Students in the kitchen, part I: pasta

Finding the time to get into the kitchen to make a meal can sometimes be a challenge, especially for those with limited cooking experience. This is part 1 of a series of recipe posts (hopefully, anyways). I decided to start with what most consider to be a staple in the student kitchen: pasta. Its fast, cheap and, for many recipes, quite easy to make. Also, you can make many pasta recipes with just a hot plate, which some of my foreign student friends in the Netherlands should appreciate.

In both recipes in this post, I've used farfalle. I think its the child in me that likes this bow-tie-shaped pasta... You could substitute other pastas as well. Farfalle takes longer to cook than most other types of pasta, so if you are short on time, try something else. Check package directions for cooking times. The recipes here are for 1 serving, but usually I make twice as much as I'll eat in one meal so that I can take the left-overs for lunch the next day. Here are a couple of simple ones:

Pesto farfalle with sauteed mushrooms and shrimp
I combined the pasta with mushrooms and shrimp, but you can put whatever else you like to combine with pasta. You can find jarred pesto at the supermarket.

Ingredients:

• 1 servings-worth of Farfalle
• 20-30 mL of cooking oil
• Small package of pre-cooked shrimps
• 8-10 mushrooms
• Jarred pesto

Instructions:

1. Fill a large pot with water (about 3/4 full). Bring it to a boil on high heat. Add the farfalle, put a lid on the pot and let it boil until soft (about 10 minutes). 
2. While the farfalle is cooking, heat the oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Saute the mushrooms and shrimp until the mushrooms are cooked and the shrimp are thoroughly heated. Turn off the heat.
3. Drain the pasta and add it to the shrimp and mushrooms. Add a 2-3 big-spoon's worth of pesto and stir until the pesto is evenly distributed. 

Farfalle with cherry tomatoes and cheese sauce

Making cheese sauce is more challenging and more effort than using jarred pesto, but its sooo tasty. 

Ingredients:

• 1 servings-worth of Farfalle
• 20-30mL butter
• 30mL white flour
• 200mL milk
• 1-2 handfulls of grated cheese
• small package of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• fresh basil (optional)
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Fill a large pot with water (about 3/4 full). Bring it to a boil on high heat. Add the farfalle, put a lid on the pot and let it boil until soft (about 10 minutes). 
2. While the farfalle is cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour (it should form a paste). Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth and letting the sauce thicken between each addition. In the end, it should be thick enough to coat a spoon, but thin enough that it is still pourable.
3. Add the cheese, stirring until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.
4. Drain the pasta. Add to it the cherry tomatoes and sauce. Cover and leave a few minutes to let the tomatoes become a bit warm.

I hope you enjoy these recipes. I'm hoping to keep future recipes relatively easy, but maybe I'll include some more challenging ones too. Good luck in the kitchen!