More Sauce, Less Pasta: How Low Can You Go?
More Sauce, Less Pasta: How Low Can You Go?
Introducing Crinkly Cherry Tomatoes with Toasted Noodles, One-of-Everything Pasta Frittata for One, and more
Who knew when we cooked together at Glynwood last month that we'd end up playing a round of kitchen limbo, with a penne noodle as the bar?
“How low can we go?” asks Mark, standing at the scale with a box of pasta in his hand. “A hundred grams?”
We were planning a layered eggplant dish for four but wanted to develop a formula that would be less than his original innovation, Less Pasta, More Sauce, which debuted in the New York Times 15 years ago.
“Let's say an ounce per person,” Kerri said.
Plunk. Mark drops his noodle limbo bar to four ounces or about 113 grams, far less than even the meager portion on a one-pound box of pasta.
And you know what? That was plenty. And we dubbed our new normal “Radically More Sauce, Less Pasta.” Let's just call it RMSLP for short.
First, we're going to walk you through the maiden voyage of RMSLP in photos—the baked eggplant-tomato dish that spawned the whole conversation.
Next comes two spins Kerri worked on when she got home. One serves two, the other one. All the recipes are easily scaled up or down and all maintain the radical one-ounce portion of pasta per person.
Radically More Sauce, Less Pasta Demo
How many of the world's most fantastic dishes start by frying sliced eggplant?
Here's another. But that was peak summer. So you might want to use a winter squash, celery root, or even trimmed portabella mushrooms.
We cooked the 4 ounces of pasta first, to a point where it was just barely tender. Save a cup of the liquid, then drain. While the vegetables sizzle in one pan, get a tomato sauce going so you can start layering. Make it nice and loose with some of the reserved pasta water. Mark still had frozen tomatoes from last summer, so we worked with those. Love how the warmth of your hands helps the skin slip right off as you drop them into the pot. Scissors help break up the big pieces.
Eggplant first, not sauce. This is a 5-quart relatively broad Dutch oven. The eggplant was pretty well oiled so we didn't grease the pot but you might want to.
Then the order goes: herbs, 1/3 of the pasta (which is a mere scattering!), and enough of the juicy sauce to get everything below damp but not submerged. Sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese. (Or to keep things vegan, chopped almonds or cashews.) Then repeat twice more. End with sauce and cheese. Note that all that liquid from the pot with the sauce is now in the pot with the layers.
Witness a spoonful: Noodle in every bite, but hardly a pasta dish.
Saucy Eggplant with Basil and Pasta
Makes: 4 servings
Time: About an hour
There's literally more herb than noodles in this torta-ish layered-and-baked dish, which was based on summertime vegetables. To substitute the bounty of the season, try winter squash or celery root instead of the eggplant and used canned whole tomatoes. Fall greens like mustard, kale, or spinach works surprisingly well as “the herb.”
Ingredients:
4 ounces penne or other long cut pasta
4 cups tomato sauce (like the one used in this recipe)
Olive oil as needed
1 1/2 pounds eggplant, sliced crosswise about 1/2-inch thick
Salt and pepper
1 tightly packed cup basil leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions:
1. Heat the oven to 450℉. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until the noodles are just tender but not quite edible. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Get the tomato sauce ready, add enough of the reserved water to make a loose sauce, and keep warm. Get a 4- or 5-quart baking dish or Dutch oven handy.
2. Put a thin film of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the eggplant in batches, salting them as they go in the pan, until they're soft and browned, 3 to 5 minutes a side. As they finish, transfer them to a plate.
3. Start with a layer of about 1/3 of the each component starting with the eggplant, followed by basil, pasta, sauce, and cheese. Sprinkle with pepper as you like. Repeat so that you finish with sauce and cheese.
4. Bake uncovered until the eggplant shrinks and the whole thing gets browned and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the pot sit for at least a couple minutes before serving hot or at room temperature.
— Recipe developed by Mark Bittman
