The TikTok Tip You Need For Cooking Pasta In The Microwave

There are plenty of times in life you may find yourself with nothing but a microwave to cook with: In a hotel room, in a dorm room, in a micro-studio, or in a gas line disruption that's making your stove inoperable, for example. And as TikTok creator Kitty Lipski teaches, it can be used to make a perfect pasta dinner that didn't come out of the frozen foods aisle of the grocery store.

Pasta has never been a set-it-and-forget-it meal before, but with Lipski's microwave trick, that's exactly what it is. She uses her microwave to make a homemade pasta dish and is able to do other things while it cooks. In less than 15 minutes, she has perfectly al dente pasta ready to be strained and sauced. And while the microwave, an oft-maligned cooking tool, sometimes gets a bad rap — whether due to a lack of counter space, a long-held myth that microwaves are somehow bad for you and your food (they're not), or just simply a desire to be more involved in the meditative process of cooking a meal — commenters on her video love this revelation.

In her TikTok video, Kitty Lipski puts dried pasta in a microwave-safe bowl, covers it with water, and pops it in the microwave. Depending on your microwave, the cooking time can vary by 2-3 minutes over the al dente recommendation on the box. Once it finishes cooking, grab the (very hot) bowl (with dry pot holders), drain the pasta, and toss it with sauce to your heart's content. We think this method works especially well with pasta varieties that you don't necessarily need to finish cooking in a sauce — like aglio e olio or pesto — since that could be a bit harder to do in the microwave.

@kitty_lipski

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After presumably much trial and error, Lipski warns that the best pasta shapes for this are sturdier, larger ones like penne. Smaller types like orzo and thinner types like spaghetti tend to stick together, and regardless of the old myth, adding oil or butter to the water really won't stop this. We swear.

Pour your pasta into a bowl and cover it with water, leaving an inch and a half of water over the pasta. Put it in the microwave for 13 minutes. Walk away. It won't burn or continue cooking into mushy oblivion if you forget about it for an extra five minutes. There are no hot burners for your toddlers or cats to touch. It's a win for busy, tired people.

If you're up for making your own sauce, it's possible to do so in the time your pasta is cooking. Grab a blender or food processor and add the following ingredients for lemon basil pesto: 1 cup basil leaves, 2 garlic cloves, ¼ cup olive oil, ½ cup pine nuts, ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and a dash of salt and pepper. Mix the basil and garlic in the blender and blend well. Drizzle in the oil. Add in the rest of the ingredients, and blend until smooth.

Chances are good that the pesto will be done before the timer goes off, so go ahead and put on your pajamas. Grab the pasta out of the microwave and drain. Put it back in the bowl and dump in the pesto. Toss. Eat. Brush your teeth. Sleep.