Finding the chase and cutting to it

During lockdown, I started to make fresh pasta.  Which is great from a taste and cooking point of view, but not great from a food waste point of view unless you make use of this handy tip.

Oh yeah, one word from the wise, eh?

Hey, enough of that.  Collect knowledge.

Several sites spoke of “freezing the pasta” instead of popping in the fridge during the “resting phase”.  This is great but when thawed, the pasta can go a little grey – which isn’t confidence inspiring and a similar thing happens in the fridge, even within the recommended three to four days.

Vacuum packing is the answer, or rather getting as much air out of the bag of pasta as humanly possible.

Now, this kind of device was in short supply during lockdown (great minds and the like), and we’re doing small scale.  How to get the effect without the cost, another gadget in the kitchen and having to buy tough plastic sheets to use in the device?

Pressure is the answer.  Atmospheric pressure, actually.  Have you ever noticed when you put an empty plastic bottle in the bath, it can actually crumple a little bit more, before the water starts to rush it?

We’re going to make use of this.  Put your item to be “packed” in a normal plastic *zip-lock bag and “roll the bottom up to the top” to push out as much air before putting in the water.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s just make the process a little quicker.  Seal up most of the zip-lock hold tight.

* I have tried this with non-zip-lock plastic bags and it does work, it’s just a little bit fiddlier and harder to get an air tight seal.

Now, place into a bowl, jug or box of water and push the bag in as far as you can without covering the hole in the top of the zip-lock.  Ease any remaining gas out and close the zip-lock completely.  Dry off the excess water clinging to the bag and place in the freezer.  When you get your pasta out up to a month later, it will be as golden as the day you made it.

This process works well for any type of food for home freezing, especially in “frost free freezers”.

Vacuum packed storage without running any motors or buying special bags.