Seven Days of Pasta

What essentially started as a joke in response to the age-old question “what do you want for dinner?” quickly escalated and before you know it, it was pasta for dinner seven days in a row.

There were highs, there were lows, surprises (looking at you cavatelli) and disappointments (looking at you gnocchi), along the way. We only scratched the surface and seven bowls (excluding seconds) of pasta was not enough to capture the diversity out there.

We tried to be representative, some were simpler and some were harder. I did a little chart doodle to summarise the week. I’ve also written up separate blog posts (see links below) in case anyone wanted a more detailed breakdown of each day and the recipe.

However, in a nutshell, here are my ratings for the last week (the boy who cooks thinks lasagne is fourth. I think he's wrong):

Joint first - pesto cavatelli and orecchiette ragù

Second - tagliatelle carbonara

Third - chorizo and ricotta tortellini en brodo

Fourth - spinach and ricotta agnolotti

Fifth - lasagne

Sixth and last - gnocchi in sage brown butter

Also, on a more serious note, I think the pasta challenge also served as a distraction in these confusing times. It injected a small sense of achievement each day as one more was crossed off the list. If you’re struggling to remember which day it is, a pasta plan doesn’t hurt. Pasta is harder to forget.

However, of course things change. For example, we shuffled some of the pastas around as there was no collective energy on Thursday to make dainty tortellini and chicken stock. Instead it was the low-effort orecchiette with leftover defrosted ragù.

If you followed this week's antics, thank you for that. And even if you never plan on making fresh pasta, never say never. Maybe another pandemic will force you to also look for purpose in the form of pasta.

Lastly, here's the final conclusion: regardless of the pasta type, love your pasta water as much as the pasta itself. Also who am I kidding, the real MVP this week was parmesan.

So, what's for dinner this week?