Podcast Episode Two Companion: 10 Easy Pasta Dishes, Part One

 Alright, everyone, here's the companion post to our second-ever podcast episode!  Available on Spotify, just follow the link.

For this one, we decided to give out recipes for our ten favorite fast, easy pasta dishes, along with some in-depth discussion of pasta basics, along with note on sourcing ingredients, unfiltered opinions, and a fair amount of good-natured ball-busting.

Also, as promised in episode 1, we get around to telling the story of the time Jesse stabbed Nate.

A quick note on sound quality: we are doing this all on Zoom, due to the pandemic.  There's been a bit of a learning curve.  We had some level issues, so we had to apply crazy compression, which makes the episode (and the goddamn 3 after it) sound like we are broadcasting from the back of a wooden rollercoaster.  So just try to imagine us waving our hands, side by side, strapped in all safe, and getting ready to hose the people behind us with beer and funnel-cake puke!  It's a fun, immersive experience.  Anyway...

Here are the episode's time stamps:

1:10- The Alleged Stabbing

9:30- How to select pasta

18:25- How to boil pasta (no, like, the right way)

31:43- How to cook pasta like risotto

41:43- Jesse's ABC Pasta

48:37- Nate's Aglio Olio

Link: 

Just one link this time.  Here is a link to Kenji Lopez-Alt's brilliant food lab, and it's discussion of cooking pasta like risotto.  Also, Nate promised a water to pasta ratio: Here's the Dogg Himself:

I use about 2 quarts of water to a pound of pasta.  That's kind of a working estimate.  Occasionally, I'll need to add another cup or two.  Different pasta shapes, different sauces, there are a lot of variables, but if you start there (or even just a quart and a half), you'll get the feel for it.

Recipes: (Heads up, we kept the recipes super brief.  They use a pound of dry pasta, and serve four for dinner.  Lots of fun and useful details on the podcast!)

Jesse's ABC Pasta

1# dry pasta (I used De Cecco penne)

1 tin of oil-pack anchovies, 2 oz.

1 stick unsalted butter

Chile flakes, as needed (regular, pizza place chile flakes)

Salt (maybe, depends on the saltiness of the anchovies)

Method: Melt about half the butter.  Add the anchovies and a shake of the chile flakes (don't go crazy).  Add the raw pasta and cook it like risotto, or add the 3/4 cooked pasta now and finish it with a bit of pasta water.  When the pasta is perfectly cooked, fold in the rest of the butter, along with a little more chile flake and/or salt if it needs it, which it may well not.

Note!  Jesse used Nate's pasta-like-risotto method, and the results were remarkable!  Look how the starch created a sauce with the butter that just clings to the penne!!

This was about a minute into cooking.  The anchovies are dissolved into the butter, but the pasta was still totally raw.

This is after a few ladles of water have been added.  Doesn't pureed anchovy turn water a lovely shade of grey?  Thankfully, that dilutes to a pale cream color as more water is added.

This is about halfway home.  Notice how with all the agitation, the anchovies are dissolved to the point of invisibility?

And here is the finished product!  4 ingredients, 5 if you count water.  Cheese is optional, but honestly, not necessary.

Nate's Aglio Olio

1# dry pasta 

1 C. EVO (that's extra virgin olive oil to you civilians, and no, we never, ever say E.V.O.O.)

15-20 garlic cloves (sliced or minced, your call, but either way, cut out the germ)

Chile flakes, as needed (something nice and mild like espelette or aleppo, if you've got it)

Salt, as needed

Optional add-ons: lemon juice, chopped parsley, or grated hard cheese)

Method: Put a third of the oil, the garlic, and the chile on a low flame.  Infuse 3-4 minutes, not allowing the garlic to color.  Add another third of the oil, and repeat.  Then, repeat the process one more time.  (The idea is that each addition of oil cools down the garlic, so you get a slow, gentle infusion.)  Then, repeat the process from above.  Either add the pasta raw and cook it like risotto, or add it almost cooked and let it finish with a little of the pasta water.  When it's perfectly cooked, season to taste, add any add-ons you desire, and plate.

There's that nasty garlic germ I warned you about.

And here's the finished product!

Alright, see y'all next time, for the other 8 pasta recipes (way, way less ranting about theory in the next episode).