Thank goodness for a new speedy pasta—especially one with a proper sauce that requires almost no cooking. As Heidi Swanson writes on 101 Cookbooks, “This is the best thing I’ve cooked with the least amount of effort in the past month.” I would have to agree.
Heidi continues, “Most of my lazy lunches never make it to the site, but this pasta is an exception. If you have a favorite dried pasta, a few cloves of garlic, walnuts, and black pepper you can make it too. The other ingredients—lemon zest, a bit of grated cheese, a finishing cascade of bread crumbs and herbs are encouraged, but not essential. It's the kind of meal that checks the box when you're in the mood for creamy pasta, but no cream is needed. You get rich, nutty, walnut sauce from pounding garlic and toasted walnuts into a paste and thinning with a good amount of salted pasta water. Peak comfort food.”
A few tips: Heidi recommends a short, sauce-catching pasta shape like reginetti, fusilli, or conchiglie and also warns not to toast your walnuts too dark, as it can make the sauce bitter. She has lots of wonderful ideas for riffing on the sauce over at 101 Cookbooks: Try using different toasted nuts or a blend; throw in broccoli florets or chopped asparagus in the last minute of boiling the pasta (no need for a vegetable side!). Plus, a delicious idea for leftovers, if you have them: Warm up the nutty, garlicky pasta with cooked white beans, stock, and a handful of chopped kale for a bright, immediate pasta e fagioli–like stew.
Recipe adapted slightly from 101 Cookbooks and Heidi Swanson, author of the forthcoming Super Natural Simple (Ten Speed Press, March 2021). —Genius Recipes
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