Martha Martha Martha

It's no secret that the woman who inspired many of the bloggers in my niche to start writing and sharing their recipes and DIY's is of course Martha Stewart.  She's the high priestess of domesticity.  I have had a subscription to Living since forever and I usually make something from each issue.  This past month she featured a recipe for one pan pasta that we immediately tested out, and I can already tell it'll be a mainstay in our house, with some variations. It only takes about 20 minutes to prepare from start to finish, so it's a winner for parents. I'm sharing this today, because I'm going to be testing some other Martha recipes and DIY's this week, making them my own by switching up ingredients and materials.  For this first one, I thought I'd give a few suggestions to make this dish more hearty, and how to change up the flavors. 

The original recipe is as follows:

12 oz linguini

12 oz cherry tomatoes (halved if large)

1 onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 sprigs basil, plus torn leaves for garnish

2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving

Course salt and peper

4 1/2 cups of water

Fresh Parmesan for serving

Combine all ingredients in a large straight-sided pan, bring to a boil over high heat, stirring and turning pasta with tongs until pasta is al dente and water is nearly evaporated. Season, drizzle and garnish to serve.

After making this the first time, here are my thoughts.  Wow, the texture is amazingly creamy, which is great.  My suspicion is that the starch from the pasta combines with the olive oil to give it that texture.  Adding a little more water and a dash more olive oil will bolster the creaminess.  Another observation was my crazy garlic breath after the fact.  Maybe cut down to only 2 cloves to keep it from overpowering the dish.  Lastly, add many more tomatoes to the pan, like double, because doing so will add more tang and makes it heartier.

So using this idea, this week I plan to try making a one pan dish using different ingredients.  I am obviously a nut for Asian cuisine, so I thought we could try doing a one pan version with bok choy, miso broth substituted for water, a little fresh ginger, a dash of sesame oil, brown rice noodles and shitake mushrooms instead of tomatoes, garnished with a little green onion and Siracha sauce. I'll let you know how that goes. See you Wednesday when we test out her recipe for homemade bubbles.

xo, heather