One-pot pasta

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This recipe is a there’s-leftovers-and-I-am-too-lazy-to-think kind of dish. I remember noticing we had a bunch of mushrooms and tomatoes left in the fridge, and I wanted to try out cooking it all in the same pot in a very simple (and lazy) way. That night I decided to use pasta because that’s what I felt like and had in my pantry, but you could use rice, quinoa, bulgur, couscous… anything really.

I will normally try to keep the kitchen, counter, sink as clean as possible while I cook.  This cleaning-up-after-myself part is what I feel most lazy about when I think of cooking, and I have a feeling this doesn’t apply just to me. The goal then was to minimise the number of utensils and become as efficient as possible with my energy. This recipe only calls for

  • a chopping board,
  • a knife,
  • a skillet/pan and a
  • wooden spoon to stir

It’s fairly simple and it will probably mean you’ll have delicious leftovers for the next day (we all know pasta+1 day is the best).

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You could use any vegetables, meat or other leftover ingredients that might be waiting in your fridge, ready to be used. Some ideas:

  • Vegetables: onions, asparagus, tomatoes (fresh, sundried), mushrooms, artichokes, peppers, broccoli, spinach, courgette, carrots, aubergine…
  • Meat: beef, chicken, pork, bacon, egg
  • Cheese: parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella…

I hope you enjoy!

Silvia


RECIPE

Total time: 30mins

Notes: this recipe yields approx 4-5 individual portions. Quantities are approximate, as I used leftovers.

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Leftover veggies: mushrooms, cherry tomatoes
  • 350g buckwheat spaghetti
  • Vegetable stock or water
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Fresh basil
  • Parmesan

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 200º, set to ventilator and upper grill mode.
  2. Place an iron skillet (or any other oven-prove pan) on the stove at medium heat. Add some olive oil and let it warm up.
  3. Cut onion in half, then chop thin slices, sideways. Add to pan, stir and cook until golden. Add garlic and let it toast mildly.
  4. Add chopped mushrooms, cook until the juices released have evaporated.
  5. Add pasta and tomatoes (sliced in half), pour stock or water until all ingredients are submerged. Cover with tinfoil and place in oven (*). Cook until all liquid has evaporated.
  6. Top with chopped basil and shaved parmesan.

(*) Note: If you don’t have an oven-prove pan, don’t worry, you can still cook it on the stove, but instead of tinfoil, cover with a pan lid or another pan of a similar diametre. Not ideal, but it works.

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