Perfecting Pasta: Radiatori
I absolutely love pasta.
It’s one of my go-to meals during the week as it’s quick to make, has straightforward steps, and can usually be made in one pot. I’ll usually whip together a pasta dish in 30 minutes and have enough time to eat it during lunch and head to the office within the same hour.
Sometimes you make the same thing so many times that it starts to lose it’s quality. In an effort to save time I’ll boil the vegetables in the same pot as the noodles (sounds questionable, but I promise it’s effective) or pre-make the sauce and toss it in, losing it’s freshness. The busier you get, the more things like the food you eat blend into the background, and before you know it you’re caught up in the monotony that adult life can be. New ideas stem from new stimuli, and a simple way to induce that is to refine your comfort food recipes that have lost their luster.
So here’s my go-to pasta recipe, elevated! I’m quite happy with the way it came out :)
Green Goddess Pasta w/ Avocado Pesto
Isn’t it so pretty <3
Below are the steps I followed to refine my favorite pasta dish:
Buying a fun pasta shape. I read Atomic Habits a few months ago, and a key tool it mentions in creating a new habit is to make it attractive. I normally go for angel hair spaghetti because it’s cheap and quick to cook, but in order to elevate this pasta dish I went for radiatori because it looked fun to pick up with a fork and the stacks of curls reminded me of the cross section of maggi noodles. I have an inside joke with my friends about that, so cooking this pasta shape made me smile.
Respecting the veggies. When I told my mom I boil my veggies in the same water as the pasta, she looked at me with equal parts disappointment and concern. Instead of hastily cutting the veggies so that they’re ready by the time the kettle has boiled the water, I took my time in cutting thin zucchini slices and made sure my broccoli florets were cut to be even in size. In lieu of boiling, I air fried both veggies separately for different times so they were cooked to the right temperature. I tossed both in a bit of sea salt and extra virgin olive oil afterwards so that it’s ready for the pasta.
Boiling the pasta on medium heat. Normally I do high heat to be quick, but I’ve found that denatures the pasta a bit and doesn’t get you the al dente perfection that medium heat would. I thoroughly salted the pasta water, set it to medium heat, and put a timer for 11 minutes to achieve al dente perfection.
Maintaining good ratios! Such an easy fix yet often overlooked. Too much pasta makes it too starchy, too many veggies makes it unsatisfying. Each bite needs a proportionate amount for it to be satiating.
Make the plate pretty. By the time the food is done, you’re so hungry it’s easy to dump it a mound of it on a plate and hork it down like a madman. I channeled my inner Gordon Ramsay and plated it so that there’s proportionate amounts of pasta, broccoli, and zucchini, and the zucchini and broccoli are spread out in a way that showcase their individuality, as opposed to awkwardly getting clustered together.
The result? It was perfection. The labor of love made it feel special, and adding care and respect into each part of the cooking process made it fun and memorable. It’s a pasta dish I would show off to my friends and would make on a solo night in just to wind down.
This is the first of many recipes here; In the future I think I’ll enhance it further by making handmade pasta and pairing it with a fancy cheese or suitable wine-esque drink. Next on the list is to enhance my tomato sauce pasta, I just bought cherry tomatoes from the farmers market so I’m excited to use those. Cheers to more fun recipes here 🥳