There's nothing new about one pot pasta

"A traditional spaghetti dish may be a two-pan recipe, but one of those pans contains only boiling water, salt and spaghetti. It’s not difficult, and it takes 11 minutes tops." Tim Dowling

This is one of those posts inspired by coincidences. I, who am not a big social media user - I don't belong to any of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp - was nevertheless increasingly aware of recipes for one pan, pot or skillet - depending on who or where you are - pasta. So when I came across Tim Dowling's article in The Guardian on the topic I decided to go with my post idea thought.

Tim Dowling's article was inspired by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex no less, and her cooking program on Netflix in the first episode of which she cooked the above Single skillet spaghetti. He summarises the subsequent media storm thus:

"To recap: Meghan piled uncooked spaghetti and other raw ingredients into a shallow pan, poured boiling water from a kettle over them and cooked them with a lid on. Some of the attendant controversies were: the dish was unforgivably bland; the recipe may not have been Meghan’s alone; Italians, inevitably, consider skillet spaghetti to be a heresy. Subsequently a lot of people recreated Meghan’s version and, in a backlash against the backlash, pronounced it pretty good." Tim Dowling/The Guardian

In his article e then tested a few one pot pasta recipes that he found, but interestingly they did not include Meghan's. He didn't really comment on whether it was any good or not.

But let's forget Meghan because even this kind of controversy is not new. Apparently way back in 2013 Martha Stewart published a similar recipe in her magazine, although according to Food52, where the recipe can be found, it was actually developed by Nora Singley - a recipe developer - after a visit to a small ex fishing village in northern Puglia. To be fair to the magazine it did say that: "an editor had picked up the tip in Puglia." Nevertheless it seems to be most generally attributed to Martha Stewart. And it became a huge success.

Think about this for a moment however - and also Tim Dowling's comment about the Italians being enraged at the idea. Because there are several classic Italian pasta dishes that involve just one pot. I guess to be fair some of them verge on the soupy, like the various chickpeas and pasta dishes I wrote about recently. Not to mention the similar pasta e fagioli. And indeed apparently getting the ratio of water to pasta correct is one thing to look out for - one to one they say. Also to be fair things like lasagne and other pasta bakes - which I first thought about are not always a one-pan thing. You might have to cook the pasta or the sauce separately before combining in your one dish in the oven.

Nevertheless there are classic one-pan pasta dishes, like Spaghetti all'arrabiata which I also wrote about some time back, in a post about Crunchy spaghetti. The gorgeous version of Spaghetti all'assassina (sort of the same thing) shown here is from Guy Grossi, and involves actually taking the one pan thing to an extreme by deliberately burning some of the spaghetti strands in the richly tomatoey and hot sauce.

If you think about it, it's a little surprising that the technique is not used more in classical Italian cooking, in spite of Tim Dowling's accurate comment that normally cooking a pasta dish only involves two pans and one of them is just boiling water. I say surprising though, because that boiling water, as I have belatedly discovered is pure gold. Adding a bit of that pasta water to your sauce adds a level of creaminess, that is sometimes even better than cream itself - and considerably healthier.

I mentioned technique - of which there are two basic ones:

"mix chopped vegetables – broccoli, onion, tomatoes, herbs – pasta and water in a pan and bring to a boil”. (Meghan's way) The other option would be to “cook onions, garlic and other vegetables in olive oil, then add the pasta and water, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed”. Mateo Zielonka/The Guardian

And The Guardian in the person of Anna Berril has a short article on The secret to one pot pastas. in which Anna Jones is quoted as saying that it is especially well suited to “buttery, lemony, olive oil-type sauces” and indeed one of the most referenced of this kind of dish online, is her own Kale, tomato and lemon one pot pasta although Jamie Oliver's One-pot pasta al limone is another example and his introduction echoes Anna Jones' sentiment and the importance of that pasta water:

"The one-pan method (where you cook the pasta and sauce in one pan) was made for pasta al limone. The starchy water it creates is exactly what is needed to thicken the lemony sauce and coat the pasta."

But there is another technique - one which is used for the all'arrabiata/all'assassinata pastas - as described by Rachel Roddy:

"to move freely, a starting point is required. In this case, risottatura, borrowed from risotto, an absorption technique that takes place directly in the pan, with water (or other liquid) added little by little to the initially dry pasta and mixed until absorbed. By the end, the pasta should be cooked through and, thanks to the reduction and starch from the pasta, the small amount of sauce is dense and tasty."

Although - and this is rather a big 'although' I suppose - you actually have two pots here - one in which you are cooking the pasta and one in which you have the sauce. And indeed if you watch the Guy Grossi video that is exactly what happens - the sauce is spooned over the pasta little by little from another pot. I guess you could also do it all in one pot however. Not classic though. It would upset the Italians.

With Spaghetti arrabiata/assassinata you end up with burnt, crispy spaghetti - which reminded me of one of Ottolenghi's recipes that I had tried in the past - One pan crispy spaghetti and chicken. Yes indeed you only use one pan, but really simple it is not. Indeed I see that I have written at the bottom of the recipe "probably a lot of fuss for minor success". The 'minor success in this case being a score of 3 1/2 stars. Pretty good, but not wow. The fuss comes, from first cooking the chicken, then adding the spaghetti and water, and baking in the oven, before finally grilling it with a breadcrumb topping that you have made separately. So one pan but also one blender which needs washing up as well.

I also thought of macaroni cheese - but had forgotten of course that you make a sauce first and then pour it over your semi-cooked macaroni. But then I remembered an absolutely stunning - almost 5 star Ottolenghi/Noor Murad dish - Middle Eastern mac 'n' cheese with za'atar pesto which I remembered for the sauce sort of making itself whilst the macaroni cooked. But I had forgotten the za'tar crispy onions that are scattered on top and make the whole thing superb. They, of course had been cooked in another pan. Not a lot of fuss though. Indeed it was actually pretty simple.

Then there are stuffed pasta recipes which technically use just one pan, but also use other equipment - bowls for mixing stuff in, blenders ... And they are also not that simple because you have to stuff something. Pretty sumptuous looking though - see Nagi Maehashi's Spinach and ricotta rotolo and - she has two pages of one pan pasta recipes, which demonstrates that this is not a new thing - and Ottolenghi's Ricotta stuffed conchiglioli in pumpkin sauce

Maybe one of the best recipes which actually fulfils what you might expect from the one pan promise - easy, fast and only one pan is Jamie Oliver's Sausage pappardelle which sort of makes me admire once again, how Jamie is mostly pretty easy, but interesting without being excessively cheffy in terms of ingredients or technique. The tomato comes from passata, the meat from inside a sausage or two and the pappardelle are just cut up fresh lasagne sheets. Fresh - which means fast. Yes you can buy pappardelle in the supermarket but I think it's all dried pasta, which would not work for this recipe. Then to make it just a little special you have red wine and fennel seeds. It comes from his book One - which is all about one pan dishes. It's a recent one I think, which might confirm that one pan cooking is a currently trendy thing.

Last but not least really, you can go the whole cheating hog with this One-pan spag bol which is so simple that it doesn't even make the Coles recipe website. (It's in their latest magazine) There are just two main ingredients - the basil and Parmesan is to finish it off - mincemeat and a jar of their Mum's Sause Bolognese. And water of course.

Now I'm not saying that this is going to be wonderful and I'm certainly not a fan of sauces in jars, but you could fancy it up with a touch of onion and garlic to begin with, some wine and passata - or even tomatoes. More herbs in the mix? Lots of things you could do - it's a template. And I bet that even the Italians do cheating things like this these days. Oh - and if you do buy that jar of sauce 10c will go to Hospitals United for Sick KIds. Which might allay your guilt at buying sauce in a jar. 25 minutes they say from start to finish and only one frying pan to wash - well the plates or bowls it gets eaten off too - but the dishwasher will take care of that.

I suppose we should thank Meaghan for saving us the washing up. Bet she doesn't do it.

YEARS GONE BY

MAY 2

2024 - Amuse bouches

2023 - Fashionable foraging

2022 - How hard can it be?

2021 - Power food

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Persuading the young to cook the Stephanie Alexander way

2018 - Can you make a tart with cauliflower?

2017 - Why do mushrooms make vitamin D?