Indulgent. Rich. Decadent. Words that are normally used to describe a good pasta dish. Now here are some words that aren’t — Light. Low-carb. Healthy.
By definition, a good pasta dish is meant to be rich and flavourful and has two key components—the pasta and the sauce. That’s it. The Italians are geniuses at creating sensational food with a handful of ingredients, and while we’ve loved it, we just couldn’t let it be.
In our attempt to alleviate the guilt that engulfs you after eating too many carbs in one sitting, we’ve done questionable things to pasta like over-stuffing it veggies and worse—eliminating the cheese.
It is this pasta-lover’s humble opinion that while we’ve tried to healthify pasta and make it better for our systems, we’ve ruined the simple joy it brought to our souls.
Pasta is soul food. But “healthy pasta” is akin to eating cardboard. It’s health food you eat because you have to, not because it brings you any kind of joy.
Today, I’m thinking back to some “healthified pastas” I’ve eaten over the years.
I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself. It’s making me want to lay under the covers and silently cry into my pillow listening to Taylor Swift circa 2008.
1. The one without any cheese
I’ve been offered this one multiple times and always with so much pride. You may say, “There are plenty of pasta dishes that are made without cheese, Chandni. Get over it.” And I would agree. I love a good Aglio e Olio just as much as the next person, but here I’m talking about cheese-less white sauce pastas. Yes, I know, blasphemy.
Here’s the thing—if you don’t like cheese, don’t even bother making a white sauce pasta. You will get no joy out of it. You can still enjoy an Arrabiatta or an Aglio e Olio. Maybe even a nice, spicy Bolognese.
If you’re avoiding cheese because you’re lactose intolerant1 you have my sympathies. But there is no other acceptable reason you’d go to the trouble of making a roux and then not add cheese to the sauce. Seriously, what’s the point of that arm workout if there’s no cheesy reward in the end?
2. The one that was essentially a pulav
There are two ways of overstuffing your pasta with veggies. I call one ‘the salad’ and the other ‘the pulav’. They’re both equally annoying but one is more fixable than the other.
‘The salad’ is what most people do - boil veggies of choice and toss them in whatever pasta they’re making. It’s what we’ve grown up eating at restaurants, so you can’t hate on it too much. My suggestion to fix it: Blanch whatever veggies you want to toss into your pasta and eat them on the side. Easy. You get your veggies without ruining pasta.
‘The pulav’ is what happens when you decide to make the national dish of another country, your way. With onions and tomatoes forming the base. With carrots, beans, potatoes and peas. And with desi masalas.
I’m not exaggerating here, I actually ate this “pasta” at a dinner party. The only thing missing was a raitha on the side, and considering how dry the pasta was, I could have used it. Sadly, this cannot be fixed. Just don’t do this, please.
3. The one without any maida
Maida or all-purpose flour has a horrible reputation for being unhealthy, probably because it is used to make most of the things we’ve grown up being taught were unhealthy, including a lot of packaged junk food, bakery goodies and whatnot.
Now, I’m not going to go around advocating that you should be eating a lot of maida, but if you offer me a bowl of white sauce pasta and tell me that you managed to avoid using the two tablespoons of flour it takes to make a roux, I am going to look at the sauce suspiciously.
Yes, I know you can make white sauce pasta without the roux—an Alfredo uses just butter and cheese—but I’m a hundred percent positive if you think you need to avoid two tablespoons of flour, you think you need to avoid butter and cheese for health reasons too, so the contents of that sauce are still an unsolved mystery to me.
If you need some gooood pasta recipes after the horror movie this newsletter’s been, I got you.
My current favourite pasta dish is a Spicy Vodka Pasta that was apparently so the rage in the 1970s and 80s as an ‘impress your date’ meal. After you try it out, you’ll see why. Get the recipe by hitting the button below.
What do you think of healthified recipes? Tell me more in the comments.
Side note on lactose intolerance and pasta - I remember reading somewhere that Cacio e Pepe is a good option for the lactose tolerant since the only dairy used is some good quality Parmigiano Reggiano cheese that’s emulsified with the starchy pasta water to create the sauce versus other white sauce pastas that would use milk and cream as well. I’m unable to find said article (let’s be honest, it was more likely a reel), so do what you will with this information, but please don’t come for me if Cacio e Pepe doesn’t agree with you.