Morehouse Made Homemaking

“With Love, Meghan,” featuring Meghan Markle, was not my favorite show. I got about two episodes in and decided it just wasn’t for me. However, she featured a recipe in the first episode that really intrigued me. She put in her cherry tomatoes, garlic, lemon zest, and *dry pasta* into the same pot and then covered it with hot water to make a simple form of spaghetti. At that point, she was essentially done minus some cooking time, cheese, greens, and garnishes. I was fascinated. Surely a dish with so few ingredients and pasta that’s cooked with the tomatoes was… well… bland at best and either really crunchy or really soggy at worst (and still bland). Maybe cooking the pasta with everything else is common practice? I don’t know of anyone who does that, but I’m also no gourmet chef. So, I decided to give it a try.

I would like to begin by saying how incredibly difficult this recipe was to find. Every recipe I initially found was an “adapted from” recipe, and I wanted the real deal. I had initially found it on the NYT cooking page, but alas, I got stuck behind the paywall and wasn’t about to shell out for another subscription I would inevitably forget to cancel. And then finally, AllRecipes came through and had it in its original, non-adulterated form. This recipe was the winner-winner, pasta dinner.

I started by putting four cups of water on the stove to boil, and then I chopped everything else up- both the cherry tomatoes and the basil. I already had pre-chopped garlic on hand, so that’s what I used. At this point, I felt the need to sauté the tomatoes, (it didn’t really say, but I did add oil to the pot, so it seemed right) so I put everything but the pasta and lemon zest in, and I let it sauté for a couple of minutes. Let me just tell you, that I didn’t think tomatoes and garlic could smell so good together, but they did. After I felt like they sautéed long enough (about 4 minutes), I nervously added my pasta and lemon zest, and then I added the boiling water on top. Now, the directions say “add until covered,” but my mom brain just read “boil 4 cups of water” and so that’s what I added. I was a little nervous that I was going to end up with soggy, over done pasta, but that was not the case at all. By the time I stirred up this dish after about five minutes and let it cook for another five, this dish was fragrant and perfectly done. I added in the spinach and parmesan , and it made this nice sauce for the pasta. The only deviation I made for this pasta was the omission of red pepper flakes because the kids and I don’t like spicy.

After I finished this dish, I plated it and added basil to the top. That was it. It was simple and done. My expectations were low because the recipe seemed too tomato-y, was meatless, and just not what I thought my family would eat. To my absolute surprise, this dish was fresh, super yum, and very easy. I was a huge fan! Even my husband, who likes all dishes with meat, had three helpings. My kids were a bit indifferent, but they all ate it. I served it up with green beans, and it was a winner.

In short, this is one for the dinner rotation, and I’m glad I gave it a try. I’m not sure that I’ll try her “Tuilp Toast” or that I’ll be sprinkling flowers on my dishes, but I may try some of her more savory dishes (again, if they don’t include edible flowers. Not enough emphasis can be placed on this).

Have you made this one? Let me know what you thought!