Seeking a way to prepare a baked Chili Cheese Mac entirely in a 5-liter Corning Ware Pyroceram Dutch oven, I scoured the web and found many sites that challenged and debunked the time-honored "a gallon of water to a pound of pasta" tradition.  A few claimed a mere 1 1/2 quarts does the job but I prefer more room to stir and find 3 quarts works just fine and produces a slightly richer pasta water (an all-too-often wasted recipe enhancer).

As regular users of vitroceramic stovetop cookware know, water superheats to well past 212F/100C by the time it's at a full boil.  Pour a gallon of water into a 5-liter Dutch oven and you have barely enough clearance for a pound of pasta.  When the elbows meet the H2O, the reaction is like piranhas on a fallen capybara.   Start with 3 quarts of water and there's no danger of the teeming school overflowing the pot.   That said, let's travel back in time to Corning Ware's glory days when, as James Lileks puts it in his book "A Gallery of Regrettable Foods", dinner in most mid-20th Century cookbooks published by the packaged food industry was either "A meaty cheese dish your family will love!" or "A cheesy meat dish your family will love!", calories and carb counts be damned.

Your humble AWer presents:

ONE- POT BAKED CHILI CHEESE MAC

1 lb. elbow macaroni

2 15 oz. cans chili with or without beans

1 lb. shredded cheddar cheese, mild or sharp as desired

Combine chili and 12 ounces of the cheese in a large mixing bowl, set aside.

Cook elbow macaroni 2 minutes shy of al dente in 3 quarts of water in a 5-liter vitroceramic Dutch oven.  Before draining, ladle 1 cup of the macaroni cooking water into the mixing bowl.  While the macaroni drains, stir ingredients in mixing bowl until well blended (the cheese does not need to melt completely).  Add drained macaroni to mixing bowl, stir until thoroughly blended.

Allow Dutch oven to cool for a couple minutes then spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Dump chili cheese macaroni mixture back into the prepared Dutch oven.   Evenly sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.

At this point the Dutch oven can be covered and refrigerated as long as overnight.

Place uncovered Dutch oven in a cold oven, set the thermostat for 350 degrees and bake 45 minutes (override your oven's fast preheat feature if so equipped).

Let stand 10 minutes before digging in.

Fire-eaters are invited to liberally douse their portions with hot sauce.

Thanks for the Dutch oven tip.   Even though I've used Corningware on the stove top and witnessed its superheating properties, it never occurred to me to use the Dutch oven to speed up the boiling process. 

Next time I cook pasta, I'll reach for the Corningware.  For the two of us I usually cook 8 oz. of pasta, so the Dutch oven will handle that just fine, and it's good to know I can use it for a full pound if needed.

I have never been able to get it hotter than about 212F, How much hotter are you talking about?

I use a lot less water than they generally suggest for several reasons

It is safer to use a smaller pan

It saves time and energy

Less nutrients are flushed away from the pasta

I do add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil [ keeps the pasta from being sticky ] and do use enough water and large enough pot so the cooking pasta is moving easily in the water as it boils however.

Hi Paulo, thanks for the link about super-heating water, I have had this happen in the MWO, and was familiar with this phenomenon, but as you mentioned I dough this can happen on a stove top.

discussion of all of this on Slate a while back. A food reviewer had the opportunity to eat the same dish twice in one day - early in the afternoon and later in the evening. She noticed that the simple pasta dish that evening was markedly better tasting than earlier in the day - it had been heavenly the first time around and beyond words good later.

So, she asked - and they explained: They just keep the same water for the pasta, topping up. It improves the taste a lot.

Sure works with the cacio e pepe I like to make as a side dish to go with a more elaborate pasta meal.

This method has never failed with dry pasta whether it's spaghetti, fusilli, elbow macaroni, white or whole wheat. Dump a pound of dry pasta into 3 quarts of water at a full boil (boiling all over, not just at the center or edges). Without waiting for the water to "return to a boil", stir nonstop (about one turn per second) for 3 minutes. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for the full labeled cooking time.  Don't deduct the 3-minute stir. Test after the shorter time but usually the longer time is perfectly al dente. Deduct 2 minutes from the shorter time for a baked pasta dish. If you don't like the result, you've only gambled the price of a pound of pasta and the energy and water to cook it.

Jon,  terrific.  Since I had my GI surgery fall 2001, I've been on high-fiber diet and WW pasta is a staple, as is bread, brown rice, ...  I disdain white flour and grain based items now.  It's almost like an addictive drug encouraging one to eat more than you want/need.

Amen, Jon, I don't know why they even make non-whole wheat pasta and floor etc, it is all I have bought for years, I would much rather get used to eating healthy now than have to do it later after things really start going wrong when it will do little good anyway, LOL.