Edited by: Ananya Khandelwal
It’s 2 am on a Tuesday night and there’s a big, fat course pack (largely unread) sitting on the bed in front of you. Your eyes hurt from staring at it, wishing it would either vanish into the void or effortlessly transfer all of its contents into your brain. Your feet are cold and your stomach grumbles and you wish you could damn it all to hell and just go to sleep. Yet, this battle must be waged. A little food would be nice but walking all the way to an outlet on campus seems like a distant impossibility. You look up “Easy to Make Dorm Recipes” on your phone in a desperate attempt to silence the roaring pit and feel your insides cry. All of the recipes are either way too unhealthy (because duh, you’re trying to live a healthy life here), use ingredients that you have no access to (anyone has an avocado I could borrow?) or require insane amounts of effort. Sound familiar? Well, don’t worry because I’ve got you covered.
Cooking on college campuses isn’t easy. It tends to suffer from limited resources, time and energy. If ever somebody manages to bring out the pots and pans, it’s to make something quick , damaging to health and addictively delicious like Maggi or Top Ramen. This has become an epidemic that has overrun college life and it wreaks disaster on our bodies. So, I present to you the perfect solution to all our problems: One-Pot Pasta. As the name suggests, this is pasta that can be made using one utensil only—that means minimum washing of dishes, a small number of ingredients and no skill requirement whatsoever. It is eco-friendly because it saves water, cost-effective because its overall cost is less than that of ready-made food and healthier because it does not include any unhealthy processes like frying. Where do I get the ingredients for pasta at 2 am, you might ask. Well, the beauty of this dish is that all of the main food items it needs are easily storable and have quite a long shelf-life. So, you can always stock up for a time of need. Take a look for yourself:
Ingredients:
- Pasta (dry) – 180g (about ⅔ of a 250g penne packet)
- Butter – 2 or 3 10g packs
- Seasoning (Oregano, chilli flakes, salt and anything else you like) – to taste, around one pizza packet of each (more if you prefer it with a bit of a kick)
- Cheese (preferably grated but slices work too) – as much as you like, I usually use 2 or 3 slices
Method:
- Put some pasta in a pot and fill it with water. Add some salt and boil the pasta till soft enough to cut with a spoon.
- Once the pasta has been boiled, empty the water from the pot by pouring. If you aren’t sure whether all the water has come out, you can use a clean cloth to dab at the sides and the bottom of the pot while moving the pasta around to keep it dry.
- Then, put the pasta back on the heat with some butter. While the butter melts, add in the seasoning. Make sure to stir so that everything is evenly coated.
- Sprinkle in the cheese as you stir so that it melts into the pasta. If you have cheese slices, break them up into bits and mix them in. Don’t worry if the bits start to stick to the side of the pot or thicken in the middle. Just keep mixing and it’ll turn out fine.
- Once you’re satisfied with your pasta, take it off the heat and enjoy!
This pasta doesn’t seem like much but it sure is delicious. Now that you know the basic outline, you can always experiment by throwing in different vegetables, other kinds of spices, pasta sauces, even eggs. One-Pot pasta has the scope to be as simple or as complex as you want it to be and the best part is, it still takes the same amount of effort! So the next time you’re close to starvation and can’t bring yourself to get out of the dorm, treat yourself to this easy-to-make (honestly!) recipe.