Slow Cooking... Saturday Night Pasta Night!
My favourite type of meditation hands down, is COOKING!
It’s where I get in the zone, decompress and find my flow state. And I do it nearly every night of the week.
So when it comes to the weekend, or during this collective slowdown, I’ve been looking for more ways to embrace slow cooking. Not the quick and easy, slow cooker style. I’m talking about the genuinely slower, more mindful cooking that you can only do when you have time.
My friend Elizabeth Hewson started the #SaturdayNightPastaNight movement as a way to decompress from her busy job working for some of Sydney’s best restaurants. What started as her personal way to meditate and decompress, really has inspired a movement. So much so that she has a book coming out soon (featuring the most insane pumpkin & cavolo nero lasagne recipe that I was lucky enough to test recently). She’s definitely worth following on Instagram if you’re feeling curious about homemade pasta and want some inspiration on simple sauces.
Keen to join along one Saturday night? Here are a few options…
Photo by Lucy Tweed — Every Night of the Week
Fresh pasta: I find the best pasta dough recipe is this one by Julia Ostro. Her book “Ostro: Good Food. Hand Made” is one of my most-used cookbooks (the everyday banana bread is awesome for those over-ripe bananas). If you’re in Byron, The Book Room is offering same-day delivery, free! My favourite thing with fresh pasta, is it tastes so good that the sauces can be oh so simple… I’m thinking my next recipe will be inspired by Lizzie’s combination of broccoli, fetta and garlic…
Dried pasta: If you’re not quite ready for fresh pasta, but want to join in, I have not one, but two amazing recipes for Cacio e Pepe (literally, cheese and pepper). The fascinating thing about this seemingly straightforward and simple dish, is that no two chefs or cooks have the same exact ingredients or method: Parmesan or pecorino? Should you only use spaghetti? How much pepper? Traditionally dried pasta, but can you do it with fresh pasta (asking for a friend)?
Excitingly, I have two recipes for you — and you better believe I’m going to make them both, with both dried and fresh pasta!
The first is by my fabulous client Lucy Tweed - food stylist extraordinaire and creator of the best food Instagram accounts, Every Night of the Week (who also created the images you see here).
And the second is by the lovely David “Nonna” Lovett - the chef at one of my favourite local haunts, Ethel Food Store (by the Fleet team).
Photo by Lucy Tweed — Every Night of the Week
CaCIO E PEPE, TWO WAYS
CACIO E PEPE BY EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK
Ingredients
500gm spaghetti
Sea salt flakes
4tbs butter, cubed, divided
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2tbs freshly cracked pepper
1 cup finely grated Parmesan
Method
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente.
Reserve 1 cup of pasta water and drain.
In a heavy skillet on medium heat, bring the butter and oil to foam and add the garlic and cracked pepper (I like a chunky grind but it’s up to you), sautéing until the garlic is lightly golden and the pepper is aromatic.
Add the spaghetti and the parmesan cheese and toss to combine.
Introduce some pasta water if necessary to loosen and extend the parmesan to coat all strands.
Season and serve with a drizzle of oil and more parmesan.
xo
CACIO E PEPE BY DAVID LOVETT
Ingredients
400gm of your favourite pasta (bucatini, pici or chitarra are my favourites)
150gm butter
120gm pecorino Romano finely grated
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
Method
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
In a saucepan melt the butter with a splash of pasta water and the black pepper.
Cook your pasta until al dente and drag into the butter pepper pan.
Bring buttery peppery watery liquid to a gentle boil with the pasta.
Sprinkle in the pecorino but DO NOT STIR!
Allow the heat of the liquid to melt the cheese gently.
Once melted stir and toss to fully combine.
Plate and eat with much slurping.