Pantry Pasta
If you’ve been social distancing, living in isolation, quarantining from Covid exposure, or if you are just looking to try a few new and easy meals and need to clean out the fridge, pantry pasta is a go to solution for all three problems.
What is pantry pasta?
It is a way of making a one pot meal (okay, two pots if you count the boiling water) by not only putting an interesting twist on a boring box of dry pasta and jar of sauce, but also using pantry staples you always have on hand while using up any odds and ends from leftovers that might be hanging around. Although fried rice is my personal favorite catch all, one pot, use what you have, (future blog worthy,) ever changing recipe for a meal - pantry pasta is an accessible, equally fun, and arguably easier dish to feed many in minimal time.
Just last week I found myself with a few chicken and apple sausages, half a red onion, some spinach and a box of penne pasta. Add a little olive oil, butter, and cheese and in minutes we had a delicious, plausibly healthy meal.
There are a million variations of pantry pasta, it’s all dependent on what you have available, usually 4-7 ingredients per dish, but here are a few quick recipes I’ve concocted recently to give you a little inspiration.
Cheese Tortellini with Italian Sausage and Asparagus
Only 6 ingredients in this one: the cheese tortellini were store bought, you know, that Italian guy that looks like Junior Soprano on the package in the deli section. I had a few loose sausages, a half serving of unused asparagus and just made a sauce from some tomato paste, a can of tomatoes, onion, garlic and salt and pepper right into the fat that cooked off the sausages.
Variation:
If you have a jar of sauce in the pantry, you just saved yourself a step. But never be afraid to kick up a jar of sauce by adding to it. Garlic, red pepper, onion are obvious, but a little brown sugar and a dash of cayenne pepper can really change the game. This variation has spinach instead of asparagus with a simple jarred marinara and sausage. Frozen peas, green beans, even the mixed veggies with the addition of corn and carrots are all great alternatives to fresh greens.
Penne alla Vodka with Spinach and Parmesan
Vodka sauce is unbelievably easy to make:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vodka
1 diced onion
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 pint heavy cream
In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion in butter until slightly brown and soft. Pour in vodka and let cook for 10 minutes. Mix in crushed tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and cook for another 30 minutes.
Make it your own, add garlic, red pepper, whatever you want with the can tomatoes. Once you boil your pasta add a few spoons of sauce to your skillet, add the pasta, throw in some spinach and toss. Turn off the heat, cover for 5 min so spinach can steam, and shave your favorite hard cheese over the top- you got penne ala vodka at the perfect temperature to dig right in!
Mac and Cheese with Broccoli and Sausage
Don’t like tomatoes? No problem. Cheese sauce is simply butter, cream, and melted cheese. I boiled off this macaroni, and added it in with some blanched broccoli and a chopped up, already grilled, leftover sausage. Give it a mix and you have a slightly less guilty version of mac and cheese. I almost always add something green to my pasta so I can feel good about a carb heavy dish. Zoodles are a diet fad that are not actually good. Stop fooling yourself. You can’t spirilize a zucchini and say it’s “just like pasta” - that’s a bold face lie and you know it and you should be ashamed of yourself. Your mother raised you better than that. But replace half your portion of pasta with some hearty veg and we can come to an agreement.
(This said I understand some people may have dietary restrictions, and there are a number of grain free alternatives to pasta available.)
Gourmet but Not
As much as I love experimenting in the kitchen, there are days when I just don’t have it in me. Maybe you are tired from homeschooling the kids all day, maybe you just don’t have the inspiration to take a shower never mind make an 8 hour Sunday gravy, maybe you’re reading this it’s 4/20/2020 and you’re you’ve got the munchies but concentration and technical skill are not a strong suite at the moment … the point being, it’s okay to cheat. I cheat in the kitchen all the time, but even if you are cheating, presentation is key - you eat with your eyes first… so if you want to impress your partners or roommates or parents or kids - just church it up a bit. Frozen meatballs, a box of dry spiral pasta, a jar of marinara sauce and a little broccoli and spinach. Hit it with the parmesan, even if it’s that Kraft sawdust in the green can (gross, but hey if that’s your vibe), a little oregano and crushed red pepper and you can easily look at least as good as Olive Garden!
Don’t think that just because this is Pantry Pasta that you have to do something with Italian flavors! That’s the beauty of noodles, they appear in all sorts of cuisine and very easily translate into other cultures as an affordable and filling meal that’s used as a vehicle for great flavor sauces and additional toppings. For example, this spicy garlic shrimp spaghetti recipe I nicked off one of my favorite Aussie chef’s, Marion’s Kitchen on Youtube. This is a spicy umami Asian flavor bomb of a pasta that is super quick and easy to follow:
This recipe does call for a handful of specialized ingredients you may have laying around. I used thawed frozen shrimp, and had some soy eggs I had made in advance that I added. The box of dried spaghetti is an easy to find substitute for ramen, or udon, glass noodles, or a variety of other variations; this is a super versatile recipe.
Speaking of Ramen…
If you are surviving on .39¢ instant ramen packs there are tricks of the pantry pasta trade to move beyond the msg flavor pack into something a little more refined. Make a sauce for some dan dan noodles.
Get a pan going on medium heat and mess around with some flavors! Use soy sauce and water as a base and add your favorite combo before heading back to Marvel vs Capcom: chilis, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese five spice, tomato paste, sesame oil, chili oil, toasted peanuts, spring onion, seafood, chicken, or beef stock, the options are literally only limited to your imagination. You can always use a cornstarch slurry to thicken any sauce.
Still Not Gourmet, but…
Making your own broth that is better than the flavor pack is easy, this ramen looks (and tasted) really, really great - but the simple additions of a piece of left over pork loin I sliced thin and hit with the torch and a few bits from a bag of frozen veg, the real star of this super cheap meal, the soup, can most likely be enhanced by what you have just laying around. This broth is a miso base (I always have miso on hand) a teaspoon of chili flakes that were packed in sesame oil, and a dash of soy sauce. I still added 1/3 of the msg flavor packet, because sodium is delicious too. But use a can of soup stock, add a little bonito flake, use some deep fried garlic as a topping - crank it to 11!
Bonus:
If you want a super easy way to kick up the flavor and texture of any noodle dish, be it Italian or Asian, do a little work in advance and reap the benefits later! Dice up some of your favorite aromatics; garlic, seranno chili, onion, ginger and fry them up on medium heat. After your mix is golden brown and crispy simply drain off the oil (store for future use) and add a little sea salt to your mixture and you’ll have a flavor packed crunchy toping great for texture and flavor contrast in noodle dished, salads, or to sprinkle on steak, chicken or fish. Not to mention the bonus of an infused oil for future noodle recipes, or to cook eggs, meat, fish and stir fry vegetables! Remember that deep fried garlic I mentioned in the ramen paragraph you literally just read - ahem. This is a wildly versatile two-for-one 20 minute project! Get on it!
I hope I’ve inspired you to throw something new into your pasta to change things up a little. Impress whomever you are sharing your domicile with during this time of social distancing, or just treat yourself. I’m as bummed as anyone that Super Club 2020 has been suspended indefinitely, but one big bonus of all of us being home with extra time on our hands and connection through social media is that there has been a fantastic amount of new content coming on line. People are sharing recipes, and cooking tutorials, and streaming live music, and DJ sets (including the Super Club music curation by DJDivix, with weekly live streams hosted on Facebook and replays on Mixcloud). We are adapting, and we are sharing, and we are learning, and we are teaching, and I can’t encourage you enough to be adventurous in your kitchen. If there ever was a time to try new things in cooking, it’s now. If you want to try something more challenging, be sure to revisit the Reebz Kitchen Lamb Ragu recipe.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t give credit to the inspiration of this blog, from the Bon Appétit test kitchen team. If you made it this far, check out the video of some of my favorite online cooking personalities for more ideas and tips. (Always reserve some pasta water!) Caio!