precooking pasta?

[shugga]

I am having a retirement party for my husband in a few weeks and had planned on making some kind of pasta as one of the dishes. There will be about 30 -40 people at the party.
Is it possible to cook the ziti earlier in the day and then just reheat and pour the sauce over it? How do you keep it from getting sticky and how do you reheat it? HELP!!
TIA

 

[katbalou]

shugga,
pasta can be pre-cooked. do not overcook. rinse with cold water, until the pasta is no longer warm. do not soak in water as it will get soggy. store in the fridge, reheat by dipping it in simmering water. then top with hot sauce.
kat

 

[peachcreek]

I do what Kat does with the addition of after I cool and drain the pasta I coat it lightly with olive oil to keep it from sticking together. Good luck.

 

[pete]

To oil after cooling, or not. People I know tend to have very strong feelings one way or another about this! Though I don't think that it makes that big of a difference, I prefer not to oil as I feel that it causes the sauce to not be able to cling as well to the pasta. As soon as the pasta is cool we portion ours into bags so it doesn't matter if the pasta sticks. Once it hits the hot water again it becomes unstuck. If you don't have a pot big enough to reheat the pasta all at the same time, then you might want to oil the pasta. It will make it easier to work with. But, please use as little oil as possible. If I use oil, I oil it while it is still in the colander and shake off any excess. That way your pasta is not swimming in oil.

 

[cape chef]

Shugga,

Good luck with your party.

Not to add to the confusion,but I would consider some oil on your pasta after youv'e pre-cooked it.

You can also (if you have oven space) warm your pasta in a hotel pan with hot water added (not much,just to create steam)wrap with tin foil and bring it up to temp that way,when drain.

I come from the school of thought that the pasta should then be tossed with the sauce instead of just ladeling over the top.

 

[topa]

I recommend the same as Pete. Usually I will seperate the pasta into batches of the size that I can reheat, although if I have to cater a group numbering into the 175+ range then I definately will oil it (remembering the colander step). Good luck with your party!