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!
I remember the first time I ever ate linguine with clams, thinking I hated seafood, then diving headfirst into the winey-garlicky broth with bread and reckless abandon.
My favorite pasta memory? Just one? I remember making spaghetti and meatballs for the first time, sauce and meatballs from scratch. I slaved away ALL DAY in the kitchen while my fiancée and his brother were working on tearing up the basement. The kitchen smelled like nothing but amazing…The meatballs were perfection. Tender, juicy, flavorful. The sauce was TO DIE FOR. And yes, I’ve made it again and again but never quite pulled it off the same…I always somehow manage to tweak things and not remember what I did to make it that amazing again..oh well, better to have loved once than to never have loved a pot of spaghetti and meatballs like that again.
Whenever I think of pasta, and I mean really good pasta, I think of my dad. He’s always been an amazing cook and a perfectionist in the best – and worst – sense of the word. Once when I was in high school, he decided to make spaghetti from scratch. I had never had homemade noodles before and was a little put off at first by the time and attention to detail required, but my dad insisted so I rolled up my sleeves and helped him make the dough, put it through the pasta maker, and carefully lay out the strands. He constantly had to tell me to move slower, be more gentle. I just don’t have his patience. But the end result was definitely worth it. We dined on steamy bowls of fresh spaghetti with meat sauce. I’ll always remember how the meal warmed me from the inside out, and the great time I had with my dad making pasta.
I voted! And holy heck, i am obsessed with the Lapis color!
It’s so difficult to choose a single pasta memory!! My father has owned an Italian restaurant for the last (almost) 40 years, so I should be inclined to describe the amazing, hearty, homestyle sauces we serve up, but I’m torn! Even though we own an Italian restaurant, my father is actually an immigrant of Greeece. At the time my family opened npour restaurant in the ’70s, there wasn’t exactly a demand for ethnic foods and certainly nothing like we experience today. At the same time, my mother is very southern, and we have a secret family recipe that totally qualifies as “pasta” (if it has noodles, that counts right?!). However, I’m going to go back to this Greek-thing. Some of my favorite authentic Greek dishes involve pasta. Some you have heard of like partition
When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, my best friend filled her tiny apartment kitchen with dozens of volunteers making hundreds of sandwiches and chafing dishes full of large-batch meals to donate to a shelter on the Lower East Side. But all she told me was to come over with the ingredients for a whole lot of mac and cheese. I show up with whole wheat pasta, wild mushrooms, and artisan gruyere. I see the volunteers frantically spreading peanut butter on bread, and humbly ask if there is a burner free to start the bechamel. It was definitely the most sophisticated of the dishes we brought down there, but I’m proud to have given everyone a hearty, exciting meal in that very scary time.
Once I went back to college a few days before winter break ended, just to get some time extra hanging out with my friends before classes got too crazy. My boyfriend (who is now my husband) was going through a big bread-baking-Italian-food-loving phase. One day we had a friend (who is a phenomenal cook) come hang out with us. He suggested that we make homemade salmon ravioli and bake some bread. So we spent the afternoon shopping for ingredients and going through the laborious process of making homemade ravioli. Since we were college students, we lacked some proper tools like a rolling pin (but we used the side of a glass). It took a long time, but it was fun to chat and cook something outside of my comfort zone. The end product was delicious: A salmon and orange zest ravioli in a browned butter sauce with freshly baked rosemary olive oil bread. And I enjoyed spending time with my friends as I prepared the food most of all.
Pasta has always been my go to comfort food and being the purist that I am, I love eating it underneath my homemade marinara with meatballs and Italian sausage. I love thin spaghetti but will eat any shape with bow ties running a close second. Which reminds me of a delicious chicken and eggplant sauce I had over bow ties years ago in NYC. You should try Martha’s one pot pasta . It turned out great when I made it. Love your blog and would love to win that braiser!! Thanks!
It’s so difficult to choose a single pasta memory! My father has owned an Italian restaurant for the last (almost) 40 years, so I should be inclined to describe the amazing, hearty, homestyle sauces we serve up, but I’m torn! Even though we own an Italian restaurant, my father is actually an immigrant of Greece. At the time my family opened our restaurant in the ’70s, there wasn’t exactly a demand for ethnic foods and certainly nothing like we experience today. At the same time, my mother is very southern, and we have a secret family recipe that totally qualifies as “pasta” (if it has noodles, that counts, right?!). However, I’m going to go back to this Greek-thing. Some of my favorite authentic Greek dishes involve pasta. Some you may have heard of, like pastitsio (a Greek “lasagna” with a pseudo-bechamel and ground beef filling), but then there’s also my grandmother’s simple one-pot orzo, tomato, and bone-in chicken dish (delicious, might I add). Still, what I’m really drawn to is her simple pasta and meat sauce, otherwise known as, “macaronia mei keima” (literally, “noodles and meat”). Greek dishes typically use “macaroni,” a very long, hollow pasta–almost tube-like–in nearly every dish, including pastitsio. It’s so easy, yet entirely authentic.Then to top off the simplest pasta ever, there is the meat sauce. When we say “meat sauce,” we really mean “MEAT sauce.” While it has a tomato base, the sauce is almost entirely ground beef–it’s very thick–and it is often seasoned with cinnamon, a common ingredient in Greek meat dishes. She serves the pasta with the sauce on top and freshly grated authentic Greek cheese that resembles a softer Parmesan at family luncheons. It is absolutely to die for. (Don’t forget the dense and crusty Greek spome (bread) on the side!)
One of my earliest memories was making pasta with my dad.. I thought it was the coolest thing how we made a pile of dough on the counter, added in the eggs and mushed it together right there. We strung up pieces of twine all over the kitchen and pasta was hanging everywhere! One of my happiest memories.