What can I make with pasta?
Pasta is the weeknight default for good reason, and the gap between fine and excellent comes down to two things: salted water and finishing in the sauce. Recipes using pasta are below.
3 recipes with pasta
Restaurant-quality pasta at home
- 1Salt the water until it tastes like a seasoned soup; this is the only chance to season the pasta itself.
- 2Cook 1-2 minutes short of the box time and reserve a mug of the starchy water before draining.
- 3Finish the pasta in the sauce over heat, adding the reserved water a splash at a time until the sauce clings.
- 4Add cheese off the heat so it emulsifies instead of turning stringy.
What goes well with pasta
Pasta is at its best with garlic, olive oil, parmesan, tomato, basil and chili flakes. Any two or three of those, plus pasta, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.
Storing pasta
Dry pasta keeps for months in a sealed container away from light and heat. Once cooked, cool it quickly, refrigerate within two hours, and use within 3-4 days; cooked grains and legumes freeze extremely well in single-portion bags.
Substituting pasta
If you are out of pasta, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.
Pasta recipes: common questions
- What can I make with pasta and not much else?
- Plenty. With pasta plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.
- What is the quickest pasta recipe?
- Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.
- Can I substitute pasta?
- In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.
- How do I use up leftover pasta?
- Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover pasta without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.