Spaghetti cooking by microwave oven: Cooking kinetics and product quality

The cooking kinetics of spaghetti cooked in boiling water by a traditional method: (TRC) and by microwave (MWC) using an innovative oven suitable for pasta cooking were investigated. The quality of cooked spaghetti was studied as a function of the following cooking parameters: weight increase, total thermal effect and gelatinization extent. Microwave cooking resulted in a time–temperature profile different from that of the traditional cooking process and when the cooking parameters were equal, the microwave cooking was characterized by a lower total thermal effect. In spite of the lower total thermal effect, when the weight increase was equivalent, microwave cooking resulted in more gelatinized and softer products than traditional cooking. The higher gel degree and amylose solubility were not reflected in a higher cooking loss or stickiness; this was due to a more compact gluten network in the outer layer of spaghetti. By modulating the cooking time it was possible to obtain MWC samples with values of weight increase, gel degree and firmness, respectively, equal to the TRC ones; thus different ‘‘optimum cooking times” were defined. Sensory panels did not perceive any significant differences between TRC spaghetti and MWC spaghetti samples cooked for different ‘‘optimum cooking times” except for the yellow colour intensity, which resulted higher for MWC pasta in agreement with the instrumental analysis data.