The secret to sub-10-minute pasta

Happy Sunday! Just a reminder that if you reply to these emails, we’ll shoot you a response back! We’ve loved hearing your ideas, suggestions, kind words, and best of all — seeing the amazing meals you’ve been cooking.

Announcement: Next week, this newsletter will be hitting your inbox on the morning of Saturday, December 24th. In case you need some last-minute Christmas cooking inspiration, we’ll have you covered.

As always, a full grocery shopping list for the recipes below is linked in Notion at the end of this email.

In This Week’s Edition

Holiday Shopping Help 🪒 — Sponsored by Harry’s

Try Something New 🤯 — The Fastest Pasta Dish I Know How to Make

Throwback Time 🍳 — Weeknight Chicken Techniques

The Leftover Shelf 🥡 — Chicken Pita w/ Hummus

Extra Helpings 🍽 — Cooking for Large Groups?

Holiday Shopping Help with Harry’s 🪒

Looking for a last-minute holiday gift that someone will actually use? Do you have someone that’s hard to shop for?

Whether it’s hearth-scented candles, tasteful toiletry bags, body wash, or shaving kits, Harry’s has something for everyone.

Check out today’s newsletter sponsor Harry’s for a selection of holiday grooming products at a great price ➡️ https://harrys.com/ethan​

Try Something New 🤯

This is the fastest meal I made this week.

Sausage & Broccolini Gnocchi

Always keep a pack of store-bought gnocchi in the freezer — they’re an amazing way to have a meal put together in minutes.

Components

• Store bought gnocchi pack (~1 lb, 450 g)

• Olive oil for cooking (optional, depending on how fatty the sausage is)

• 1/2 to 1 lb (~225 to 450 g) loose sausage (Merguez, Italian, Chorizo, or any type you have)

• Broccolini (or any green you have), about equal parts in volume to the sausage

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced

• Red pepper flakes, to taste

• Handful of Parmigiano Reggiano or parmesan, grated

• Kosher salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Set a small pot of water to boil and season with a small handful of salt.

2. In a second, wide pan, sear off your sausage until browned and crispy over medium-high heat. Add additional olive oil (if needed), garlic, and red pepper flake. Heat through until fragrant.

3. Add the broccolini and a pinch of salt and sauté together until mostly cooked through.

4. Meanwhile, when your salted water starts boiling, add gnocchi and cook for 2 minutes or until cooked through.

5. Add the gnocchi directly to the sausage and greens along with a few spoonfuls of the pasta water to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spatula to scrape up any fond.

6. Turn off the heat. Add a big handful of Parmigiano to the pasta and mix together. Serve.

Pro Tip — Use as small of a pasta boiling pot as possible. The less water you use, the more starchy it will get from boiling the gnocchi. This starchy water will help emulsify with the sausage fat and Parmigiano to form a creamy coating instead of a greasy pasta.

Throwback Time 🍳

Hate meal prepping? We do too.

A solution is to always keep chicken thighs around. You can prepare them super quickly, or cook a large batch for many different meals throughout the week.

Check out the video for the 3 best ways to cook chicken at home.

Pair your perfect chicken thighs with Kathi rolls, Jollof rice, weeknight sweet potatoes, or in a burrito or salad bowl.

Or, make some easy pita sandwiches with the leftovers...

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Prepped chicken → Chicken Pita Pockets w/ Hummus

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Get a pack of pita bread, hummus, and some veggies and you can repurpose the chicken into a whole new weeknight meal!

Pita Components

• Chicken thighs, leftover

• One pita pocket

• Hummus (Or make your own! Written recipe here)

• Romaine lettuce

• Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half​

• Cucumbers, sliced

• Feta cheese

• ​Pickled onions​

To assemble: Warm up the pita and chicken. Spread hummus inside the pita, and stuff with chicken, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and pickled onions. Sprinkle with feta cheese.

Variations: For a vegetarian variation, sub chicken with chickpeas, beans, or falafel. You can also drizzle toppings with olive oil or sprinkle with smoked paprika, za’atar, or cayenne powder.

Extra Helpings 🍽

🚀 Viral Eats

The latest cooking trends explained.

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Q: Why would anyone want to eat a sandwich made of bell peppers?

A: The bell pepper sandwich found TikTok fame last summer when food blogger My Nguyen shared her recipe and then Gordon Ramsay declared it an “idiot sandwich” Despite the roast, the food trend has continued to grow on TikTok and Instagram.

The bell pepper “bread” gives both a satisfying crunch and fiber boost to the traditional sandwich. Although there’s nothing quite like freshly toasted sourdough, we admit it’s a creative way to reduce carbs and sneak extra veggies into your lunch without sacrificing texture.

🤔 Reader Q&A

Q: Most of your video recipes are for one or two people. In general, how do you approach scaling a dish for hosting a larger group? — Cam C.

A: Great ask, Cam. For the most part, you can just multiply recipe ingredient quantities. What might change, however, is the cooking time, method, and equipment used.

In general, larger quantities of food are going to take longer to bake in the oven or cook through in a pan. Don’t rely on the recipe time suggestions and instead use your senses to determine when something is done.

For example, a single serving of meat or vegetables might crisp up and brown nicely in a pan, but crowding that same pan with larger quantities can overwhelm the heat source and cause everything to just steam together instead. For this reason, try searing ingredients in batches (which can often end up going faster than heating one large batch through), or using a large sheet pan in the oven or broiler.

If you’re hosting — consider preparing all or most component parts of a recipe ahead of time. When your guests arrive, heat the elements through and assemble into a freshly finished dish.

🏆 Dinner Winner! Reader Photo Submission of the Week

This week’s winner is Matthew Kikkert, who made tortilla soup AND crispy oven fries, both from last week’s newsletter. You get double the brownie points, Matthew!

Reply with a picture of the best meal you made this week for a chance to be featured.

🤤 More Yummy Content

A Read: David Chang’s Unified Theory of Deliciousness​

In a Minute or Less: Leftover Onion Pasta​

What We’re Watching: Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte​

Food Science: Sausage Science (Kofte)​

Upgrade Your Feed: Connect with Ethan everywhere.​

Ready to shop? 🛒

​Shopping List 12/18