I’ve been playing with noodles in the thermal cooker and haven’t had amazing luck. If you keep them in the thermal cooker for the entire cooking time, they swell and become soft. If you add them during the last 30 minutes of cooking time, they become soft but also sticky because the liquid is no longer boiling. Putting noodles for cooking in hot but not boiling water is apparently a no-go.
Since I knew I was making a spaghetti sauce recipe today, I thought I’d give noodles another try. The trick here is to cook the sauce as indicated below. When there are about twenty minutes left for dinner, bring water to a boil in the small inner pot. Add your noodles and boil for a minute or two. Then insert the small inner pot into the pot with your spaghetti sauce that has already been cooking for hours. Seal the pot and let the noodles cook for the amount of time specified in the package directions.
So, for
my whole grain spaghetti noodles, I let them cook for 14 minutes total, including the time they were boiling on the stove and the time they were sealed in the thermal cooker. The package said “Boil 12 minutes.”
So what’s the point of using thermal cooker to cook noodles this way? For one, you save a little energy by not having to boil the noodles all the time. It’s also a convenient way to grab dinner on the go. When you leave the house to go to baseball, put the noodles on and then serve them on the field.
Now for the sauce. This is an amazing sauce that can be modified in hundreds of different ways. The basic recipe was taught to me by my Peruvian aunt who lived in Montreal. She taught me how to cook this, while speaking French and without exact measurements. She just threw things in the pot and I tried to write approximate amounts.
I’ve been making this sauce for almost twenty years and it’s a little different every time. So, make it your own.
Thermal cooker Spaghetti and beef
sauce 1
medium onion, diced 1 pound ground beef or turkey 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon parsley 2 teaspoons paprika 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 1 28 oz can diced or pureed tomatoes 1 can tomato sauce 1 can 8 oz tomato sauce 1 jar 24 oz sauce sauce marinate 1 teaspoon liquid beef broth or a cube of broth 2 teaspoons grated fresh Parmesan sugar (optional)
Heat the oil in a pan and mix the onions. Stir the onions for about 5 minutes until translucent and begin to brown. Add ground beef or turkey and stir and break into small pieces until most of the rosé is gone. Drain most of the fat. Then add the garlic and spices and stir for 30 seconds. Pour the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, marinara and ingots. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Add the sugar. Place in the thermal cooker and seal. Let cook for 1-4 hours until ready to eat. Serve over noodles or vegetables and top with Parmesan cheese.
Thermalcookerrecipes.com provides recipes as a resource and educational tool only, and offers no guarantees of food safety. We are not responsible for any breach of food safety regulations that may arise in your thermal cooking. We make every effort to ensure that our recipes meet established food safety standards. But all thermal cookers are not created equal, and there are many variables at play that result in the temperatures reached and maintained in your thermal cooker. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific make and model of thermal cooker, even if it means adapting our recipes.
If in doubt, check out the FDA’s page on foodborne illness for safe cooking temperatures and other safety tips. And use a food thermometer to make sure your food has been cooked and stored at a safe temperature.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means that we may receive a small commission if you choose to buy something from a link we publish. Don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you anything. Thank you for supporting our website!
