Cooking pasta is about heat and hydration. We asked ourselves what would happen if we separated the two processes. Soaking the pasta was slightly counter-intuitive. What if it got to soft? What if it all stuck together? We decided that the only thing to do was try it and see what happened. After an hour and a half in a bag with cold water the soaked linguine pasta became pliable, while remaining a bit stiff. The drained noodles held their shape and since the starch had not been activated, they did not stick to one another and could be held without the addition of oil. Once we added the noodles to boiling, salted water we had perfectly cooked al dente pasta in just 60 seconds. Now that we know it works, it is time to see what flavoring the hydrating liquid does.

What we do know is that we have now changed how dried pasta may be cooked to order.