The Common Kitchen Appliance The Pasta Queen Says Is Evil

Nadia Caterina Munno, better known as The Pasta Queen, didn't get her title for no reason. The Italian chef was born in Rome to a pasta-making family known around town by the nickname "the Macaronis," and she learned how to make pasta by hand at a very young age under the tutelage of her aunts and grandmothers. With millions of followers across several major social media platforms, the Pasta Queen has become a trusted authority in Italian cooking — so believe her when she tells you not to reheat pasta in the microwave.

In the eighth episode of "The Pasta Queen", her new show on Amazon Prime, a fan named Ally writes in asking for advice. Nadia reads the question –- "how long should I microwave my pasta?" -– with her typical regal poise, pronouncing "microwave" Nigella Lawson-style as "mee-cro-wah-vay", before letting that controversial kitchen appliance have it with both barrels. "What are you thinking?" she beseeches Ally, with the gravity and intensity of a nonna who just saw you substitute cottage cheese for ricotta. "Use an oven! Or get one of those little electric ovens! They're mild, they're gentle. Microwaves are so aggressive, they take the joy out of the ingredients!"

Nadia goes on to declare, half-seriously, that microwaves are "little devil machines." While we certainly wouldn't go that far, she's absolutely correct that "Chef Mike" is a poor choice for reheating pasta. When you store pasta in the fridge, it's likely to absorb moisture from the sauce, which, paradoxically, causes it to feel dry. By microwaving the pasta, it dries out even further, turning spaghetti into chewy shoelaces and lasagna into gummy strips of dough. And heaven forbid your pasta has a creamy sauce like our 15-minute vodka cream pasta, because the microwave will cause it to break and go runny.

Nadia's suggestion to use an oven to reheat pasta will work, but a better choice may be to put it in a saucepan and reheat it on the stovetop. Depending on what kind of sauce your pasta has, you will need to add a couple tablespoons of moisture (water for a tomato-based sauce, cream or oil for cream- and oil-based sauces), but from there you just have to toss it around until it's hot. Your pasta will thank you, and you will have avoided the wrath of the Pasta Queen for another day.