Tipnique of the week, November 15, 2013

Minestrone for dinner tonight, and these pasta inclusive-type soups prompt in me two reactions:
Reaction the first:

Pasta! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY 

Reaction the second: 

mushy pasta. ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK

If, when you think of minestrone or any other noodley soup or stew you get all warm inside, and then all disappointed when the pasta turns out to be overcooked, and double disappointed with the double mushy leftovers, here's a tip for you:

Try cooking the pasta separately and combining the cooked pasta with the soup in the soup bowl. 

I know, it sounds like a little extra work, but it's really only one extra pot to rinse out, and almost zero extra time.

And it's not really work we mind so much as pointless work, yes?

And this is not pointless- look:

Tonight's minestrone was bubbling away on the stove while the tortellini simmered in a separate pot of salted water and, in the interests of edible science, in a third pot tortellini cooked in some of the soup.

Here's what happened:

and a closer look. 

the tortellini cooked in water, then combined with the soup-

and the tortellini cooked in the soup-

An unexpected bonus- the tortellini that cooked in water not only had a more toothsome exterior, but a more completely cooked interior:

It's hard to see here, but the filling of the tortellini that cooked in the soup
is still a little too chewy, even though the pasta part was mushy.
Intriguing. I wish I could explain this, but I can't. 

A spoonful or two (or three, or more) of pasta in the bowl, a ladle or two of soup on top, and....
dinner:

Of course, the shaking a half a bag of pasta straight into a pot of bubbling soup method has a hundred speedy charms, and there's a real comfort food value for some of us in a bowl of chicken soup with mushy noodles (Anyone else have fond memories of Campbell's Chicken and Stars?)
But give it a try, some night when the experimental fever strikes, and tell me what you think-