Potato, carrot and tomato pressure cooked with achiote, then elbow pasta added at the end for the last ten minutes. The pasta goes in last for a reason.
Pasta and pressure cookers do not mix
The recipe as it stood put half a pound of elbow pasta into the pressure cooker along with the potatoes and carrot, and cooked the lot for twenty minutes.
Elbow pasta needs eight to ten minutes in ordinary boiling water. Twenty minutes at pressure does not overcook it, it destroys it: the shapes break down entirely and what is left is starch suspended in the broth.
The vegetables still get their twenty minutes. The pasta now gets its own, once the lid is off, and nothing else about the recipe changes.
It will not wait
Even cooked properly, a pasta soup has a short life. Pasta absorbs liquid whether or not there is heat under the pot.
Served straight away it is a soup. Twenty minutes later it is noticeably thicker. The next day the coditos have swollen soft and taken most of the broth with them.
If it has to sit, cook the pasta in a separate pot and add it to the bowls as you serve. Everything else reheats without complaint.
What color means
One ingredient on the list read food coloring to taste, with a note explaining that it is common in Colombian recipes, which was a comment from whoever translated the page rather than part of the recipe.
What it means is color: a powdered colouring based on achiote, also called annatto, sold in small sachets. It turns the broth golden and adds almost no taste of its own. Turmeric or sweet paprika does the same job.
It is not the artificial food colouring the English translation suggested.
Making it a meal
The recipe's own description says you can add chicken or beef and serve it with rice, and that is how it usually turns up on a Colombian table.
The meat goes in at the start with the vegetables so it gets the full twenty minutes under pressure. The pasta still waits until the end.
More soups
- Sopa de pasta — the same idea with chicken.
- Sopa de fideos — with gizzards.
- Chicken vegetable soup — no pasta at all.
- Colombian white rice — served alongside.
Sopa de Coditos FAQ
No, and the recipe used to say to. Half a pound of elbow pasta needs eight to ten minutes in boiling water; twenty minutes under pressure dissolves it into the broth and leaves a thick cloudy soup with no pasta in it.
After the pressure has been released and the lid is off. Bring it back to a simmer, add the pasta and give it eight to ten minutes.
The pasta drank it. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid off the heat, so a pot left standing thickens and by the next day the coditos are soft and the liquid has gone.
Cook the pasta separately and add it to each bowl as you serve. Everything else reheats perfectly well.
A powdered achiote or annatto colouring sold in sachets, which turns the broth golden and adds almost no flavour. Turmeric or sweet paprika does the same.
Yes, and the recipe suggests it: chicken or beef turns this from a side soup into a meal. Add it at the start with the vegetables.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ pound elbow pasta (added at the end)
- 2 cups potatoes (diced small)
- 1 carrot (grated or diced small)
- 1 tomato (finely chopped)
- ½ onion or 2 stalks of spring onion (finely chopped)
- ½ bouillon cube (beef or chicken)
- Achiote or annatto colouring ('color' in Colombia, to taste)
- Salt (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Put the potatoes, the carrot, the tomato, the onion, the bouillon cube, the achiote colouring and salt to taste in the pressure cooker, with enough water.
- Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
- Release the pressure carefully, take the lid off and bring it back to a simmer. Add the elbow pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes more, until it is done.
- Serve hot.
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