Elegant One Pot Spaghetti & Meal Recipe

[Omegaman 3.0]

This is a teaser for now, showing most of the ingredients. I am making this tonight. As you can see, I have prepped my ingredients. If this turns out well, then I will post the recipe. If not, I suppose I will delete this post. Patience, I am brand new to this kind of cooking.

This is designed, to taste okay even without any sauce, but I am bringing a red sauce anyway, just to make sure. I suspect that I will prefer it with red sauce, others might prefer Alfredo sauce. We'll see how it tastes soon.

[angels4u]

Following

[Omegaman 3.0]

Well, the dinner was a success, all praised the spaghetti as exceptional, words like best ever and gourmet occurred. The recipe is imminent, look for it to appear here in this thread, sometime on Saturday Oct 20th, 2018. 

[Omegaman 3.0]

Finally, it is here!

Spaghetti, the Old Fashioned Way – What I used to do

Apologies in advance, for what will be wordy, it is my style, succinctness is not what I am good at, details are more my thing. This is going to be about the recipe I used recently, to make spaghetti, which turned out great. I am not used to using the terms “great” and “spaghetti” in the same sentence. In the past when I have made spaghetti, I have done so by bringing water to a boil in a large pot, and then added the dried spaghetti noodles to the water, in such a way that they are fanned out to allow the water to more readily circulate between them. I do this because of my (possibly superstitious) belief that noodles parallel to each other are more likely to clump and stick together. I have never done it any other way.

When boiling water for spaghetti, some people add salt to the water first, I do not. I do not know why they do. One thing that this does though, is it make the water boil sooner. Is that a good thing? I do not know, but that works because water boils at a lower temperature with salt in it. Is that even a good thing? To me is suggests that the spaghetti might be less cooked. Perhaps people want that, so that the spaghetti is al dente, firmer, and almost chewy. I like mine to be softer, though not falling apart/mushy.

When I have boiled spaghetti, I have usually drained the water through a colander, and then rinsed the spaghetti with hot water from the kitchen faucet. Again, maybe superstition, but my thinking is that this rinses off some of the starchiness from the outside of the noodles. If I had thought about it before now, I might not have done this step. Thinking about it, it occurs to me that this starch is one of the carbohydrates that is in the spaghetti, and it exists (at least I believe so) throughout the noodle, not just on the outside,  I am not really sure why it is even desirable to remove the starch, just an old habit with me.

If you want to try this, I suggest, that you read all the way to the end and see the observations and conclusion, suggestions, notes etc. so that you can make alterations more suitable to the palates of your guests.

Spaghetti in a Multi-Cooker, How Does it Differ?

The method is a bit different, and I think easier, especially if it is fancy spaghetti as I did in this recipe. You do not boil water first, you just put the ingredients inside, close the lid, turn in on, and come back and serve the meal. More about the details in the recipe and the conclusion.

What you will get!

Well, I was not sure what I was going to get, but I wanted to give this a try. The goal was, to get better nutrition from the meal, and more pleasure as well. According to my own assessment and the assessment of guests, my mission was accomplished.

The ingredients, as I made it!

I used:

Whole wheat, dried spaghetti noodles,  ½ pound
1 cup grape tomatoes
6 small colorful "sweet" peppers, red, orange, yellow, green, just to make it visually appealing
One cup baby carrots
1 small red onion
2 Tablespoon minced garlic – from a jar (it could be fresh)
3 slices of lemon, 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick
1 Tablespoon of spices (you can choose your own). I used a premade mix of basil, oregano, garlic and sea salt
2 Teaspoons of red pepper flakes (but see note about this in the conclusion)
2.5 cups of vegetable bouillon (but see note about this in the conclusion)
I also used a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and a light spray of canola oil, might not be necessary

 

Directions (or really what I did that worked)

See image below of prepared ingredients (I intended to use broccoli also, but forgot to)

I put 2 teaspoons of olive oil, onto the bottom of the stainless steel pot (comes standard in this type of cooker, some have non-stick coatings) in the cooker, and spread it around until the bottom was evenly covered, then I also sprayed the sides of that pot, with non-stick canola cooking spray
Then I dumped my cup of grape tomatoes into the pot.
Followed by my colorful peppers
Next came the cup of baby carrots – though not shown in the picture, I chopped them into bite sized pieces
Added small red (really purple) onion, sliced as shown in the picture.
I dumped in the two Tablespoons of minced garlic
Added the three lemon slices, as shown
Added the 2 Tablespoons of spice mixture (fresh ingredients could be used here)
Note: While that mix I used had Sea Salt in it, there is no real difference (just a romantic notion) in the flavor of sea salt, Kosher salt, or table salt, once dissolved in something like this, it is a texture thing mostly – they are all sodium chloride
I then added 2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes – read the conclusion before doing this yourself
Then I took my pound package of whole wheat spaghetti, and broke it in half, so that I had half a pound of spaghetti noodles that I fanned out around the inside of the pot, they were about 6 inches long, I suppose
Finally, I added the 2-1/2 cups of vegetable bouillon on the top of it all, trying to pre-dampen all the noodles.

The order above is not important, other than the oil goes first, and the spaghetti should probably be on top of the other ingredients, then the bouillon.

Now you wanted to mix the ingredients up - get them distributed around. It will be hard not to break the spaghetti in this step, so don’t over mix. One could substitute another type of pasta instead, if that is more appealing that “too short” spaghetti.

Install and close the cover, according to the manufacturer’s directions for your cooker. Now this is where it gets trickier, maybe. I was thinking, that cooking on my unit’s stew and/or soup setting, was going to work, although to be honest, I did not know if that would be a pressure cooker setting, or more like a crockpot setting, but I knew I wanted pressure so it would be faster and preserve the individual flavors of the ingredients more, I figured probably would take about 10 minutes on high. What do I know, I am new to this.

To my surprise, my cooker does not have a preset program for stews/soups. Playing with the controls on mine, I found a program for risotto (whatever that is) under the pressure category. That set the cooker for 8 minutes, and medium pressure. Since I had no real idea what I was doing, I chose that one, to see what would happen. I told it to start, then waited for the timer to go from 8 and count down to 0. When it let me know it was done, I decided to let it sit in the cooker for another couple of minutes, knowing it would stay hot in there, and that would get me closer to my first guess of 10 minutes on high pressure.

The Unveiling

I let the steam out, then opened the lid, making sure that it drained liquid back into the pot, instead of all over the counter. The first thing I noticed, was how much less volume the ingredients seemed to have, now that the noodles were compliant. I grabbed one of them and put it into my mouth – a bit lest cooked than I had hoped, my original guess of 10 minutes on high pressure, was probably about right. I stirred the ingredients, mixed them up, as I did at the beginning, now though they mixed easily, and the noodles we flexible, no tendency to break at all. We spooned out the servings onto our plates, letting the bulk of the liquid, run back into the pot. There was not a lot, most of it had been absorbed into the noodles in the cooking, as it should have been. There was 6 serving, at least, in the portion size I serve, your mileage may vary. 

At the table

Instant likes! I never ran into another noodle that was under cooked, probably the time stirring and the time it took to serve them up, was enough to correct that issue. It was delicious, and properly cooked –more details noted in the conclusion.

Conclusions / Notes / Obervations / Suggestions

·         First, next time, I would go with my first guess, and just do a custom setting of 10 minutes at high pressure.

·         I brought a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce with me, in case the spaghetti needs a little help in the flavor department. No one elected to use any jarred sauce nor saw any need to, it was tasty as it was.

·         The grape tomatoes, and had all burst or something, so they sort of built their own sauce I guess. Knowing this, I see no reason why one could not cut up some nice Roma tomatoes instead, if one is really lazy, and see no need of fresh food, probably diced or crushed tomatoes out of a can, would even work well.

·         The slices of lemon, looked a bit destroyed, half of the pulp cells and burst I guess, that too was probably a good thing, that Is how the tart of the lemon gets out. It is not as pretty that way, but it is not unappetizing. I ate one of the sliced of lemon, peel and all, it was fine.

·         The vegetables were all cooked properly not - mushy, though had they been a little more firm, I would not have complained.

·         This was on the spicy side, probably too much crushed red pepper flakes. This was not a problem this time, as all three of us like spicy food. Those who do not enjoy a little heat, I am thinking about ¼ the amount of pepper flakes that I used, might be more appropriate.

·         I do not know what it would be like without the olive oil and cooking spray, but I can tell you this. When I went to clean the stainless pot out, nothing stuck to it, it wiped out effortlessly. I hate cleaning pots and pans, this was SO MUCH better that the spaghetti in boiling water method in that regard, and no extra posts for sauce, or pans from cooking meat.

·         I will probably consider a different pasta type (not spaghetti) next time.

·         Why meatless? My neighbor (with whom we shared this meal, does not eat meat. However, my son and I do, so I microwaved some Tyson turkey meatballs. These come in a bag, frozen, and you can nuke 8 to 10 of them in a microwave oven, in 2 or 3 minutes, and the come out juicy, tender, and flavorful. Next time, it I make this spaghetti for meat eaters, I might have the same meat balls again (so cheap and easy and good) plus maybe some Italian sausage. I like the hot variety, but you do what you need to do. Easy way to cook those, is in a toaster oven, on the tray on parchment paper, foil would probably work too. Last time I cooked sausages, I did it this way:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place thawed links 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until internal link temperature reaches 160°F and sausage is browned, turning links once. Using a digital (or other) thermometer, is a good idea, takes the guess work and cutting to see if they are done, out of the picture.

Additional Serving Suggestions

Garlic bread, do this as you see fit, or find a recipe, but I just mix up some butter or margarine, with some garlic powder, and some minced garlic, and spread it onto some sliced French bread. Some people like to add paprika, it is colorful and easier to see where the spread is. I find that the best French bread, is the kind you buy in the market, that comes in the paper bags, NOT the plastic bags. I do not know why, but there is a difference. I am sure you can bake your own or get good stuff in a bakery. The you but the slices (3/4 to 1 inch thick is my preference) under a broiler, at least 3 inches away from the burner, more is safer, with the buttered side facing the heat. Low or medium setting it good. You are taking your chances with more aggressive distance and heat settings. Then WATCH THEM LIKE A HAWK. Leave them in until they are toasted to your liking. Thirty seconds later, and they will be burned. If this happens, you might be able to recover them by scraping off the burn, but it is better to avoid that in the first place.

Salad Again, a matter of taste but I prefer a crisper variety or varieties of lettuce. You can add what you like as toppings, tomato, seeds, and croutons or whatever. I suggest oil and vinegar or Italian dressing, just to keep with the theme, but other dressings are also delicious if you are not a purest.

Drink whatever seems best to you, even ice water is great with this meal

Dessert Yet again, tastes vary, but the Italian cuisine is not without offerings. Tiramisu, cannoli, gelato, spumoni all come to mind, or read up on the topic here:

https://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/italian-desserts

Say grace and enjoy!

[angels4u]

I'm glad your experience turned out so good, I love spaghetti and homemade sauce, what are you trying next? Chilli maybe?

[Omegaman 3.0]

2 hours ago, angels4u said:

I'm glad your experience turned out so good, I love spaghetti and homemade sauce, what are you trying next? Chilli maybe?

Probably not chili, not really a chili fan. I did make chili once (last year) in a couple of crock pots for a chili cook-off at church, and was told by many people that mine was definitely the best. I did not, however, officially win, lol. One of our pastors did, but he had vote for me announcements, people running around in costumes urging votes and so forth, a real marketing campaign. Me, I just had pots of chili, no fanfare!

I can tell you what is next though, as I just finished eating it. Salmon and vegetables.

Too bad i did not have one of these when my wife was still with me, i would have cooked more things for her, more often, just because it is so fast and easy, and the cleanup is a breeze, really love that about these so far.

Just as a heads up, this was done with frozen,salmon, no thawing needed, everything in the pot and start. Easy peazy!

Maybe I will enter the chili cook-off again, if so, will do it in the multi-cooker, and post it here most likely.

[New Member]

I tried this and I think if is very good. I used flat noodles though, in place of regular spaghetti [id I spell that correctly?] and a different bouilon [why are so many words hard to spell?}, and fresh basil, and no little peppers.

I had guests over, everyone liked it, one of them was a half owner of an Italian restaurant. He said offer fresh grated cheese next time, instead of the jarred kind, otherwise "magnifico".

Thanks for the recipe

[Omegaman 3.0]

You are welcome New Member. Coincidentally, I made this again a couple of days ago, but tried some changes from my thoughts about my first try.

The cooking time etc, did not use any pre-program, just set it on high pressure, ten minutes. That was perfect.
I still did the 2 tsp. of olive oil in the bottom, and a light spray on the sides - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Again, it cleaned very easily and I like getting some olive oil into my diet.

This version used:

1 Cup of cherry tomatoes
Again, I used 6 small, colorful peppers, sliced them into rings about 3/8 of an inch (10mm) wide
1 cup of baby carrots, about as long as a finger is wide, and their diameters the way God made them
1 small white onion, cut into  pieces that were sections of the rings, varied in side and shape, but just what resulted from cutting an onion like this:

I used about two tablespoons of minced garlic, from a jar.
I sliced 6 smallish mushrooms, and I placed all of those ingredients into the bottom of the cooking pot

Next, I placed 1/2 pound of pasta (the type shown in the above picture) on top of the veggies.
I made 2.5 cups of vegetable bouillon using the mix I mentioned in the first post, and added to that a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice (the kind you buy in a squeezable bottle) and set it aside
I again used the tablespoon of mixed spices that I did in the first post, but also added a couple of teaspoons of dried oregano to that, and spinkled these spices over the pasta.
Additionally, I sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes over the pasta (instead of the 2 teaspoons I tried the first time)
Now, taking the liquid that I previously set aside, and poured it over the pasta

Now, in the image above, you have to use your imagination. Imagine that the leaves, represent the pasta. The grey circle, is the pot. You should be able to detect a sort of beige set of spirals. Those represent the pattern I poured the liquid in, in an ever to pre-wet the dry pasta. It might not be necessary, but that is what I did. Of course, it washes a lot of the dry spices down into the pot, some go all the way, some stick in the pasta and veggies. Probably not critical, but that is what I did.
At this stage, the lid goes one and is locked and sealed in place on the cooker. Set the cooker to high pressure for ten minutes. After the cooker heats up, and builds pressure, the timer starts to count down the ten minute cook time.
At the end of the ten minutes you turn the pot off, and release the pressure, then when that is done, you remove the lid, stir up the ingredients to mix it all together, and dish out the servings. Yummy!