Everyone loves a weeknight meal they can get on the table in 20 minutes. This one pan pasta recipe combines a few fresh ingredients, water, and a touch of olive oil with dried pasta, and it all cooks together in a saute pan. With its straight sides and flat bottom, it’s ideal for this dish.
Enjoy!
Weeknights are busy enough without having to spend hours planning, cooking, and cleaning up dinner. Try this one-pan pasta for a fresh meal that’ll fill you up while cutting down on dishes.
This method focuses on cooking pasta in a pan, then using the starchy water as the base for a sauce. You’ll need pasta, fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, olive oil, just enough water, salt, pepper, and parmesan (although honestly, everything past the pasta, onion, garlic, and tomatoes are really a matter of taste.) Throw everything except the cheese into a high-walled pan or dutch oven, and bring it to a boil. Turn the pasta every few minutes with tongs, gently mixing all the ingredients together until the pasta is done. Top with the cheese and chow down.
There are more efficient ways to cook pasta besides dropping it into a big pot of boiling, salted water. For example, next time pasta’s on the menu, try turning off the burner once you drop the pasta and letting it cook in the already-hot water.
The folks over at Cook’s Illustrated tried this method out with several different types of pasta including spaghetti, farfalle, shells, and ziti, and it worked like a charm. They explain why:
What Is Low-Temp Pasta?
Most instructions for cooking dried pasta are invariably the same: Drop the noodles into a pot of boiling water, bring it back to a boil, and keep it bubbling vigorously until the pasta is done. We already broke with this conventional wisdom by showing that you can cook pasta in a lot less water than is typically called for, as long as you don’t mind stirring it frequently.
Now we’ve learned that you don’t need to hold your pasta water at a rolling boil either. In fact, you don’t even need to keep the pot on the heat. The pasta will cook just fine if you take the pot off the burner as soon as you add the pasta, cover it immediately, stir once or twice during the first minute, cover again, and leave it to sit for the recommended cooking time. We tested this method with spaghetti, shells, farfalle, and ziti, using the full 4 quarts of water recommended per pound, and we found that the texture was identical to that of pasta we boiled the conventional way.
Here’s why the approach works: Starches absorb water at approximately 180 degrees. As long as the water is at a rolling boil (212 degrees) when you add the pasta and your kitchen is at normal room temperature, the water will remain well above 180 degrees off the heat for longer than the typical 8 to 10 minutes it takes for the pasta to cook through. In our tests, the water temperature had only cooled to about 195 degrees by the time the pasta was al dente. (In a cooler-than-normal kitchen, the pasta might take a minute or two longer to reach the proper texture, and the water temperature might drop a little more.)
Does this mean we’re going to stop boiling our pasta? Maybe not. But it’s nice to know we have the option.
FOOD & WINE’s Justin Chapple demonstrates how to truss a chicken without string.
Enjoy!
Trussing, or tying up the wings and legs of a chicken, is an important step in roasting a whole bird evenly; it ensures evenly-cooked, moist meat, and prevents anything stuffed inside from falling out. But even if you don’t have kitchen twine on hand, you can still truss a chicken using its own skin.
Food & Wine test kitchen editor Justin Chapple demonstrates the method in the video above. Basically, you’ll want to make an incision into the skin that surrounds the cavity of the chicken, tucking the opposite drumstick into the slit; you’ll then repeat the same technique on the opposite side.
Serves 2
Crispy edges, soft centers; extra-crispy French fries baked not fried so you can feel good about eating them!
Prep Time: 45 min Cook Time: 60 min
Seasoning Mix
2 Tablespoons sea salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
For the Fries
3 medium russet potatoes (russet are the best choice for perfect crispy fries)
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan (optional)
Instructions
Combine seasoning ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.
Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut off the ends. With a very sharp knife, cut the potatoes into thin slices about 1/4 inch wide.
Add the fries to a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak for at least 30 minutes but they can soak for as long as overnight. (Place in the fridge if soaking more than 1 hour.)
After the fries have soaked, drain, rinse, and lay the fries on a paper towel-lined cooling rack to dry while you preheat the oven to 400ºF. Blot the tops with additional paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper or foil and spray with nonstick spray. Make sure the previously used bowl is dry and add the potatoes to it. Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil and half of the seasoning mixture. Toss around to mix.
Evenly line the baking pan with the fries in a single layer. Don’t overlap or they fries won’t cook properly. Bake for about 30 minutes, flipping with a spatula once or twice after 15 minutes of cooking. Remove fries from the oven and turn the oven up to 425ºF. Return the fries to the oven until they are golden brown and the ends look a little burnt.
Sprinkle the fries with the remaining seasoning mix and Parmesan cheese (optional). Serve immediately.
