
The first time I made turkey noodle soup by myself, I didn't know the most important lesson: DO NOT PUT THE NOODLES IN BEFORE COOKING. I almost cried when, in the blink of an eye, my great soup became mediocre pasta salad. The broth was completely gone.
Since then, I've always boiled the noodles beforehand. I don't mind super-soft noodles, and usually don't have too much of a problem with the myriad of shapes that I've used over the years.
However, if you want more solid noodles, The Kitchn recently offered two suggestions. One is actually my big no-no -- putting the noodles in without cooking, turning the heat off while they're still sort of crunchy, and then letting residual heat cook them the rest of the way. The other: cook the pasta separately and add the noodles to each portion. If you're freezing batches for quick meals later, this might not be ideal, so you'll have to experiment and figure out which works best for you.














