What is the best way to reheat leftover pasta?

I just asked a trained chef (handy having one in the next room) and he said that if there’s no sauce on it, just put the pasta back into boiling water for a couple minutes. If there’s sauce, you can reheat it in a steamer or double boiler. If you don’t have either of those, put the pasta into a sauce pan on the stove with a little bit of water, cover it with a lid to keep in the steam and reheat that way. It will reheat more evenly and not make the pasta as rubbery as microwaves sometimes can.

A little bit of olive oil in the recipient where the pasta was prepared.
Boil water in a different (and bigger) recipient, when the water is boiling, put the recipient with the pasta so it starts floating inside the recipient with the boiling water, turn off the stove and cover it for like 5 or 6 minutes so the steam will heat the pasta :)
O.k. what amanderveen just wrote :p

@flameboi, “recipient”?

@Jeruba
Nope, mixed languages (happens sometimes , sorry) :s
I meant pan/pot

I would put sauceless pasta back in boiling water but for only like 10 or 20 seconds. Thats all it should take to heat it back up. It has already been cooked once. Any longer and the glutens break down and your pasta ends up really gooey and soft

Tablespoon of water, cover with a paper towel, nuke it. That’s what I do, never had an issue. :)

@amanderveen that’s what I was going to suggest. Works the best but then again when the boys come in from playing hockey they want it zapped since they are “STARVING!” Or so they claim to be.

@cooksalot – I usually go straight to the nuker, too, lol.

@flameboi, oh, I see. Thanks. (Vessel, container, receptacle.) What language were you thinking in?

in a microwave is fine, as long as you cover it with wax paper or loosely-fitted plastic wrap.