Very little pasta shape

Way of cooking said tiny shapes

that's very different from other italian pasta dishes.

You can cook these more like rice

Than like pasta, meaning you only use a little boil water and you don't drain it at the end.

The result is a porridge of pasta, like couscous — but generally a lot creamier than couscous. It's more like risotto. You can put vegetables and all kinds of stuff in with the pasta, but first let me show you the basic. This is apparently a thing a lot of Italians grow up eating when they're sick. The shape is a tiny star, but it could be letter pasta, anything very small. For liquid you could use plain water, some people use milk, I think I like chicken stock the best for this but you obviously you could use veggie stock. And the ratio I like is four-to-one liquid to pasta by weight, or three-to-one-by volume, at least with this particular pasta shape.

Other shapes will measure differently by volume. I'm doing just one portion, so I've got a cup and a half of stock, 355mL. I'm throwing a leaf from my sage plant in there just to infuse the stock a little, but you could use any herb, dry or fresh. Bring that to a boil, and then I'll stir in about 90g of this dry pastina, which is half a cup — three-to-one by volume, four-to-one by weight. And it'll seem like not nearly enough pasta at first, but give it a few minutes, stirring frequently so that nothing sticks to the sides of the pan. When you cook pasta normally in a large excess of water you don't really have to worry about sticking, but you do here. Like five minutes later, we're almost there. I'll fish out the sage leaf before things get way too sticky.

The key is to stop cooking and mix in all your other ingredients a little before the pasta is done and all the water is absorbed. Heat is off, bubbling has about stopped, and I'll melt in a knob of butter. I've seen people put this in earlier, but that breaks the natural emulsion of the butter. If we melt it in gently at the very end it'll stay creamier. A couple grinds of pepper — in something this subtly flavored you'll really notice fresh pepper, so go easier than you normally would. Grate in some parmesan or pecorino cheese — we're finishing this just like risotto. Stir it in and taste for seasoning — you might not need any additional salt given the salty cheese and the store-bought stock is salty. You could call that done, or you could stir in an egg.

If I was making two portions I'd use a whole egg, but I'm only making one portion so I'm just using the yolk. That'll be more luxurious anyway. The key is to way until the bubbling has totally stopped and then stir really vigorously, or else the egg is gonna curdle and you're gonna get ugly ribbons of cooked egg streaking through — I've got one little streak right there, but otherwise I've kept the egg creamy, not curdled. And over the two minutes in which I've been finishing this dish the pasta has finished cooking and absorbed the last of the free liquid in there. If you want it soupier, you can always add liquid at this stage. But I think the ratio I gave you is a good starting point. You can always add liquid, you can't take away. Kinda looks like caviar, right? And it feels a little like caviar in the mouth — smooth little pearls.

You can grate on more cheese, maybe give it a swirl of olive oil on top for heterogeneity and that is some comfort food right there. It's like a cross between oatmeal and mac & cheese, but with the finesse of a good risotto, in a fraction of the time that it takes to make risotto. Let's try it again but make a nutritionally complete meal out of it.

I'm making four portions and I'm starting

With about a quart or a liter of water.

That's conservative but we can always add. Get that coming to a boil. And instead of using a meat stock this time I'm using a handful of dried mushrooms. Morels are expensive — you could totally use something way cheaper.

Any really fragrant dried mushrooms will give you a meaty tasting liquid after they've boiled for a bit. In the meantime I can consider the rest of the groceries

So my dry mushrooms have gotten like a 10-minute head start.

I can start putting in other stuff, like a handful of these frozen fresh lima beans. I love those, but they need like 15 or 20 minutes to cook. They're not like frozen peas, which cook instantly. Small vegetables that you can buy just one of at the grocery store — my favorite kind. The carrot will take the longest to soften so I'll cut it first. Hand above and around the knife, stabilizing it while I cut lengthwise. Now I can lay these securely on their flat faces and cut them into quarters, then I can slice crosswise and those should cook pretty quick. Into the broth they go.

The mushrooms will need like a half hour total to soften and they've been going about 15 minutes so we're right on target. Next I'll chop up this shallot — any form of onion is fine. And I'll peel and chop a couple garlic cloves. In with all of that. Looks like we've had some evaporation.

Need more water, so let's borrow a

Page from risotto technique and throw in a glass of white wine.

Not necessary, but very nice.

With the celery, I'll save those leaves for garnish at the end.

Cut this into little sticks and then cut across the sticks. In those go. The quickest-cooking veg is gonna be the zucchini. I'll cut that in half, lay those securely on their flat sides and then I think I'll need to quarter each of these to get sufficiently small pieces. So cut those into eight sticks, cut across the sticks, and those little pieces will need 10 minutes max and we're there, so in. I suppose I should throw in a pinch of salt to start with, given that I'm not starting with a salty stock. A few grinds of pepper, and now we'll just simmer the veggies until they're almost perfectly tender, which turned out to be seven more minutes. Time to stir in one cup of dry pastina, about 180g.

This is gonna seem like not nearly enough for four portions. But I'm trying to make a healthier meal here, so I want the mass to be half vegetables, at least. Plus, check how much the pasta expands. Give it a stir now and then so nothing sticks and all the pasta cooks evenly. Like five minutes later, here's how much liquid we've absorbed. We're probably gonna need to add some more, but that's fine — you can always add. Heat off, and I'll melt in a giant knob of butter — this is four portions. Grate in a big pile of cheese, and only because I have one lying around I'll grate in some lemon zest.

I really like how the zest freshens up a stewed vegetable dishe, and you can still use the juice in something else another day. A handful of frozen peas, mostly for color. All they have to do is thaw. And maybe some chili flakes, just for fun. Get that all melted in. Definitely gonna need some more water, but that's fine. The bubbling has fully stopped, but the pot is still steaming, so it's the perfect time to stir in eggs. I'm doing two whole eggs for four portions.

Stir vigorously and the eggs shouldn't scramble — they'll just go nice and creamy. Taste for seasoning — needs more salt but I think I'll take my salt I the form of more cheese. Oh, and my celery leaves for garnish. Stir that in and we are done. You could use vegan sour cream in place of the butter and cheese, and you could skip the eggs entirely, but I really like how their texture interacts with the little pasta shapes. It's really quite a luxurious, silky texture, plus we've got a nutritionally respectable meal here — lots of veg, some protein, it's good. And again, far quicker and easier than making risotto. Use a bag of frozen vegetable medley instead of the fresh veg and you've got dinner in 10 minutes.

Just don't tell your nonna about it. Or do tell your gonna about it. She respects efficiency...