| Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here. Good weekend, all. As you read this missive every Saturday morning — while relaxing with a nice mug of coffee or tea, I hope — I am typically sitting on my couch plotting my meals for the week. While my job means I’m frequently trying, testing or developing new recipes, I often make old favorites over and over. Ditto my husband. There are plenty of reasons to return to the same recipe. One is speed. The more you cook it, the faster you’ll get. (And the less brain power it will take, which is clutch on hectic nights.) Another good reason: If it’s a dish you make a lot, you likely have at least some of the ingredients on hand, so there’s less to buy. Plus, as you master the dish, you’ll get to be so familiar with it that you’ll be well-equipped to start experimenting with different ingredients. For all those reasons and more, food writer Kristen Hartke found herself making this week’s featured recipe, Angel Hair Pasta With Currants and Pine Nuts, all the time when she was a newlywed. In addition to the dried fruit plumped in the same boiling water that cooks the pasta (so smart) and the toasted nuts, this pantry-friendly dish also showcases underappreciated garlic powder, savory parmesan cheese, bright parsley and zesty crushed red pepper flakes. I trust Kristen’s recipe prowess implicitly, but even I was a little skeptical of this somewhat unorthodox combination. But I was totally won over. As she describes it: “Sweet, salty, nutty, garlicky, herbaceous, a hint of spice. Perfection. So perfect, in my mind, that I happily ate this same pasta dish a few nights a week — for several years.” I find that noodle dishes in general are excellent opportunities to start with the same base recipe and adapt as needed. That would certainly work just as well with the Curried Stir-Fried Noodles With Ham and Shrimp that Ellie Krieger featured from a new cookbook, “Weeknight Winners, Family Dinners” by Jack and Emmy Zhang. The couple runs a charming Instagram account, @cookingforlevi, starring their son, Levi. They like this dish as a recipe for kids because it’s so colorful, and young cooks (or fully grown ones!) can help choose the vegetables based on whatever their current favorite color or food is. (Sometimes it feels like it changes every day, in my experience. 🙂) Of course, the protein is up for interpretation, too. Below you’ll find a few more versatile and pantry-friendly noodle recipes. Stock your shelves, and get ready to put them on repeat. What are the recipes you make on a regular basis? Please share them in my live weekly cooking chat Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern. You can send them, as well as your other kitchen questions, along now. Hope to see you in real time once the conversation starts. Until next week, happy cooking. |
