---
title: Whole Grain Pasta, Alcohol in Glorious One-Pot Meals
date: 2017-03-14T00:15:08Z
modified: 2017-03-14T00:15:08Z
permalink: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/whole-grain-pasta-alcohol/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 4701
categories:
  - Glorious One-Pot Meals
tags:
  - alcohol in GOPM
  - Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes
  - GOPM
  - whole grain pasta in GOPM
featured_image: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GOPM-pt104-sm.jpg"
author: Elizabeth
---

_Reader question: Hi Elizabeth, I love your book! I am a teacher and I come home each day to make meals for the family and this has made my life easier, healthier, and very tasty! Thank you! I was wondering two questions: 1) When I put wine in a dish does the alcohol evaporate like it would on the stove? I ask that because I’m cooking for little kids. Also, if you are using a whole grain pasta (fusilli) would that affect the amount of water to add? ~ David S., Brooklyn, NY![](http://elizabethyarnell.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GOPM-pt104-sm-300x300.jpg)

_

Hi David! I’m so glad that Glorious One-Pot Meals has had such a wonderful impact on your life! I think it’s a great cookbook for teachers, too, and in fact, I have personally given copies to each of my kids’ teachers every year since 2005. 🙂

As for your questions, here’s what I can tell you:

1. While alcohol won’t evaporate during the cooking process because the food is cooking in a closed vessel, but once you remove the lid a lot of vapor is released and I believe that this is when the alcohol steams off. In my experience, no matter how much alcohol I put into my GOPM while preparing it, it never tastes alcoholic at all when I eat it. This makes me feel comfortable including alcohol at times in GOPM that I make for my family.
2. Regarding using whole grain fusilli pasta, this can be a little tricky. Each brand of whole grain pasta seems to cook a little differently in GOPMs, which is why I did not include whole grain pasta in the cookbook to begin with. In general, I would suspect for whole grain items to need 1 Tablespoon of additional water or liquid per quart of Dutch oven (i.e., 2 Tbsp. in a 2-quart Dutch oven), but you may need to do a little experimenting with your preferred brand of pasta to get it perfect. I think fusilli is a good choice of pasta shape to try this, too!

I hope this is helpful. Thanks for writing! ~Elizabeth