Learn Hardcore Russian: Варка риса занимает больше времени, чем варка макарон. - Cooking rice takes more time than cooking pasta.

Breakdown of Варка риса занимает больше времени, чем варка макарон.

Why are риса and макарон not in the dictionary form?

Because both of them depend on the noun варка and answer the question варка чего? = the boiling/cooking of what?

That means they go in the genitive case:

So:

This is very common in Russian with verbal nouns:

Why is it макарон, not макароны?

The basic form is макароны, but this noun is normally used only in the plural in Russian. It behaves like a plural-only noun.

Its forms include:

Since after варка we need the genitive, we get варка макарон.

So even though English often says pasta as a mass noun, Russian commonly uses plural макароны.