Pantry Pasta

Umami, herby, buttery, fresh

I’m aware that Pantry Pasta is a completely subjective recipe depending on what you have in your pantry. Whether you even have pasta in your pantry. So forgive the ambiguousness of the title, and if you happen to have these ingredients, great; if you don’t but you happen to like the sound of this concoction (umami, herby, buttery, fresh) then feel free to acquire these ingredients and keep them shoved in the back of your cupboard for next time.

Despite my first official recipe on this newsletter being Sad Pasta™️, I actually rarely cook pasta for myself. It’s a once-a-month occasion (although I have had it twice in the past two weeks so I’m proving myself wrong). There’s no specific logic behind this theory, but I usually want it on either a Wednesday or a Sunday. This was a Sunday situation after five of my friends had left after visiting for three days. I was exhausted, excited for some alone time and knew I had half a packet of orecchiette in the cupboard.

Having not really eaten many greens, I needed those to feature heavily (Jemma had left half a packet of rocket). There was also a jar of black beans that I needed to use up in my fridge. And so this version of Pantry Pasta was born. The ratios of vegetable to pasta skewed heavier to vegetable, but don’t worry, there was a liberal amount of butter, pecorino and olive oil to balance that out. Is it technically a warm pasta salad? Perhaps.

For one hungry person you’ll need…

• Your desired amount of pasta (I usually just measure it out into the bowl I’m going to eat from and do half the volume)