Anonymous wrote:I frequently make pasta ahead. And you don't have to reheat with boiling water. I will frequently just run the water in the sink on hot until it gets as hot as it will get, toss the pasta back in the colander and rinse until the tap hot water until the pasta loosens up and then let it drain in the colander. Heat up your butter sauce in a pan while you are rinsing the pasta , then toss the drip-dried pasta into the pan and you'll be fine.

Yes I do it this way all the time.

I frequently make pasta ahead. And you don't have to reheat with boiling water. I will frequently just run the water in the sink on hot until it gets as hot as it will get, toss the pasta back in the colander and rinse until the tap hot water until the pasta loosens up and then let it drain in the colander. Heat up your butter sauce in a pan while you are rinsing the pasta , then toss the drip-dried pasta into the pan and you'll be fine.

I'm also a horrible cook, and busy. I frequently make pasta ahead of time, then just stick in a pan with some butter or other sauce when I'm ready to eat it. No one's died from it (yet).

You can make the pasta ahead of time and again just either add a little butter or olive oil so the noodles don't stick together.

the best way to reheat pasta is in boiling water so easier to just do both at 5.

If you do boil the pasta ahead of time you can toss it with a little oil after it has drained to prevent it from sticking.

Add a little olive oil to the pasta & toss after cooking to keep it from clumping OP. And take it off the stove before it tastes like it's done, because it will keep cooking in its own steam/heat for awhile, even after being turned off. I love pasta and used to overcook it all the time til I started doing it that way

Make your sauce ahead, separately.

Boil the pasta fresh.

Boiling pasta is one of the easiest things you can do, don't make it too complicated. I'd do it all at 5. Put the salted water on to boil, once boiling turn heat down & add pasta set a timer, timer goes off dump water out, add sauce, stir, all done.

I would wait to cook the pasta but if you need to reheat it I always reheat in water rather than sauce.

I want to make some pasta at around 4 pm or earlier since that is when I'll just get home. then it needs to be eaten around 5 pm, but I'll be busy then.
just adding a pre brought mostly butter sauce that I was going to lightly melt and then put on the made pasta I'd rinse and put back in the pot.

should I just make it ahead at 4 or earlier and reheat the whole thing at 5? If I make the pasta at 4 I'm thinking the darn pasta will just get all glumped in a giant pile of sticky pasta.

should I just try to multi-task and do it at 5? leave it on the stove in the pot or what's the best way to re-heat?

sorry for all the dumb questions, I recently ruined a huge pot of chicken noodle soup by over cooking the noodles and ending up with an inedible soup b/c it was so so mushy......