The trick to the creamiest-possible pasta is trying less hard.
As in, fewer pots, less water, zero straining, and virtually no worrying about why, oh god, why sauce emulsification continues to be an elusive creature, rearing its head at will. Yes, I'm talking about one-pot pasta: cooking your noodles directly in their sauce, such that the released starch thickens the final product (in this case, rigatoni) handsomely, with the creamiest, glossiest jacket of flavor. No cream needed.
It's no new kid on the block. For starters, see: Mark Bittman's story about learning to treat pasta like risotto in Rome in 1976, Martha Stewart's famous cherry tomato rendition—the first recipe to appear if you Google "one pan pasta"—and our resident Genius Kristen Miglore's story on that same topic.
But one-pan pasta has its share of dissenters, too, and they're loud. Two-pot pasta ain't broke, and all that. Some call it gummy. Others say that just because Martha's doing it, doesn't mean you should.
Here's my take: There's a time, and a place. The time? When you want to turn humble pantry staples into a bowl of pasta coated in super velvety sauce, without the whole emulsification rigamarole. The place? Your stovetop, duh.
It's a natural extension of one of my other favorite pasta tricks, boiling your noodles in a shallow skillet for super starchy water. Except, you have half the dishes to wash. If you don't believe me, try my simple recipe below, a sort of play on Victoria Granof's Pasta con Ceci (think: less soupy, more saucy, bigger noodles, and the chickpeas are now shallots). It gets miles of body from cooked-down shallots, a kick from red chili flakes, and tons of concentrated flavor from briefly fried tomato paste. Oh, and extra umami from a serious dose of Parmesan.
I especially love this dish because it's crazy-customizable—make it with bacon, garlic, spices, a splash of red wine, peas, white beans, Italian sausage, breadcrumbs, or anything else that hits the spot. If you prefer, you can cook the tomato paste for longer before adding the noodles and water. You could swap yellow onion for the shallots, Calabrian chili paste for the flakes, Grana Padano for the Parm, or even broth for the water.
And use whatever short, cheerful noodle shape makes you feel like it's a Friday.
| 2 | tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed |
| 1 1/2 | cups sliced shallots in thin rings (about 5 to 6 large shallots) |
| 2 | teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste |
| 5 | tablespoons tomato paste, preferably double concentrated |
| 2 | teaspoons red chili flakes, plus more to taste if you like things spicier |
| 2 1/2 | cups water |
| 1/2 | pound rigatoni |
| 1 | cup tightly packed (about 3 ounces) very finely grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish |
| 2 | tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed |
| 1 1/2 | cups sliced shallots in thin rings (about 5 to 6 large shallots) |
| 2 | teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste |
| 5 | tablespoons tomato paste, preferably double concentrated |
| 2 | teaspoons red chili flakes, plus more to taste if you like things spicier |
| 2 1/2 | cups water |
| 1/2 | pound rigatoni |
| 1 | cup tightly packed (about 3 ounces) very finely grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish |
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Ella Quittner
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16 Comments
The 1970s called, and they want their thick, pasty Sicilian sauce back. Never mind the budget busting use of shallots (an ingredient used in place of onion for its SUBTLE flavor), as a sensible person would look at this recipe and substitute red onion without pause.
The absolute key in a one-pot pasta dish is the ratio of liquid to pasta, and the cure to an overly thick, pasty sauce is NOT to simply water down the final product with flavorless water. That would upset the delicate balance of starch to liquid that makes the sauce cling to the pasta WITHOUT the resultant red wallpaper paste that this recipe produces.
The cook relies on the recipe creator to have done the math, and completed the development process to produce a final product that is both flavorful and velvety, and coats the pasta without creating building supplies for a journeyman bricklayer.
This recipe fails miserably. It needs to goo (sorry, I mean go) back to the development stage and get the results right...and tone down that silly amount of tomato paste that is reminiscent of using a fire hose to water an herb garden.
I am a particular fan of banana shallots.
"Varieties: Shallots are part of the onion and garlic family, but have a more fragrant, less acrid flavor than either of these vegetables. The most famous types are the grey shallot, the Jersey shallot (pink shallot), and Echalion (also known as ‘banana’ shallots)."
-- https://www.fondation-louisbonduelle.org/en/vegetable/shallots/#:~:text=Varieties%3A%20Shallots%20are%20part%20of,as%20'banana'%20shallots).
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