Lidia Bastianich's Serving Tip To Prevent Pasta From Getting Cold
If you pay attention to the techniques used by many famous chefs, you often won't find anything fancy or complicated. You'll doubtlessly learn something simple that can make a massive impact on how you make or serve a dish, though. That's exactly the case with celebrity chef and cookbook author Lidia Bastianich's incredibly easy, surprisingly obvious tip for keeping your pasta warm.
Bastianch told People that it comes down to what you're serving your pasta in. She serves hers in a soup bowl instead of a wide, flat plate. Keeping the pasta from spreading out helps preserve the heat of the sauce and noodles as they aren't as directly exposed to the relatively cool air. She suggests going a step further to mound the pasta in the center of the bowl, keeping it warm for even longer.
Serving pasta in a soup bowl represents a departure from many other chefs, both old-school Italian cooks, and professionally trained ones, who often serve pasta in special pasta bowls. These are broad like a traditional plate but have upturned sides to keep the noodles and sauce on the plate and make it easier to grab them with your fork.
Warmer bowls mean warmer pasta, too
Lidia Bastianich also makes sure her bowls are warm before adding the pasta, as even a room-temperature bowl can rob precious heat from your food. This is a general best practice, as you should be serving hot food on warm plates in most cases anyway. You can follow this recommendation by placing heat-safe plates and bowls in a 200-degree Fahrenheit oven for about five minutes.
Of course, the easiest way to prevent pasta from getting cold is just to enjoy it as soon as it's ready. Leaving your pasta waiting too long is among the most common mistakes everyone makes with pasta, along with forgetting to salt your cooking water and pouring the cooking water down the drain. Bastianich herself has also said many cooks forget to stir their pasta while it's cooking to prevent sticking.
The next time you serve pasta, don't overthink it. Listen to Lidia and enjoy perfectly warm pasta every time. All it takes is the right bowl to serve it in.