Pasta Water – Pasta Magic

-


I read an article about all the uses for pasta water. Some were pretty good ideas and if convenient I might give them a try. But some were silliness!

Pasta water is that cloudy starch laden liquid left after cooking pasta. I used to drain my pasta in a colander and the water went down the drain. But, now I tend to remove the pasta with tongs or a spider leaving a pot of starchy water. 

Pasta water would be a great for soaking dried beans. It’s already hot and probably in a nice big pot. I’m always in favor of things that reduce the number of dishes to to be washed. 

On the other hand, I’m not likely to try a Pasta Water Martini!

There are lots of suggestions to use the pasta water to substitute for the water in breads or soups. I can see that, if I was making an appropriate recipe soon. I can’t see canning or freezing pasta water for future use. 

I’m highly unlikely to buy a Pasta Water candle  ($70 from D.S. & Durga), but I might use my leftover water to water my plants.  

I doubt I will be using it to rinse my hair, but I might use it to cook rice if that is something in my immediate plans. 

But the very best use for pasta water is to enrich the sauce! Here is how…

Pasta in a Cheese and Mushroom Sauce

Yield: 2-3 servings

Time: 45 minutes 

8          oz         spaghetti

1          tbsp     olive oil

6          clvs      fresh garlic, minced

½          med     onion, diced

4          oz         fresh mushrooms (your favorite), washed and sliced

½          tsp       salt (maybe more at the end)

1          tsp       freshly ground pepper

½          cup       Parmesan cheese

2          tbsp     pesto (store bought is fine)

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the pasta. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and check the package for the cooking time. Cook 1 minute less than the lower number. Pasta should be al dente, meaning it should stick to the teeth a little when you chew.   

While the water is heating put the oil in a large skillet on medium heat and begin to cook the onions  and garlic. They should sizzle quietly. Once the onions soften, add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms darken

 and get soft. Add the salt as they start getting soft. 

When the pasta is done and the mushrooms are soft, add the pasta to the skillet using tongs. Leave the pasta water boiling for 3-4 more minutes.

Toss the pasta and mushroom mixture using the tongs. Add a ladle of the pasta water and the cheese. If the pasta blend is too tight, add more pasta water a ladle at a time. The cheese should dissolve into the water making a creamy sauce.

Add the pepper and pesto last and toss to coat everything. Taste and add salt if needed. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with crusty bread and a salad. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Pot Meals – Pasta

-
Image
The thing about One Pot Meals is that frequently they aren’t. They have you cook the sauce in a pot then boil the pasta in a pot. Or they cook the meat in a skillet then add it to the sauce in a pan.  My goal was to make truly one pot meals. There will always be a few other tools like a knife and cutting board, bowl for marinade or cut up veggies, a measuring cup if one is needed, etc.  I also want to be able to walk into the kitchen and put a meal together in about 30 minutes. So here is how it starts. I looked into my veggie drawer and found zucchini, half an onion, some chopped garlic and a package of mushrooms. I also had some frozen pesto from last fall and a jar of capers. All those things pretty much defined the sauce.  But say my veggie drawer didn’t have zucchini and mushrooms. I could do pretty much the same things with a bag of frozen peas and carrots. (If your kitchen doesn’t have onions and garlic – it’s past time you made a grocery store run!!) For the prote...
Read more

The Sheet-pan Trend

-
Image
I didn’t intend to be trendy. I really just wanted to do fewer dishes. It seemed reasonable to cook an entire meal on one sheet pan. Who knew that sheet pan meals were going to become the new trend? If you look around on the Internet, you’ll see all kinds of sheet pan meal recipes. People are putting all their vegetables and potatoes and meats on one pan and cooking them together. Then, one pan to wash!! In fact, if you walk down the freezer aisle at the grocery store you can find a line from Birds Eye. They come in a bag and are called Sheet Pan or Oven Bake meals.  But the concept is pretty simple, and is easily tailored to what’s in your fridge for supper. I have done this with many kinds of meats and veggies. The trick is to think about how long you would usually roast each component then do a little math. The longest cooked item goes in first. When the remaining time is how long you want to cook the next thing, add that. Continue in this way until everything is in. I season ea...
Read more

Pumpkin Brownies

-
Image
Some of you may remember the pumpkin project last fall. I ended up with a freezer full of pumpkin purée. Recently I finally got to use most of what I had left by making pumpkin brownies for a bake sale. They were really good and very easy to do. I have written about my opinion regarding box cake mixes . I really think they are one of the great Food Science masterpieces of our times. So in this case I started with a simple box brownie mix. The one I used was the plain one from ALDIs. It called for water, oil and eggs to be added.  Home puréed pumpkin is wetter than canned pumpkin, so I substituted one cup of my frozen pumpkin for both the oil and water. It was brownie mix, 1 cup frozen pumpkin puree, and two eggs.  I did a trial recipe to see if it was going to work using a 9x13 pan. They were too thin and the texture was a little stoggy. So I used a 9x9 pan and added a tsp of baking powder to the powdered mix.  I baked them according to the package times and to an intern...
Read more