There was a nice little article in the NY Times the other day (by the so-called “Minimalist”) about how pasta should be served. The bottom line is that a pasta dish, whether at home or in a restaurant, should have a lot more vegetables and a bit less pasta than most of us are used to. The role of pasta in an American meal has gone through some changes over the years. Back in the 1950s, pasta was generally served as a plate of spaghetti with a heavy dose of meat sauce. It was your once-a-week break from meat and potatoes.
Then in the 1980s, pasta became a bit more fashionable, and people re-discovered the various shapes and sizes it came in (rigatoni, capellini, twists, shells, bowties, etc.). Cooking it into a limp paste (just like canned Spaghetti-O’s) became a no-no; al dente became the watchword for the culinary police. Also, the sauce now became a supporting actor; you no longer drowned your noodles, and maybe tried some different twists on the basic marinara or meat ragu. Then came the Atkins diet craze, and carbs became the enemy. So pasta portion sizes shrank, and it was back to overwhelming it with rich, heavy sauces, frequently cream-based (e.g. the popular “vodka” sauce, which doesn’t really have any vodka in it). In recent years, I’ve notices a retro-trend, back to big portions of pasta with lots of heavy sauce.
The “Minimalist” makes a cry for sanity in this long night of pasta madness. The world shouldn’t revolve around heavy sauces. Pasta should indeed be a bit chewy, but it shouldn’t cover the plate; it should almost be looked at as a side dish. And the cheese and oil need to calm down too. The star of your plate should be fresh vegetables, preferably sautéed in a bit of garlic and olive oil. This could be more than one vegetable or mix of veggies; perhaps peppers, tomatoes and onions on one side, and zucchini and mushrooms on the other. For you carnivores out there — fine, add your sausage or chicken strips. As a vegetarian, I’ll stick to the veggies (other than my occasional foray into linguine with clam sauce; clams aren’t really vegetables, but they aren’t sentient animals either).
The bottom line here is that pasta should be a complement to the vegetables, not the other way around. Overcooked noodles are considered “high glycemic”; their calories get digested into the body too quickly. At some point, foods that are high-glycemic might contribute to obesity, diabetes and liver problems (or so I’ve read; I’m not a doctor or an expert on this). Increasing the veggies and reducing the pasta (and keeping it al dente) certainly makes for a healthier meal. Another factor is the protein balance; wheat flour needs vegetables to give a properly balanced protein mix. But, in my opinion, and the Minimalist’s too, the veggie-first, pasta-second philosophy also makes for a nicer, better tasting meal.
That’s my 2 cents; I guess that everyone likes what they like. All I’m saying is that you might want to try it, if you haven’t yet. Bon appetite.
CHEAP-SKATE VEGETARIAN SIDENOTE: As an aging veg-head, I have to take my daily vitamin supplements, to make sure that I’m not missing anything by cutting meat out entirely. About two years ago, my doctor ordered me to take a B-complex every day. And I’m glad that he did, because I’ve been feeling a bit better since then, and haven’t gotten sick as much either. But a good B-complex pill can be relatively expensive. I’ve seen some premium vitamin brands charge as much as $20 per hundred tablets. (Another B-complex problem: their RDA percentages vary a lot; the mix of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B-6, B-12, biotin and pantothenic acid vary all over the place.)
I found a pretty good B complex at Whole Foods that goes for about $22 for 180 tablets, or around $12.22 per 100. Given the Whole Foods persona and clientèle, I would assume these pills are of high quality. Then I saw Sundown B-100 going in the local Shop Rite at around $8 for 60 (about $11.67 per 100). They have a bit less biotin, but more of the other stuff in each pill (except for folic acid – just about all B complexes come with 100% of the RDA for folic). Sundown is a Rexall brand, and I would assume that on old-time pharmacy company like Rexall knows to sell a decent if not top-line pill.
Today I picked up a B complex with the same daily values as the Sundown product, but only costing $7 for 100. This was the house brand at the local A&P; it’s called America’s Choice. I’m hoping these are decent vitamins, without any harmful ingredients. I see carnauba wax and polyethylene glycol listed on the bottle, although this article from Better Nutrition hints that such stuff isn’t anything to freak out about. P.E.G. isn’t anti-freeze, which is ethylene glycol, a cousin.
Well, as a cheapskate, I always love a bargain. But as someone concerned about health and nutrition, I think I’ll hedge my bets and buy the Whole Foods brand sometimes; maybe I’ll go 50-50, cheap-o pills and better-made pills (no car wax or quasi anti-freeze) every other day.
Jim, I guess have to say I can’t relate.
While I’m really not a major meat eater, I find it difficult to follow ANY serious kind of “diet.” Perhaps about 25 years (or more) ago there was a women (sadly, her name escapes me, but I can still see her plainly in my mind’s eye) who appeared on a Johnny Carson show touting the most healthy reasons for following some diet she had–it was seriously vegetarian. I remember her talking about the pleasures of walking in the fields, gathering this or that food (perhaps grains), and stating categorically that she was going to live for a very long time and that particularly she would definitely not die of cancer because of the nutritious foods in this diet she was touting. Not too many years later, she died of colon cancer. I was sorry to hear she had died of her illness, but I must say I couldn’t help but think: There goes her theory and her diet (at least to my way of thinking).
Since then all the high carb, low carb, eat this or that, etc., diets get short shrift from me.
My approach to food is try to get a good balance. And then if you are hungry and don’t know what you are hungry for: You need GREEN vegetables.
I also firmly believe that IN MODERATION one should follow what one “feels like” eating. I think the “feels like eating” thing means that the body needs something in that particular food one “feels like eating.”
But again I say in moderation. Going overboard in any direction just doesn’t seem to make any sense at all to me.
And perhaps I’m misreading you: But I’d be extremely careful of any pill which has something even distantly related to anti-freeze. One never knows how one’s metabolism might break things down. Since the B-complex vitamins are essential to your good health on your diet, I’d say you’d be foolish to try to cut corners on something so vital.
On a related note (or maybe not): I remember as a young girl that my grandmother had a vegetable garden in her backyard. One day she took me out there to look at the plants. At one point she stopped, picked a carrot from the ground and handed it to me and said, “eat it.” I looked at it (dirt still on it and all), had mixed feelings about the dirt, brushed the dirt off, and took a bite or two. She was definitely from the “old country” where people were farmers. But sadly, I was already a “modern” chld who did not care to eat food right out of the ground.
Mary Sheridan
Comment by Anonymous — October 20, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Jim, I guess have to say I can’t relate.
While I’m really not a major meat eater, I find it difficult to follow ANY serious kind of “diet.” Perhaps about 25 years (or more) ago there was a women (sadly, her name escapes me, but I can still see her plainly in my mind’s eye) who appeared on a Johnny Carson show touting the most healthy reasons for following some diet she had–it was seriously vegetarian. I remember her talking about the pleasures of walking in the fields, gathering this or that food (perhaps grains), and stating categorically that she was going to live for a very long time and that particularly she would definitely not die of cancer because of the nutritious foods in this diet she was touting. Not too many years later, she died of colon cancer. I was sorry to hear she had died of her illness, but I must say I couldn’t help but think: There goes her theory and her diet (at least to my way of thinking).
Since then all the high carb, low carb, eat this or that, etc., diets get short shrift from me.
My approach to food is try to get a good balance. And then if you are hungry and don’t know what you are hungry for: You need GREEN vegetables.
I also firmly believe that IN MODERATION one should follow what one “feels like” eating. I think the “feels like eating” thing means that the body needs something in that particular food one “feels like eating.”
But again I say in moderation. Going overboard in any direction just doesn’t seem to make any sense at all to me.
And perhaps I’m misreading you: But I’d be extremely careful of any pill which has something even distantly related to anti-freeze. One never knows how one’s metabolism might break things down. Since the B-complex vitamins are essential to your good health on your diet, I’d say you’d be foolish to try to cut corners on something so vital.
On a related note (or maybe not): I remember as a young girl that my grandmother had a vegetable garden in her backyard. One day she took me out there to look at the plants. At one point she stopped, picked a carrot from the ground and handed it to me and said, “eat it.” I looked at it (dirt still on it and all), had mixed feelings about the dirt, brushed the dirt off, and took a bite or two. She was definitely from the “old country” where people were farmers. But sadly, I was already a “modern” chld who did not care to eat food right out of the ground.
Mary Sheridan
Comment by Anonymous — October 20, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Great read. I never knew some of the information written here, but I’m glad now I know and have some more understanding about.
Comment by Li Yang — April 6, 2019 @ 3:33 am