I’ve cooked a lot of pasta

I probably eat it too often, but it’s so easy to make and always delicious. I can have dinner ready in 15 minutes.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that the most important ingredient – obvious, but sometimes overlooked – is the pasta itself. Whether it’s fresh or dry, quality makes such a huge difference. It’s the magic ingredient that immediately levels up your pasta.

My current favourite dried pasta is Monograno’s kamut linguine (last photo). First of all, it cooks very quickly, making dinner very fast to prepare. It also holds al dente very well, and is almost impossible to screw up because the simplest treatment tends to let it shine the brightest. Tonight, for example, I made a pasta with only extra virgin olive oil, garlic, pepper flakes, spinach, and parmigiano reggiano, and it was so good.

I know a brand is especially good if I have someone over for dinner and they ask what brand of pasta I’m using, because they’ve noticed it. Granted, it was my brother who also likes to cook, so maybe he’s more attuned to notice that kind of thing.