Full question
If I use penne in the Slow-Cooker Lamb And Pasta how long should I cook it for in the slow-cooker? Or should I cook it separately and just add it for a few mins in the slow-cooker to absorb the flavour?
Our answer
Nigella's Slow-Cooker Lamb And Pasta is an all-in one dish made with macaroni pasta. The pasta is added, uncooked, towards the end of the recipe. Macaroni is a fairly small pasta shape and cooks in 7-8 minutes. Unfortunately penne is a much larger shape and has a longer cooking time, so we are not able at this stage to advise on how long the cooking time would be for this type of pasta.
If possible we would suggest using small pasta shapes with a similar cooking time to the macaroni. Nigella suggests chifferi rigate or you could use small farfalle (farfalline), small shells (conchigliette) or small penne or fusilli. If you only have large pasta shapes then it would be better to cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente and then drain it and add it to the slow cooker for the last 15 minutes of cooking time. However, as we have not tried this method we are unable to guarantee the results.
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