Pasta

“Lemon Pepper Pasta with Browned Butter” from “Something from Nothing”

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This is a perfect example of what this book is all about.

Alison Roman writes in the introduction that the book’s genesis originates from the age-old quandary of trying to figure out dinner from what’s already available in the cupboard, or, (the clue is in the name) Something From Nothing.

At our house, we call that Found Ingredients Dinner, but it’s the same idea. For this dinner, we already had everything to hand. This in itself is reason to celebrate because we almost always go to the shops since they’re so close, but when we don’t have to do that, it feels like victory.

This is very simple and very delicious. Although it takes slightly more time and attention than your standard pasta recipe, it’s worth it. We loved it and definitely will be trying it again.

Found Ingredients Dinner for the win!

If you’d like to make this yourself, click through this sentence to read it on Alison Roman’s website.

“Lemon Pepper Pasta with Browned Butter” from “Something from Nothing”

“Spicy Tuna Pantry Pasta Recipe” from “Good Things”

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Time for some real truth: As much as I love to cook, sometimes I really dread choosing what we’re going to eat. Who’s with me here?

Picture this: it’s a rainy day, we’ve both been working hard all day, and 6.30 p.m. rolls around. Time to think about dinner. Ugh. On a sub-optimal day, we’ll each suggest things we’re in the mood to eat, and the other person will reject it. We can spend a very frustrating amount of time trying to land on something we both want to eat.

In some ways, being empty nesters makes this worse because we’re not constrained by either timings (don’t need to have dinner ready at 7:30 p.m. on the dot) or the food preferences of the younger half of our family (let’s be honest–what they liked usually was the driver for what I made back when they lived at home.)

Samin has a whole section on pantry meals– the sort of meals you can throw together by checking what you’ve got on hand. This is one of those recipes. Unfortunately, we still had to have one of those tortured discussions to land on this particular dish, but we got there in the end.

I had nearly everything to hand, though I had to supplement the nice Spanish tuna in olive oil I had with the bog-standard stuff I could find at the local supermarket. (Had I thought of this earlier in the day, I could have gotten more of the Ortiz tuna from our amazing local fishmonger.) Once they were mixed together, and cooked down with the tomatoes and chilli paste, I’m not sure anyone would have noticed. I didn’t.

When it came time to eat it, opinions were divided. I thought it was nice and would eat it again. Tim declared it was a “fine, it fed me” recipe, which as regular readers of this blog know, is hardly high praise.

It remains to be seen if the next time we have one of those tortured dinner discussions if this gets chosen again. I’m not sure that I like its chances.

Please note: The use of em-dashes does not the reflect the work of Chat GPT, instead, it shows you how much I love and appreciate this type of punctuation. It kills me that many people now think if they see an em-dash, that means it was written by AI.

If you like to make this yourself, you can find it via this link.

“Spicy Tuna Pantry Pasta Recipe” from “Good Things”

“Baked Spanakopita Pasta with Greens and Feta” from “Easy Weeknight Dinners”

Maureen Stapleton, , 1 Comment

We just returned from Greece, where we marvelled at the all the history (by the time we left, we weren’t impressed by anything from the Romans) and ate our weight in cheese (among other activities).

One of the things we ate multiple times was spanakopita. In fact, when our Athens waiter told us that “Spinach Pie” was the special the day, and we asked, “Don’t you mean spanakopita?”, he was impressed. (When he told me his grandmother made her own filo pastry, I was impressed.)

So needless to say, we were inclined to like this dish, and we did. It required a few more pots than is usual from this cookbook, but we weren’t mad at it, given that it still had the all-star combination of spinach and feta, but combined with pasta rather than baked in filo pastry.

By the way, do you see the size of the pan above? And no, we have no new lodgers or house guests– it’s still just the two of us at home. We might be eating this for the next week, but I think that will make us happy all the same.

“Baked Spanakopita Pasta with Greens and Feta” from “Easy Weeknight Dinners”

“Family Sunday Supper: Tubular Pasta” from “Keeping it Simple”

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Full Disclosure: Although the name of the recipe indicates we should have eaten it on a Sunday, we did not.

But one of the nice things about this book is how she always has an answer as to what you should do with cooking downtime, and it usually involves relaxing and having a glass of wine. The vibe, as they say, is very chill, and I, for one, am here for it.

Take this recipe as an example. It’s pretty straightforward and (spoiler alert) delicious. In the introduction, she opines this dish would be good for a Sunday family supper, “where you can invite friends for an early dinner, sip on some wine and chat about life, forgetting the end-of-the-weekend anxiety and just enjoying each other’s company.”

Sounds blissful. I wish I could do this myself, but I can’t. Also, this dish is good, but I know I wouldn’t consider it impressive enough for friends who come over for dinner. Thus, we had it ourselves on a weeknight. This is basically a pasta bake with added sausages and spinach. Dropping ricotta over the top was as nice touch.

Maybe I need to chill a bit more– like Yasmin does. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy this dinner on whatever night I happen to make it.

“Family Sunday Supper: Tubular Pasta” from “Keeping it Simple”

“Pasta alla Gricia” from “Keeping It Simple”

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More Cavolo Nero! Gotta love March.

This time, it was already in the refrigerator after I made the impulse purchase a few days before. Actually, in a rare moment of the stars being aligned correctly, we had all of the ingredients on hand, so making this didn’t require another trip to the store. This is always a fortuitous occasion.

This was good. It was not unlike something we’ve had many times before, but still, it was a good dinner. If I don’t make this exact same version again, I’ll probably make a variation thereof, so that’s worth noting. We ate well, and having some Cavolo Nero is always #Winning.

If you’d like to make this yourself, the recipe was posted on The Kitchen, which you can see by clicking through here.

“Pasta alla Gricia” from “Keeping It Simple”

“Vodka Gochujang Pasta” from “Dinner”

Maureen Stapleton, , 1 Comment

Yet another vodka pasta dish, but this one has a twist – the addition of gochujang paste. All I can say is: what a genius idea.

Tim was skeptical that we had gochujang paste, but we did. It sat in the back corner of our refrigerator, but I can understand completely why he didn’t know what it was– the label is written entirely in Korean. Thanks, local Korean shop. The red pepper paste added a nice kick to the proceedings, and I also delighted in adding it to such a traditional Italian dish.

I do love a vodka pasta dish, as evidenced by trying out this one from “Brutto” (where I reminisced about my New Jersey upbringing and the Sopranos), but also this one from Weeknight/Weekend (where I reminisced about my friend who wooed all his girlfriends with the one meal he could make, which was vodka pasta).

This was just as good as all of my other beloved vodka pasta dishes, but maybe it’s only because I love it so much. What’s not to love? Pasta, tomatoes, vodka, cream, cheese–and this time, gochujang. It’s always a winner, particularly in the dark days of January.

“Vodka Gochujang Pasta” from “Dinner”

“Tuna Puttanesca” from “Ramsay in 10”

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I almost did it! Though when I say “almost” what I mean is I got it done in 20 minutes. I actually thought when I was at the 7-minute mark that I would actually make the deadline, but I didn’t (and no, I can’t account for where the last 10 minutes went).

As I’ve said before, Gordon cheats somewhat by having you do all the prep beforehand, and none of that work is included in his 10 minutes. However, it has pressed the point that being organised before you even start cooking does save time, so I’m trying to do more of that in my non-Gordon life. Gordon also saves quite a bit of time by using fresh pasta, which means that it’s cooked in 3 minutes rather than 10. But if time is not of the essence for you, you could also make this with regular pasta.

How was it? It was tuna puttanesca– much like many others we’ve had. I’d file this under the, “It was fine. It fed us.” category. It wasn’t the most inspiring dinner we’ve ever had, but I did get it cooked quickly (though not in 10 minutes) and that’s got to count for something.

“Tuna Puttanesca” from “Ramsay in 10”

“Pasta con Panna e Piselli” from “A Table Full of Love”

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When the kids were small, I would make a variation of this dish at least once a week. Kirstin did too. We made it so regularly because they liked it, it was easy, it was quick and did I say, they liked it?

Its regular appearance on our dinner table ensured that we always had the following ingredients on hand: Pasta, frozen peas and parmesan. The cream– the panna in the title– varied based on what was available. Sometimes it was double cream. Sometimes it was creme fraiche. The same goes for the bacon or the pancetta– when I had some on hand, it went in. If I didn’t have any, we went without and it was fine.

This recipe, however, as a step up from our usual fare of years ago. The biggest difference was rather than throwing the frozen peas into the pasta water for the last three minutes so they would cook, in this version, you add a ladle of pasta water to the fried onion and frozen peas, and then add half a stock cube. As a result, the peas have a much better and more complex flavour than the bog-standard boiled ones.

The crucial question is, though, would I make this again? This is not so simple to answer. This was the perfect dinner in the times when our weeks were so structured– swimming on Monday, Boy Scouts on Tuesday, dance on Thursday, film club on Friday (See? This is so firmly imbedded in my brain that I still remember, 15 years later)– that there was much to be said for being able to get a delicious and simple meal on the table in under 15 minutes. But now, with an empty nest and the luxury of time to make something more interesting? I probably wouldn’t.

To be sure, this is delicious and the recipe is great. I have many fond memories of dishing it out through the years. But I don’t think I would choose to make it for myself now, given how often I’ve made it and the other options available to me.

Still, it brought back some fond memories of years ago.

“Pasta con Panna e Piselli” from “A Table Full of Love”

“Spaghetti with Corn, Tomatoes & ‘Onion-Bacon'” from “The Weekday Vegetarians”

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I’m not going to make you wait for my verdict on this one: It was fine. It fed us.

Regular readers will know this is the phrase we’ve settled on when we’ve eaten something that is perfectly fine, but hasn’t set our world on fire. This is one of those dishes.

Tim was flummoxed by the presence of corn with the pasta. I understood his confusion. It seemed all kinds of wrong to have corn in there. It didn’t taste bad, it just looked strange.

In the introduction, she says she makes this dish at the height of summer when corn and tomatoes are in season. I know it’s not summer (though I really wish it were, as I sit here with a sweater on and a blanket across my lap. Is it really April??). But we had a load of cherry tomatoes on hand, and frozen corn in the freezer, so I figured it was worth a go.

She also said in the introduction that the caramelised onions are there to replace the bacon she usually puts in there. Would it have been better with bacon in it? Probably. Doesn’t bacon make everything better? (Though I understand that vegetarians would disagree with me.)

Full disclosure: This dish also should have basil scattered across the top. I thought we had some on. hand, but when it came time to do the scattering, I found that we did not. So we went without and lived to tell the tale.

Was it disappointing? No. But would I make it in the future? Again, no. It was fine. It fed us.

“Spaghetti with Corn, Tomatoes & ‘Onion-Bacon'” from “The Weekday Vegetarians”

“Orzo al Limone” from “Cook This Book”

Maureen Stapleton, , 3 Comments

In the introduction, Molly says this is just the recipe for you if you’re a fan of macaroni and cheese, risotto or buttered pasta. As we are fans of all three here, I thought I would give this a go.

Molly writes in the introduction that shes “been on a mission to bring back orzo for the last couple of years, and it seems to be an uphill battle.” To which I say, “Really? Orzo isn’t fashionable anymore? When did that happen?” For the record, we love orzo in this house and eat it all the time. Then again, I’ve never been one to be super concerned about what is and isn’t in fashion, so we will continue to eat orzo with abandon.

The biggest stumbling block to this recipe was when I first read the ingredients list. For context, this house with four adults usually uses about 500 grams of pasta for dinner. Perhaps 125 grams of pasta per adult is a lot, but we seem to usually eat most of it, and what gets left over we eat for lunch the next day. However, in this recipe, Molly says it serves four, but it uses only 210 grams of pasta. Let me repeat that for people at the back: ONLY 210 GRAMS OF PASTA FOR FOUR PEOPLE.

Spoiler alert: I doubled the recipe. I knew that 52.5 grams of pasta per person wasn’t going to be enough. I’m all for mindful eating, etc, but I also don’t see the point of people still being hungry at the end of dinner, so I doubled it.

Was it good? Yes it was. Am I still a bit miffed that she thinks 52.5 grams of pasta per person would be a filling dinner? Yes I am. Will I make it again? Time will tell.

“Orzo al Limone” from “Cook This Book”