One pot pastas have been an obsession of mine ever since I saw them pop up on the internet. I’m pretty sure the first one I ever came across was Martha’s, but I never actually got around to making it. Years went by and I finally, finally got around to giving one pot pasta a try and oh my gosh, I can honestly say I do not know why I went all those years without making it.
To be honest, I was a little skeptical of one-pot pastas. I didn’t really understand how everything could come together. I’ve always, always cooked pasta separately – even when I’m making a noodle soup, I’ll cook the noodles on the side and then add them into the broth. So it was with a bit of hesitation that I made this. I went with some super spring-time flavours because the past week has just been absolutely gorgeous. Of course today is incredibly gloomy again – spring isn’t here just yet.
While I’m waiting for those bright and fresh spring days, I’ll be filling up on one-pot meals. This came together quickly and I was really pleased with the silkiness of the sauce. Lots of pasta recipes actually call for a bit of pasta water to bind – the starch that is released when pasta is cooked is similar to the starch released when you make a risotto, so the theory behind one pot pasta is sound. The result: a silky, slightly sticky thick sauce flavoured with garlic, red pepper flakes, much like the classic aglio e olio. I didn’t use any cheese in this recipe and I found that I didn’t miss it at all. Don’t forget the squeeze of lemon at the end – it adds just the right amount of brightness and acid to go with the scallops.
I hope you guys give this recipe a try! And to encourage you even more, I’m hosting a giveaway of the braiser I used to make it! See below for details.
One-Pot Lemon Scallop Pea Spaghetti Recipe inspired by The Faux Martha
serves 3-4
prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 15 minutes
total time: 25 minutes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 lb small scallops
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1/2 pound spaghetti
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 1/4 cup juice)
- 3/4 cup peas, defrosted
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
- red pepper flakes, to serve
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Pat the scallops dry and season all sides generously with salt and pepper. Heat up a small amount of olive oil over medium high heat and cook the scallops until golden brown on both sides, 1-2 minutes per side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring, until the garlic is slightly golden, but not brown, about 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and uncooked pasta. Bring to a boil and then turn down to low. Cover and cook for 8 minutes.
Remove the cover and simmer to reduce the sauce, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the scallops, defrosted peas, lemon juice, lemon zest, and flat leaf parsley. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and enjoy hot!
Giveaway: I’ve paired up with Le Creuset to give away one gorgeous braiser in the winner’s color of choice! I am seriously in love with mine – it’s perfect for making one-pot pastas!
Enter: To enter, leave a comment below with your favorite pasta memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and notify them through email. Open to US residents only. (Sorry international friends!) Also, if you’re feeling so inclined, please vote for me on the Munchies. It won’t get you an extra entry, but it will be bonus karma! Contest ends March 4th at 12pm PST. Good luck!
Update: Congrats Ace! Get ready for the one pot pastas because a braiser is heading your way! Keep your eyes peel for an email from me!
one favorite pasta memory? impossible! every pasta dish with family is a fabulous memory!
I still have yet to try the one pot pasta phenomenon, but this is inspiring!! So my favorite pasta memory has to be the night a couple years ago when my then boyfriend suggested we stay in and make a big dinner together. This was unusual for him, because he doesn’t like to cook. I love to cook, so I was, of course, all in. So we made a delish lasagne with meat sauce and after dinner he got down on his knee and proposed. Best pasta memory.
All of my memories from when I am very young with my great grandmother involve her making ravioli and pasta sauce. Every time my mother makes her sauce recipe I am immediately brought back to those times. Love you grandma!
My mom made her awesome, super simple spaghetti carbonara after she finished her course of radiation for breast cancer. It was one of the first times she was “herself” after the whole cancer spiel and it sucked us right back into normalcy. She adds lemon zest because that’s what you do in SoCal. Love the pasta, love the feel goodery.
This looks great, can’t wait to try it!
My favorite pasta memory is the comfort food pasta dish my mom would make me as a kid – pasta with yogurt (coat spaghetti with butter, add yogurt/garlic/dried mint). Most people say it sounds kind of gross but it was my absolute favorite meal when I was little! I recently remembered it and had my mom show me how to make it. It’ll always bring me back to being a little kid :’)
Making ravioli all’uovo for my (now) husband’s birthday as a surprise. I spent all day making homemade dough and getting the yolks to sit just right in their little nests. Right before I was about to toss them in the water, my cat jumped into the fridge right onto my fragile little ravioli and punctured a few, sending egg yolks exploding everywhere. Luckily, we were able to salvage some and it was definitely a memorable pasta occasion that makes me laugh looking back on it.
One of my favorite pasta memories is the time my boyfriend and i tried to make homemade pasta in college. Half way through the process, we realized that we didn’t have a rolling pin … so we had to get a little creative! we use metal water bottles and wine bottles to make it work. It ended up tasting pretty decent, just a little thick! ha!
One time my boyfriend and I were feeling lazy about cooking but wanted some indulgent comfort food. We decided on the obvious choice of mac and cheese, but since we were being lazy, we decided we would doctor up some boxed mac and cheese. In an attempt to make our boxed dinner “fancy”, we mixed two different flavors of mac (alfredo and aged cheedar) but that wasn’t enough cheese for us… We then decided that it would be a good idea to grate up and throw in all the random bits of cheese in our fridge (5 kinds). It ended up being too much; there were way too many flavors of cheese happening. We tried to salvage it with some cooked bacon and broccoli but the cheese continued to overpower anything else we added. By this point, we had spent more time and effort fixing up the boxed stuff than making it from scratch. We did eat our creation and suffered the stomach aches we deserved from going overboard on the cheese. Now we always laugh when we see “5 cheese mac and cheese” or something similar on restaurant menus because we now know that you can have too many kinds of cheese on your mac.
Spaghetti with marinara was probably the first thing I learned to make on my own when I was little. Practicing over time helped me to refine my tastes and technique and create my ultimate comfort food.
Wow, choosing a favorite pasta memory is really hard, especially because my mom is from Italy so pasta is a big part of my diet! I’d have to choose a memory I had this summer, when I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Livorno, Italy. In the morning, we went to the fish market and bought the freshest fish from his friend the fisherman. When we got back home, my uncle prepared the absolute best pasta I’ve ever had. It was a calamarata-shape pasta with scallops, fish, and clams in a very very light tomato sauce with a touch of cream. Calamarata is a pasta shape like a segment of a pacchero, or like a smooth mezze manico. The smooth rings of pasta held the sauce and the small chunks of fish, and they were big enough to provide really satisfying bites. I loved it so much that I bought the calamarata pasta shape, which is difficult to find here in the US, and I am biding my time until I find seafood that will be able to hold a candle to what I tasted on the Tuscan coast.