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Pasta For One. Or Two.
College food. Does that phrase ring any bells? If you’re smiling right now, you know what I’m talking about, don’t you? College food is what you used to make when you were strapped for money and time, but pretty darn hungry. Fast and filling and preferably delicious, though I’ve had friends who didn’t use delicious—or even remotely good—as a criteria as long as it was edible. It probably won’t surprise you I wasn’t one of them.
This was my favorite recipe back then, and I still make it these days because I just really like it. It’s undoubtedly one of the more unorthodox pasta recipes you’ll come across. Give it a try sometime, though. Who knows… you might be pleasantly surprised.
Here’s what I do with leftover pasta and stale bread.
Ingredients:
2 slices stale bread (white)
1 1/2 cup leftover pasta
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 small onion
3 bacon rashers
1 garlic clove
lemon juice
pepper
salt
Directions:
First things first. I’ve cooked 3 thin bacon rashers until they were crispy and drained them on a paper towel. This was roughly 1 oz. Don’t clean the skillet!
I’ve finely chopped half a small onion.
And I’ve grated a reasonably sized garlic clove.
Stale bread—or a stale white bun in my case—works like a charm for this. Just rip it up and give it an extra chop. Or put it in your food processor and pulse a few times if you’re feeling particularly lazy.
Use the skillet you cooked the bacon in. Add a tiny knob of butter to the bacon grease. Add your onions and half your grated garlic and cook, over low heat, for a few minutes. Until the onion has softened.
Pour in 1/2 a cup half and half (or use regular cream). Squeeze in lots of fresh lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low and leave it be for a few minutes.
Use another skillet to heat a few drops of oil; about a tbsp or so. Add the breadcrumbs, the other half of the garlic, a tsp dried (or fresh) thyme and your crumbled bacon. Stir and cook until the bread is crispy.
Add your leftover pasta to the cream sauce. I still had 1 1/2 cup leftover pasta and it was precisely enough. Now crank up the heat a little until the pasta heats up.
Add the bread crumb mix to the pasta and give it a swirl. That’s it, folks.
This is so good. The bread crumbs provide a fabulous crispy contrast, the sauce is just enough to coat the pasta and it’s really, really flavorful. Nowadays I garnish it with a few Parmesan curls (or canned Parmesan) and some basil strips.
Now admit this doesn’t look all too shabby for college food!
Fess up… what’s the college food you still eat nowadays?
This looks really good!! We always threw a cup of rice into the cheapest pasta sauce we could find.
I wish I could reach through the screen and grab that fork! It looks delicious, Kay.
Maybe I should start compiling a list of college food since I’m going off to uni in a year’s time!
My little sister and I lived together during college. We liked to make huge batches of spaghetti sauce and freeze individual sized portions in microwavable containers. It was way more healthy and cheap than fast food. All we had to do was boil some pasta and pop a frozen sauce in the microwave! We both worked at restaurants, and we’d often come home with new stacks of take-away containers in our purses. We call those “totin’ privledges”.
That looks really great. Since you are talking about fess up. Since we ( my sister and I )only had a two burner we could not make to many big dishes. We used to make a lot of one pot dishes. Like BBR lol
@Arrisje:
If I have to be honest, one pot dishes are still my favorite.
I had everything on hand, including some left over spaghetti, so I just made it for lunch and it was awesome. Very tasty.
This looks so easy and fantastic – I’m definitely going to try it one day!
Yum this looks great! What is the dutch word for half and half by the way? I have been searching for that. In my college days it was Macaroni and cheese,Top Ramen and pasta in ever way imaginable.
@Sonya:
They have several brands, but you’ll want to look for “halfvolle Culinaire room”.
Hey – this is Italian cooking at it’s best! Simple, cheap, delicious. I make things like this all the time. We use pancetta for the bacon – a cheap way to add a little meat flavor. And bread crumbs have long been the “poor man’s cheese” substitute on pasta. Loved this post, Kay!
Ah, college food! When we were broke we settled for melted provolone on pita bread. When we were feeling flush and wanted to entertain we went all out and make Cornish game hens or quiche. Actually I still love making quiche – I just call them tarts now and severa are on my blog at http://cookingwithmichele.blogspot.com/search?q=tart. Enjoy!
WOW I wish I knew about this in college as all we ate was budget gourmet and the food that was provided free during happy hour! OH and lots of cereal!
The beginning of this post made me giggle. I’m in college now, and I usually eat pretty healthy. But my go-to quick meals are chicken and veggie stir-fry with rice, and vegetarian mostaccioli. I have a little two-cup Pyrex container that I use to make individual mostaccioli’s, or sometimes I make a full pan of it and keep it in the fridge.
omg this looks fabulous… and I want to make it right now!
Wow that looks delicious – would never have thought of combining breadcrumbs and pasta – must try it. Love your photos by the way
Looks much better than anything I ate in college! I couldn’t cook and survived on frozen pizza – luckily I had a much faster metabolism then :) Great idea to use breadcrumbs, it looks great!
What a great way to use up your leftovers! Most of my college friends were happy to cook up some ramen noodles (with the MSG-filled seasoning package – blech). They always teased me for marinating chicken in soy sauce and sherry before I stirred fried it with some veggies.
I just recently graduated so…
(1) pasta with any canned tuna -chilli, water, or just olive oil
(2) canned cream soup with rice/pasta – ala baked rice or pasta [haha]
(3) stir fried vegies
Actually, where I’m from , college is just 1.5 hours public transport from home but most of us are used to living in hostels.. Sausages, instant noodles , crisps & most unhealthy foodstuffs are staples to us.
=)
Just found your website through a link but of course I can’t remember who. You’re killing my inbox with all of the bookmarks that I’ve had to create. Everything looks so fabulous.
My go to meals are stir fries too, Kay! Mm, bacon. I’ll try this with spaghetti squash in place of the noodles, and maybe crushed almond in place of the bread (have to eat GF). It looks gorgeous!
Ok.. I’ve never heard the term ‘rashers’ before! I’m very curious about that word!
I’ve always called them bacon strips, slices, etc.
I like all the things in this salad though, may have to give it a try! We’re very strapped for time today around dinner if you want to just come feed us :P
@Laura K.:
It’sa very normal English word. An individual slice of bacon is called a rasher. Maybe it’s a British thing, since we’re close to England, that’s how we learn in school.
I’m in college and I eat wonderfully on a tiny budget; less than 50 dollars a week. It’s all about keeping a pantry packed with your favorite ingredients and buying in bulk when things go on sale. My favorite thing to make is a Mexican Chicken Casserole with Doritos. It’s complete junk food but it’s just thing to celebrate the end of exams with.
50$ / week is not a “tiny” budget!
One of the best pastas i’ve ever eaten! It’s cheap indeed, can be cooked in less an hour and it’s SOO tasty!