May meal #2: Capellini Al Pomodoro

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A phrase from the film Crocodile Dundee was the first thing to come into my mind to describe this mess of pasta in a tomato sauce, “It tastes like shit, but you can live on it!”

The only plus point I could find was that a meal could hardly be any quicker to prepare and that, I know, is a major consideration for most of us. Partly because we don’t have much time and partly, because if cooking things takes too long or seems too much trouble, we singles tend not to bother at all.

This was so quick to make that it can be cooked in less than the time it would take to dial for a pizza, let alone wait for it to be delivered.

Obviously, I included this dish in my menu to use the pasta I already had, but the time factor and ease were also reasons for doing so.

Ah, but what looks really simple, is often deceptively difficult!

Pardon me, but Capellini al nido is a slippery little buggar, because it cooks really fast. Too fast. The recipe for this seems to have gone missing from the link, but they said the pasta only needed cooking for 5-6 minutes (make that 3-4), then drain it, throw it back in the pan, add the sauce, stir and warm. Serve with cheese sprinkled over.

The sauce was something out of a jar pretending to be Italian and having something to do with bolognese, but in future, I’ll stick to cooking my own thank you. Even though pasta needs to be cooked immediately before serving, you can easily make enough sauce for four (or more) servings in one go and freeze those in single-portion pots for later.

Actually, it can’t have been that bad either, because I ate it all, which is not usually the case when I’m faced with a whole plate of pasta, but that was more out of necessity than desire. Maybe it will be better after this practice run and I won’t be so scathing when I have it again next week, but I can’t say that I am looking forward to it that much.

The moral I think we’ve learned from this is that, not only is cooking from scratch cheaper and healthier than using prepared ingredients, even with merely modest culinary talents, it will taste better too.

Do people really live on this ready-made stuff?

Tomorrow, I try another new recipe that I picked out, Broccoli Risotto. This should be fun, because I don’t have a history of great success with rice dishes either and I’ve never attempted a risotto before.