Mccm, I'm not sure of the actual recipe you are using but I've tried a few where the pasta is cooked in the sauce and we have found they are not to our taste. I now cook the pasta on the stove top and then add to the sauce last, doing it this way you need to reduce the liquid in the sauce. I find cooking pasta in the TMX directly in the sauce you end up with all the starch from the pasta in the dish rather than in the cooking water. I love my TMX but don't use it for everything as we prefer traditional methods for some things. Once you have success with a few recipes I'm sure you will will in love like most of us on this forum.