipe. Stir well to distribute the pasta throughout the soup, then stir every one to two minutes while continuing to simmer the soup.
And what about the seasoning? If you’re cooking egg noodles in chicken broth, they’ll take on a subtle chicken-iness. But I’m more concerned about the salt. Whenever I cook pasta, I estimate a heaping tablespoon kosher salt per quart of water. It goes without saying: This would be waaaaaay too salty for a broth. So, if you cook the noodles in the broth, either the broth needs to be oversalted, or the noodles will be bland.
I wasn’t so sure. First, what happens to the leftovers? The good news is, broth is more than happy to hang out in the fridge or freezer. The bad news is, the noodles are not happy to hang out in the broth in the fridge or the freezer. Even by tomorrow morning, they’ll be swollen, soggy, and mushy. (Just think about when you cook noodles for even a few minutes too long.) From Our Shop
A couple months ago, I was developing a recipe for two-ingredient chicken noodle soup. This is just the sort of challenge that my weekly column, Big Little Recipes, loves—making chicken stock about the chicken, not the onion and celery (and carrot and bay leaves and peppercorns). And yet: What turned out to be the most thought-provoking wasn’t the chicken stock at all. It was the noodles.
The most logical approach is: To make noodle soup, add noodles to soup. In other words, cook the noodles in the broth itself, then ladle the whole shebang into a bowl and serve. Not only does this sidestep another dirty pot, but it infuses the noodles with flavor. Win-win, right?
By cooking noodles in a separate pot, you’re giving them the best chance to become the best version of themselves—well salted and well cooked. After boiling the noodles, I like to drain them, add a portion to each bowl, and ladle broth (and whatever is in the broth) on top. Then, the broth and noodles can be stored in the fridge separately—and still-perfect noodle soup can be repeated for days to come.
Chic noodle Soup in a Jar — Freeze Drying Pantry Series #2
FAQ
Can you put dry pasta in soup?
Why not cook noodles in soup?
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What kind of noodles don’t get soggy in soup?