Food: One-Pan Pasta (for breakfast)

On Sunday morning I got up early (really "normal" time given the time change) and went for my first outside run in a long time.  It was not nearly as bad as I expected.  It helped that there was a nice downhill right at the beginning.  When I got back, Marek got up and went for a hike.  So it was just me, trying to decide what to eat for breakfast.  And I decided I wanted some pasta.

We used to have so much pasta in the house - so many different shapes and brands (I am going to blame that on being half Italian, and not on my hoarding tendencies).  We had cut back when we moved to New York City (nowhere to keep it), and kept our stock low when we moved to Seattle.  However, Marek just joined Costco and one of our first purchases?  About 6 big bags of (dried) pasta.  Of course.

My least favorite part about making pasta is waiting for all that water to boil (which also feels very wasteful when you dump it all down the drain).  So on Sunday morning I cut all that out by combining some methods I'd seen in previous recipes here and there.

First, I "toasted" the pasta in some butter and got it nice and brown.  This gets the cooking process started and also adds a nice bit of "crunch" to the pasta.

Then I covered the pasta in chicken stock and added two giant spoonfuls of whatever red sauce we had on hand.  This allows the chicken to absorb some flavor while it's cooking and also doesn't waste water.  The tomato sauce cooks into the liquid and coats the pasta  while it cooks, which really "bakes" in the flavor, so to speak, but doesn't leave the red sauce all runny and making a mess.

I ended up adding some more water to this pan (I had run out of chicken stock) and let it cook, covered, for about 10 minutes.  When I was done, I had a nice al dente pasta with a tasty red sauce.  I added Parmiggiano-Reggiano and tore up some fresh basil and it made quite a good breakfast - and only one pan to clean!

Recipe
1/2 T butter or olive oil
1 cup dried pasta
2-3 cups of chicken stock or broth
2 large spoonfuls of red sauce (vary depending on your tastes)

Heat pan over medium heat to melt butter or warm oil.  Add dried pasta and let brown for 3-5 minutes, keeping an eye on it so it doesn't burn.  Add 2 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover pasta) and red sauce and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to medium.  Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.  Check to see if you need to add more stock and turn down to medium-low and let cook for 5 more minutes.