Food

On another note. How do I stop my pasta being over cooked in minestrone soup? Last time I made it this happened, so on the weekend I turned it off then chucked the pasta in so the heat cooked it through. It still overcooked and fell apart. Maybe I'll just use big pasta instead of little wanky ones.

Re minestrone soup, try cooking the pasta and veg separately. save a bit of the pasta water to put into the soup when combining the two

For how long do you cook the minestrone, Katie? Xander's way is the proper way of doing it, but being lazy I usually (not just for minestrone but many other soups) manage to time adding the pasta right so that it's just cooked at the end. Try orzo pasta--it swells up quite a lot so don't use too much (or add enough water), but I generally find you can't go wrong with it.