pasta la vista

I hate making pasta for my family, which is a shame because my family really loves eating pasta. To me, it seems like a lot of pots (ie cleanup) for not enough delicious and/or interesting food. While watching Stanley Tucci’s show about food in Italy, I was introduced to the super pasta pan—a wide saucier that can mix pasta and sauce like a pro. I did my research and came across Serious Eats recommendation for this kind of pan, and of course swiftly purchased the $30 pan. I used it to make carbonara which was delicious.

Then today I was thinking — how can I make pasta ahead of time without a huge cleanup? And then I had an idea—I’ll boil the pasta for 6 minutes and then toss it over low heat with some oil/butter (in my special pasta pan); let it sit and then reheat it (in my special pasta pan) with some of the starchy pasta water. I also reheated some meatballs in sauce (which only one kid likes—which is also part of the pasta problem.)

Success! The pasta was easy to gently reheat in the special pasta pan and was not overdone. After serving the picky eater his plain pasta, I could mix in the sauce. It was a relatively easy cleanup and a very good meal that worked for all of us.