When the pantry is nearly bare just before market day and you have hunger alarms making a racket in your brain, you need something cheap, fast, and hopefully already in your dwindling stocks. The power might even be out thanks to a blizzard but if you can boil water over a camp stove on the patio, it’s pasta to the rescue I say. I thought everyone knew how to make some variation of this college dorm hotpot classic but recent conversations have led me to believe it has escaped many.
Not all pasta dishes need be long simmered marinara and heaps of cheese. Nor should they be simulated cheese powder in a cardboard box (I’m talking to YOU Canada!) You have hot water, you have dry pasta, you very wisely took my advice and made your own homemade mayonnaise weeks ago. If you merely add a tiny amount of veg and spice to balance the flavours, it’s a meal in eight minutes – the time it takes to cook the pasta. If you’re really clever you cut quick greens for a salad with crusty bread on the side and banish the convenience food demons that feed on hunger desperation.
I think it’s good to understand WHY something so simple can work so well in the grand flavour scheme of things because the theory can then be expanded to apply to any starch. Your potatoes or rice might want different ingredients but balance of taste is where you’re aiming in all cases. With this pasta treatment you have the base starch that carries the other flavours. You have the creamy texture of superb mayo which thins into a sauce and adds just the right touch of richness. You brighten the whole thing up with sweet onion, chile, peas, and lemon. Viola! You have satisfied all parts of the palate in equal measure and you’re happily spooning away before your stomach complains again for not thinking farther ahead.
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to use great mayo here. That means homemade. Industrial versions are dull and lifeless and will make this pasta a chore to eat. Similarly, this isn’t your grandma’s summer picnic pasta salad so don’t heap in a cup of the stuff, as good as that may taste to your nostalgic taste buds.
Steam from the just-boiled pasta does what little cooking is needed. While any onion will work since it does get heated a bit, if you have sweet varieties like Vidalia or Walla Walla you’ll appreciate them more. The sweet chile is critical in my mind because even a tiny amount sends that polite little zing through every bite and thankfully, frozen peas work perfectly well here in the dead of Canadian winters.
I prefer it still warm from the mixing bowl but you can toss leftovers, if you manage to have any, in the fridge for a few hours to chill through because they’ll taste great if you get a little peckish again in the middle of the night. I think Nigella Lawson showing her fridge raids at 2am on the end of many of her shows could be the best bit of food television ever. We all do it. She just admits it with glee. Glitter and glamour aside, anyone that in tune with their kitchen leftovers is a keeper.
Hungry and in a hurry? I’ve got your back with this one any day of the year for mere pennies. Oh, didn’t I mention that? If you do the math it’s cheaper than those horrific ramen packets. About buck per batch on my local calculator.
Peasant Pasta Fast
250g dry pasta, rotini shape preferred
1/4 sweet onion, sliced thin
1/4 sweet fresh chile, any heat level, cut into strips
3/4 cup sweet peas, fresh or frozen
2 – 3 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
juice of 1/2 lemon or to taste
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon dried hot chile flakes (optional)
Yield: enough for one very hungry person, can be multiplied as needed
Boil the pasta in well-salted water for eight minutes.
Add the onion and chile to the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Drain some of the pasta water onto the peas placed in a separate cup to warm through for thirty seconds. Add the still-hot drained pasta to the mixing bowl with the other vegetables followed by the mayo, drained peas, lemon, & remaining seasonings. Toss for at least thirty seconds to combine well. Serve immediately while still warm or refrigerate until completely chilled as desired. Afterwards with a full stomach, quietly thank the geniuses that invented mayonnaise and pasta.
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