Pasta on a Hot Night - Two Ways
I am hot. Boiling hot.
My teeth are hot, my feet are hot, my bones are hot, my hair is hot.... HOT. My house is a hotbox and it probably has something to do with the fact that I don't have a/c. I don't believe in it. I understand that it exists and I appreciate it at work, but it's summer. You are supposed to be sh*t hot and bitch about it.
So, being as hot as I am, I figured - can't get hotter, why not boil up some water and make pasta.
Firstly, to satisfy my immediate hunger, I made gnocchi. The marvelous thing about having a bag of frozen gnocchi lying about is that it makes a very fast pasta dinner for the nights when you have to have pasta. Even when it is sh*t hot out.
The most basic way is to heat up some olive oil in a pan large enough to hold the amount of gnocchi you want to cook so that they are not on top of each other.
Get the oil nice and hot over a medium flame, and then dump in the gnocchi. Resist the urge to shake or stir the gnocchi for the first few minutes. You want to give it a chance to get a nice golden crust.
At this stage I like to add a cup or so of frozen peas, some garlic, and a shake of red pepper flakes. Alternatively you could add in a box of cherry tomatoes, some chopped basil, or some other handful of whatever frozen veg you have lurking in the freezer.
Let it cook for a bit, it usually takes about 7 to 10 minutes and serve. You can sprinkle it with some nice sea salt, or a bit of crumbled feta, or grate all over with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
The second kind of pasta I made is for lunch tomorrow.
In a heavy cast iron pan I sauteed a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil, added two or three sliced green onions, and then threw in a box of cherry tomatoes. I let that cook for a bit then turned the heat down and covered it with a lid. Cook this until the tomatoes sort of burst and the garlic is caramelized a little. If you have any leftover veg sitting about in the fridge, this is a good time to use it up, especially broccoli.
Then I boiled up a handful of whole grain angel hair pasta just to al dente. The idea here is more veg, less pasta.
Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the tomatoes and garlic. If it won't fit, just put everything back into the pasta pot, including the tomatoes.
Put the pan back on over medium heat and sautee everything together, just to get the pasta completely covered in oil and voila! Lunch for tomorrow.
Only problem is, now I've gone and made the kitchen too hot to do the dishes.....
They can wait until tomorrow right? Yep!
My teeth are hot, my feet are hot, my bones are hot, my hair is hot.... HOT. My house is a hotbox and it probably has something to do with the fact that I don't have a/c. I don't believe in it. I understand that it exists and I appreciate it at work, but it's summer. You are supposed to be sh*t hot and bitch about it.
So, being as hot as I am, I figured - can't get hotter, why not boil up some water and make pasta.
Firstly, to satisfy my immediate hunger, I made gnocchi. The marvelous thing about having a bag of frozen gnocchi lying about is that it makes a very fast pasta dinner for the nights when you have to have pasta. Even when it is sh*t hot out.
The most basic way is to heat up some olive oil in a pan large enough to hold the amount of gnocchi you want to cook so that they are not on top of each other.
Get the oil nice and hot over a medium flame, and then dump in the gnocchi. Resist the urge to shake or stir the gnocchi for the first few minutes. You want to give it a chance to get a nice golden crust.
At this stage I like to add a cup or so of frozen peas, some garlic, and a shake of red pepper flakes. Alternatively you could add in a box of cherry tomatoes, some chopped basil, or some other handful of whatever frozen veg you have lurking in the freezer.
Let it cook for a bit, it usually takes about 7 to 10 minutes and serve. You can sprinkle it with some nice sea salt, or a bit of crumbled feta, or grate all over with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
The second kind of pasta I made is for lunch tomorrow.
In a heavy cast iron pan I sauteed a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil, added two or three sliced green onions, and then threw in a box of cherry tomatoes. I let that cook for a bit then turned the heat down and covered it with a lid. Cook this until the tomatoes sort of burst and the garlic is caramelized a little. If you have any leftover veg sitting about in the fridge, this is a good time to use it up, especially broccoli.
Then I boiled up a handful of whole grain angel hair pasta just to al dente. The idea here is more veg, less pasta.
Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the tomatoes and garlic. If it won't fit, just put everything back into the pasta pot, including the tomatoes.
Put the pan back on over medium heat and sautee everything together, just to get the pasta completely covered in oil and voila! Lunch for tomorrow.
Only problem is, now I've gone and made the kitchen too hot to do the dishes.....
They can wait until tomorrow right? Yep!
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