Toasting Your Pasta Before Boiling It Unlocks A Whole New Level Of Flavor
You've likely been told that the only way to add flavor to your pasta is to salt your water. And while salting your water makes a huge difference in not only the flavor of your pasta but in its ability to coax sauce into clinging to it properly, there's another way to add flavor: Toast it. In the same way that you can toast milk powder to amp up your brown butter and toast sugar to deepen your simple syrup, you can and should toast pasta to enhance your spaghetti dinner.
This technique makes your noodles deeply nutty, adding a new dimension to your dish. It immediately improves the simplest recipes and creates an even better canvas for your long-simmered sauces. There are three primary methods for toasting pasta: stovetop, oven, and microwave. You can toast any shape, from couscous to ziti to fettucini, though there are preferred methods of toasting for certain shapes. For example, tube-shaped pastas don't lend themselves well to easy toasting on the stovetop, due to uneven heating and limited contact with the pan, but easily-tossed couscous takes well to the pan-toasted method.
How to toast your pasta
Toasting your pasta in the oven will create the most even cook of the three methods. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Simply spread the pasta out evenly across a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until deeper brown in color. You may want to stir the pasta halfway through to promote an even cook. This method will work for any noodle shape.
To accomplish this on the stovetop, you'll need to make sure the pasta fits in the pan. This makes it difficult to use long noodles like spaghetti unless you're going to break them up into pieces. Toss the pasta in two tablespoons of oil and then add to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the noodles become a lovely shade of light brown and smell toasty or nutty. For couscous, this will take approximately five or six minutes, for orzo it will take approximately eight minutes, and larger noodles will take anywhere from six to 10 minutes.
If it's too hot to use the oven and the stove is crowded, you can also toast your pasta in the microwave. Similarly to the skillet method, toss the pasta with oil before transferring it to the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl or plate. At 50% power, cook it for three to five minutes, stopping to stir occasionally. Keep in mind that this will cause the pasta to blister a bit as it toasts.
Recipes worth toasting your pasta for
One of the most beloved dishes in central Mexico uses this method of toasting pasta as a primary feature of the recipe. It's called fideo seco, and it calls for small, broken-up pieces of thin noodles similar to vermicelli to be toasted in oil on the stovetop with a deep skillet or Dutch oven. With a tomato and dried chili pepper base, plus handfuls of melty cheese, it's true comfort food.
Although any pasta dish can be elevated by toasting your noodles, there are a few standouts that are worth the little bit of extra effort. Classic Italian dishes that showcase simple ingredients done well are top of mind for this method. The nuttiness of the pasta will really deepen the flavors from the cheese in cacio e pepe and temper the sharpness of the black pepper ever so slightly. It will also provide additional warmth for the garlic to soften into in aglio e olio. It's definitely worth the effort for a decadent carbonara. And a fairly straightforward pasta with fennel and sausage would really shine with toasted penne.
Cold sesame noodles and soba noodle salad are perfect for this flavor hack, as well. The nuttiness of the toasted noodles will really enhance the work the sesame oil is doing. Soba noodles, made from buckwheat flour, already have an innate nuttiness to them that you can really play up by toasting them. For just a little effort, the method makes a big impact.