cooking pasta using the absorption technique has been on my “to do” list for a while now. this involves cooking the pasta in much less liquid than normal, with the pasta absorbing the liquid in the same way that rice does when you make risotto. as a result the liquid is usually something chosen on the basis that it adds additional flavour to the dish.

i tried this out using chicken stock and am intrigued to experiment further. i used rigatoni which meant that i needed quite a lot of stock to cover the pasta and as a result it wasn’t all absorbed. i boiled off as much as i could but didn’t want soggy pasta so we were left with a reduced stock sauce, which was nice enough in this dish but would have been a problem with some other sauces.

the pasta was a slightly different texture – it was more delicate and almost silky. it also absorbed the flavour of the stock really well. this made the first few mouthfuls a bit of a shock as i’d expected the change in texture but not the flavour absorption – my vegetarian pasta dish was incredibly chickeny! thankfully the squash and sage were strong enough flavours to cope with this.

so, the next experiment will be with pasta which can be packed more densely in the pan, such as farfalle, orrechiette or trofie. i’d also like to try the technique which sees the raw pasta fried in olive oil until it is slightly browned as apparently this adds an extra flavour dimension. i’ll also think more carefully about the combination of stock and other flavours – i love the idea of a prawn stock within a seafood dish.

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