These 15 Minute Pastas Will Change Your Dinners Forever!

So it's very clear that from the past episodes of 15 minute meals , you all really like the pasta recipes .

So what I wanted to do today is really just focus on an entire episode just for pasta .

And what I love so much about making pasta is that you can make an entire meal just from one pan .

Plus they're really customizable .

So you can just use whatever you have lying around in the fridge or the pantry .

So what I'm gonna be showing you today is four unique but very easy to execute pasta dishes that you , you can bring together during your weeks in under 15 minutes .

So as you can see , we are right in the middle of a kitchen renovation about two weeks out , but we're in the kitchen because of one reason , which is this thing right here .

If you remember from the last studio in Brooklyn , my dad and I built out this incredible butcher block , one of a kind kitchen island made out of Walnut .

So I knew that would be the centerpiece of this kitchen .

But this is kind of 2.0 version we built in two shelves that gives me easy access to bowls or compost or whatever it is .

And then also on the other side , you can pull up some counters stools and actually sit , which is a nice option .

And this should give you a nice sense of what's to come in this kitchen .

I cannot wait .

But all I really need is one table , a few burners .

And speaking of burners , first step is getting , oh , that was nice .

This is the first time I'm using this induction burner .

Get your pot of water , get ahead of it .

And then you can start prepping your aromatics .

So this pasta dish is a bit unique .

You're probably not gonna see it on an Italian menu because I kind of concocted it and it all starts with the flavor that is packed into a jar of sun dried tomatoes filled with oil .

So I'm gonna get a pan on a medium heat .

I'm using a nice wide stainless steel saute pan with a high lip .

My favorite for making pasta .

And what I'll do is I will dump in all of this oil .

We've got garlic in here .

We've got basil , we've got oregano really fill the pan .

You do not want to hold back on fat .

It is going to infuse the whole pasta with flavor .

Now onto our fennel , we're just gonna cut off the bottom root , cut off the tougher top pieces and then slice this right in half .

Give this a really thin slice just like you're cutting some onion , the thinner you slice it the quicker we'll cook , which is the goal for a 15 minute dinner .

And then get that immediately into this pan and fennel to me is one of the most underrated aromatics and bases of a pasta dish or soup .

When you taste it raw , it's got that ay flavor , which is fantastic .

But when it sweats down and Caramelizes , there's not much better .

We'll get a little salt in there and we don't need any other aromatics because it's already in the oil .

So , while that's cooking down , I'm gonna take out .

Now , the sun dried tomatoes give them a rough chop .

I've got a little bit of parsley .

I think this is the last ingredient that I need to prep , which is crazy .

So , I mean , this is all your flavor right here , which is incredible .

How quick it was to prep that you don't want to skimp on the oil .

You see this fennel just really breaking down .

That's because this pan is certainly not dry .

We're boiling over here .

I've got some nude skis , but jet , you don't wanna know my Italian accent .

I'll give a little salt in there and dump .

Just take a look at this panel .

I'm cooking for like four or five minutes basically , just gonna melt into the sauce .

And now what I'll do is I'll throw the tomatoes in .

Those are just gonna lightly saute in that oil .

For about 30 seconds .

Now , we have all of this incredible aromatic flavor , but we need to build out a sauce .

And one of my favorite ways to do that with pasta is white wine .

And don't listen to people that say like use a white wine .

If you want your pasta taste good , use a good white line .

So we'll just dump that in probably about a cup that will reduce that alcohol will cook out .

Turn the heat up sauce bubbling away .

Reducing nicely noodles , clumping up , be done in just a few minutes for maybe the first time in 15 , 15 minute dinner history , we have about a minute to spare .

So instead of grating the cheese right in , I'll just pre grade it right now .

Just using the micro plain .

My favorite way to grate parm into pasta because it's so fine and it just melts right in .

That looks like a good hunk .

Try a noodle .

You can see there's still a good bit of uncooked starch in this .

See that ring right on the inside .

Now , we don't want to overcook the pasta because it's gonna spend a good bit of time infusing with that sauce .

Probably a minute and a half away .

Just take a little chunk of butter , throw that into the sauce , pasta should be done .

I think the easiest way to do this is just to bring this over here and start scooping and you can see this beautiful starchy pasta water .

Just keep letting that reduce because we're gonna use that to our advantage , thicken up the sauce and now just sort of gently toss you see how liquidy that is right now , that's gonna completely transform in the next minute or two .

Just crank the heat up .

I'm just gonna stick a little bit of pasta water and that these are the moments where pasta really comes together and you're in fusing and thickening up that sauce .

So now we have no liquid right at that point , we can go in with both our cheese and our parsley .

Hit it with a little bit of pepper , bring together .

Wow .

Hit it with a little , a little more pasta water to thin it out .

Sweet baby Jesus .

That just looks so good .

So I've made this pasta so many times that I didn't even taste it for seasoning .

Look at the flavor on that one noodle .

I mean the amount of flavor that you can build just from this one jar that is the key to this pasta .

And that is why I love this dish .

And what we're gonna make now is a pistachio pesto , which is one of my favorite pastas I've been making recently .

Now , I originally found out about it from my animator's Instagram .

He posted a video of this and I instantly needed to know how it was made and he actually found this recipe from his Italian friend whose grandmother made it post World War Two out of necessity .

When she didn't have traditional pesto ingredients , she just use what she had , which was pistachios .

And the first thing we're gonna do is toast these pistachios just like you would the pine nuts for traditional pesto .

And then I'm also gonna take some asparagus .

Yeah , some beautiful in season .

Asparagus actually growing in my garden right now .

But it won't be ready for harvest for a few years And once that pasta water is ready to go , I'm gonna give it a blast .

So in the meantime , we'll prepare our pesto .

So we're gonna hit it with the juice of some lemon .

Of course , every pesto needs some garlic .

Now , herbage for this dish is actually optional , but when I recipe tested it , I enjoy just a little bit of parsley for that fresh sort of pungency .

You can also throw in some basil if you want .

But again , these pistachios right here are the star starting to brown up just a bit .

Smelling really nice .

You get this in and come on .

Come on , come on on one hand .

OK .

I don't need all of these asparagus and the veggies are completely up to you .

But because it's a 15 minute meal , I like taking advantage of this boiling water .

So I'm just gonna blanche the asparagus for literally one minute .

In the meantime , we can blend this up .

Do you need a little bit of salt in there ?

A little pepper a little olive oil and these asparagus are definitely done .

Uh Where do I go ?

Oh , since my sink is out of commission , I'm going , I'm not blending these .

This is just the cool demo , by the way .

Look at the vibrancy on that blanched asparagus , one of my favorite ways to cook it .

So , since I'm pretty much ready to blend , it's a great time to get my pasta going .

This is some fresh fettuccini , the only fresh pasta I'm using today .

So it should only take , I don't know , two minutes , three minutes in here .

Get that going .

We're also gonna want some of that starchy water for pasta .

We'll start this and see what we get before the water is added .

So once it stops blending , that's when we will add our pasta water .

Don't do that .

You're gonna need a good bit to get a nice creamy presto that check the noodle .

Oh Yeah , these noodles are ready .

This dish comes together very , very quick .

I would say you can make it in 12 minutes .

12 minute pastas .

You probably won't need all that sauce .

We'll reserve a little bit and then finally we'll take some of those asparagus .

I'm gonna cut off the heads .

I'll toss those in , then I'll just slice these thin for a nice little crunch and pop .

And this is completely optional .

You can hit this with Parmesan , you can keep it plain .

I'm gonna hit it with a dollop of ricotta , a little more pasta water .

You don't need to cook this too long .

Just really , so that cheese melts in and we're done .

That took no time .

I could really use some tongs right now , but I just don't know where they are .

So , two spoons , we'll have to do just a little bit of cracked pepper on top .

It's very creamy but it's very light and the pistachio flavor , it's not super aggressive .

I wouldn't say it's like eating a pistachio ice cream .

It's just a nuttiness but balanced out with the acidity and the fat from the Rica .

That's awesome .

Completely different taste experience than a traditional pesto .

It almost leans more towards uh an Alfredo because of the creaminess , but a great quick option for your weeknight dinners .

So we've been recipe testing all of these pasta dishes for the last few weeks and we already have a sauce that features tomatoes , but that was actually a white wine sauce .

So , of course , we wanted to come in with an actual canned tomato based sauce because everyone's got a can of tomatoes hanging around .

But we wanted to make it a little more special .

So that specialness is gonna start right here .

Pancetta .

Now , you can use any cured or cooked pork products .

Bacon Prosciutto , the pancetta is nice because you get these chunky pieces .

So I'm just cutting them up into little cubes .

Now , while that's frying , we're gonna slice up our aromatics which are really simple .

We've got one little sweet onion right here .

I'll just slice that nice and thin , a little bit of garlic .

And then generally for 15 minute pastas , I just slice through it .

No need to do a fine shot .

Plus it will cook a little more even with the onion aromatics prepped .

And this has been cooking for about four minutes .

You can see we are rendered but not overcooked .

We want a nice chew .

We don't want to burn the hell out of it .

Gonna remove that .

Go in with my aromatics .

How good does that look ?

Uh turn that heat down to a nice medium .

We don't want anything burning .

And now , oh yeah , my favorite pasta brands Vani and these are hemp radiators .

So they're just like infused with a little hemp .

I find this shape is just fantastic for holding onto sauce .

One of my go to for just a nice week night meal and then we'll just watch this for the next minute before we add our sauce .

Now you can see in just about two minutes .

How nice those onions and garlic look smells incredible .

And usually I just go right in with the tomato sauce , but this pancetta is a little different .

It left a good bit of faw on there .

And since I have just a little bit of white wine left over , I'm deglazing just to make sure all of that flavor gets upended from the bottom of the top , but you can just go straight in with the tomato sauce or you can use red wine too just right there .

That's an incredible just steak sauce .

Plop that on a steak .

I've got just a standard can 14 ounces , crushed tomatoes .

So we'll just let that come up to a bubble and simmer for like three minutes .

That's really all it needs for the flavors to come together pasta on .

That's looking good .

A few more minutes .

There , there's two more things I have to do .

One is right in here .

Another key player , frozen green peas again .

Just another great week night ingredient .

A lot of people have just a bag of frozen veggies lying around and then I'm gonna pick some fresh basil to garnish .

I like a lot of basil in this dish to really freshen it up at the very end .

Now , this is looking great , slightly reduced .

So we'll slice open these peas .

Let's say that's a cup .

Add back your crispy pancetta .

Oh Look at that .

And let's check on our pasta .

We're about two minutes away .

All the pasta is finishing .

Just give it a taste .

OK ?

That's why you taste food that pan on its own .

When you taste it is very salty .

But when it comes together in this sauce , the salt actually leeches out a bit and I didn't add any salt to anything else and that's like perfectly Sead .

So you gotta taste because every ingredient is not made equally perfect .

Ok , scoop these out and all the extra residual water that's kind of caught up in those squiggly that will just help build out the sauce a bit .

That is feeling just a little bit dry .

So I'm gonna take this can .

Now I kill two birds with one stone , extra tomato flavor and pasta liquid and we'll stir it up .

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You can see this thing is just loaded with goodies , but that sauce has been completely absorbed into those radiators .

That's just like an ideal weight .

Quick pasta .

Oh , boy .

One more thing , I almost forgot .

I'll just take this basil and rip it up and let it do its magic and infuse and perfume .

That pasta for this one .

I'm gonna do parm right on top .

This to me is just the ultimate use up .

What you have type pasta .

You're taking classic pantry ingredients .

Really ?

You can use any protein you want .

Most people have onions and garlic hanging around can of tomatoes , any frozen vegetable and you're turning it into something substantial .

This is hearty .

This is delicious .

You're gonna love it .

Your family is gonna be happy .

A really fun place on a classic tomato sauce pasta .

All right .

So the plan was to end things at those three recipes .

Hopefully you've found some inspiration there .

But yesterday , I was walking around in my garden and I found something very , very special .

So we had a big rain and I'm walking in the back yard and look at this , an entire mushroom field all around and these beauty , these are called wine caps because of this nice reddish tone to the cap of the mushrooms .

So there's five categories of wild mushrooms ranging from deadly at the worst , which you certainly don't want to eat to choice , which is the top rated mushrooms like the chants and mores and actually wine caps , which are growing all over my yard .

I had no idea are part of that choice category .

So I'm gonna make a pasta with these .

But if you are ever foraging for mushrooms , make sure that the mushroom you're picking is 100% safe to eat .

Don't take any chances .

And even if you've identified it as safe , cut up just a tiny little piece of it , fry it up and try that before you eat a bunch , which I did yesterday .

So I'm gonna harvest a bunch of these and we're gonna whip up just the last quick little mushroom pasta .

So for this last dish , I'm just gonna let these mushrooms shine by creating a really simple garlicky butter mushroom sauce .

First thing I'll do is pop off all the caps .

The stems are a bit too woody at this point in the growth .

So they'll just get composted and then I'll rattle through all of those caps and slice them nice and thin .

I'll pop all of the mushrooms in a bowl and roughly chop up three cloves of garlic .

And then to my , and I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil and a whole bunch of butter .

Since this is one of the main flavoring to the dish and when the butter melts , I'll throw in that garlic and just saute that on a low heat until it starts to smell nice and nutty .

And then I'll drop in all of those mushrooms which are about 90% water .

So this is going to reduce down pretty quickly .

And after about two minutes , you can see here , mushrooms have released a ton of liquid , which is fantastic because that liquid is gonna mix in with our fat and create a beautiful sauce .

I'm gonna add a touch of salt at this point .

And then I'll go in with my cooked pasta .

I had some elbows lying around in the pantry but use whatever you have .

And then initially , that sauce is going to be pretty liquidy .

But after about three minutes cooking on a medium heat , things are gonna start to really thicken up .

And when the liquid has gone from thin to sauce consistency , that's when I'll add in some fresh grated Parmesan cheese along with some chopped up parsley .

I'll give it a final season of some salt and pepper and give that a final few tosses to bring the pasta together .

Things just got very interesting out of nowhere .

I love having a garden .

To me .

My best description , the texture of a shiitake mushroom .

They cook down just like a shiki very quickly .

You don't need to cook them long .

But the flavor is much more mellow , more like a cremini style mushroom with a little like cashew tone , a little more nuttiness .

But it , it's a solid mushroom .

Definitely a level up from your standard button mushroom or Portobello .

Wow .

Wow .

Just a simple butter , garlic mushroom sauce to really highlight the fresh products .

So hopefully you're inspired to make one of these recipes at least or just craft something from your own original take , get creative with it .

And thank you again to me for sponsoring this video with quality tools like their pots and pans .

It was incredibly easy to nail down these recipes and just in general to stay on my game in the kitchen .

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