When I’m searching for a quick and easy dinner, I always turn to Ina Garten and Martha Stewart for inspiration.
Both women have mastered the art of creating delicious recipes accessible to home chefs of any skill level. And each has a popular, simple pasta dish with nearly identical ingredients — but very different cooking techniques.
So I whipped up Garten’s summer garden pasta and Stewart’s one-pan pasta to see which would come out on top. The winner took a bit more prep, but the extra step was worth it.
I first made Garten’s summer garden pasta, which only needs a few ingredients.
To whip up Garten’s favorite summer pasta, you’ll need:
- Angel hair pasta
- Parmesan cheese
- Cherry tomatoes
- Minced garlic
- Basil leaves
- Red pepper flakes
Garten’s recipe also calls for “good” olive oil, which — as you’ll see — is a very important component to this dish.
The prep for Garten’s summer garden pasta is minimal.
I halved my cherry tomatoes, minced three cloves of garlic, and julienned nine basil leaves, per Garten’s recipe (which I halved for three servings instead of six).
I then threw the ingredients into a bowl and seasoned them with half a teaspoon of salt, some red pepper flakes, and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.
The main difference between Garten’s and Stewart’s recipes is that you have to start prepping the summer garden pasta hours before cooking.
While Garten’s dish has minimal prep, it gets most of its flavor from soaking the tomatoes in olive oil for four hours before serving.
It may seem like a time-consuming step, but I easily whipped up the mix on my lunch break. I soaked everything in ⅓ cup of olive oil, tossed it together, then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside (it needs to stay at room temperature).
The whole process took less than five minutes. As Garten would say, how easy is that?
Garten’s recipe requires more prep time, but it cooks much faster than Stewart’s one-pan pasta.
Garten’s summer garden pasta is made with angel hair, which cooks much faster than other types of pasta because it’s so thin.
The “Barefoot Contessa” star even warns in her recipe to be extra careful when cooking the noodles because “it only takes two to three minutes!”
After I drained my pasta, I threw my noodles into a bowl with the tomato mixture.
The minute I took the plastic wrap off the bowl of tomatoes, I was hit with a deliciously crisp, fresh scent that reminded me of bruschetta.
After tossing everything together, I added freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves.
Garten’s four-hour marinade was worth the wait.
I couldn’t believe how much flavor had been injected into those cherry tomatoes. They were so rich and delicious, I started snacking on them before I took my first bite of the pasta.
The angel hair noodles were also the perfect base for this dish, balancing out the richness of the tomatoes and olive oil with their fluffiness. It was a nice contrast in both taste and texture, keeping the pasta light without sacrificing flavor.
Next up was Stewart’s one-pan pasta, which has almost the same ingredients.
Both Stewart and Garten use cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, red pepper flakes, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
But Stewart opts for linguine instead of angel hair pasta for her dish, and she also adds an onion into the mix.
As with Garten’s recipe, Stewart’s one-pan pasta requires very minimal prep.
I also only needed to chop up three ingredients for Stewart’s dish. First, I halved the tomatoes, then I thinly sliced my onion and a few cloves of garlic.
Much like Garten’s dish, it only took me five minutes.
Unlike Garten’s dish, I was ready to cook Stewart’s pasta right after I finished the prep.
All you have to do is toss all the ingredients into a pan. You don’t even boil the water first!
I threw in the linguine, cherry tomatoes, onion, and garlic into the pan with 4 ½ cups of water.
Then I added two basil leaves, 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons of salt, and a few twists from my pepper grinder.
Stewart’s pasta takes far longer to cook than Garten’s recipe.
After a few minutes had passed and the softened noodles had become fully submerged in the water, I felt almost tranquil as I delicately turned and flipped them with my tongs.
Within minutes, my entire kitchen filled with the most inviting aroma.
Stewart’s pasta took 20 minutes total to cook.
Per Stewart’s recipe, I waited until the water had “nearly evaporated” before I turned off the stove.
Stewart’s pasta looked delicious and definitely tasted fresh, but it was just a tad too plain for me.
There was a hint of richness thanks to the olive oil and tomatoes, which had a lovely blistered texture, but there wasn’t much oomph to this pasta.
I was able to get more flavor out of the noodles after adding a lot more pepper and crushed red pepper flakes, but the winner of this showdown was clear.
Garten’s summer garden pasta is proof that, sometimes, one or two extra steps can make a world of difference.
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The post I tried Ina Garten’s and Martha Stewart’s easiest pasta recipes. Both delivered quick dinners, but there was a clear winner. appeared first on Business Insider.
