One Pot Meals – Pasta

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 protein I went with shrimp, but I could have chosen sausage, chicken or some other meat. The pasta I had on hand was rigatoni. 

This recipe serves 2. I have such a tendency to over prepare food that I always measure pasta by dry weight and the recommendation on the package. Rigatoni says that a serving is 56 grams. I measured 112 grams of pasta which was just over 1 ½ cups of pasta. In the case of penne, which is heavier 112 grams is only 2/3 cup. So measure by dry weight!!

I also keep peeled and deveined shrimp. I always thaw them then pat them dry. They soak up lots of liquid, so squeeze them out a little. 

Here is the recipe: 

One Pan Rigatoni, Shrimp and Zucchini with Pesto Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp olive oil for cooking

2 med zucchini squashes

4-6 med mushrooms

½ med yellow onion

1 tbsp chopped garlic

¼ cup pesto

1 tbsp capers

10 oz frozen shrimp (weighed frozen)

112 oz dried pasta 

Near boiling water

White Wine if needed

My first step is to pull out all my ingredients so I can see what I’m looking at. Measure the pasta by weight in a 2 cup measuring cup and cover it with near boiling water. Give it a stir with a spoon then just let it sit. 

Place a skillet on medium flame and add the olive oil. 

While that is heating chop the onion. Add that and the garlic to the skillet and stir. 

While the onion and garlic heat up slice the mushrooms and add them to the skillet. If the pan seems too dry add a ¼ cup of white wine.

Dice the zucchini and as soon as the mushrooms begin to release their juice add the zucchini. 

Once the zucchini is tender – about 8 minutes of cooking – add the pasta. Use a slotted spoon and spoon it out of the water, reserving the water.  After you stir the pasta in add about half the pasta water. There should be some liquid visible in the bottom of the pan but it shouldn’t be enough to submerge any of the vegetables.  Cover with a tight lid. 

Allow the pasta to steam about 8 – 10 minutes. I set a time for this and go do something else. 

When the timer goes off give the mixture a stir and a taste. This is the time to add salt if needed. After adjusting the salt add the shrimp, pesto and capers. Add more pasta water if you can’t see liquid. Set another 5 minutes on the timer but don’t walk away. I use the next 2-3 minutes to clean everything up and get the plates ready. I found some parmesan cheese in the fridge and chopped something red as a garnish. To be fancy for the pictures I got a few basil leaves from the garden. 

After 2-3 minutes give the pot a stir then recover. 

When the timer goes off do two tests to be sure it’s ready to eat. Stir the mixture, looking at the shrimp. Have they gone pink and white? No clear-ish places? Then they are cooked. Now taste a piece of pasta. Is it cooked the way you like it? If it’s still too chewy or the shrimp looks underdone, lid-up and cook for another 3 minutes. 

Once the shrimp and pasta are done to your liking, plate up, garnish if you want and serve. 

And here are all my dishes to clean! So Easy! Have fun with it!!