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Pasta with butter and Parmesan

The sick-day pasta

Easy5 min hands-on · 15 min totalServes 1
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A bowl of spaghetti coated in a glossy butter and Parmesan sauce, a fork twisted into the strands.

Doubles for two, but toss it in a wider pan so the sauce comes together evenly.

This is the pasta to make on the day you cannot face reading a recipe, let alone following one. White pasta cooked properly soft, tossed off the heat with butter, Parmesan and a splash of the starchy water it cooked in, until the sauce turns glossy and clings to every strand rather than pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Nothing else goes in and nothing goes over the top, which is how a dish this bare has survived as long as it has. Keep the water cloudy rather than clear when you scoop it out. That is the starch doing the work the sauce needs.

Suits after surgery, a narrowed bowel, chemotherapy diarrhoea, a new stoma, during pelvic radiotherapy, after a low anterior resection

Tags Quick · Vegetarian · Easily fortified

Ingredients

Contains: Gluten, Milk

  • 90 gwhite pasta, spaghetti or a similar shape, cooked soft
  • 30 gunsalted butter
  • 40 gParmesan, finely grated, plus a little more to serve
  • salt

Method

  1. Bring a pan of well-salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook for a minute longer than the packet says, until fully tender with no chalky centre.

  2. A minute before draining, scoop out a small cup of the cooking water and set it aside.

  3. Drain the pasta and tip it back into the warm pan, off the heat. Add the butter and most of the Parmesan, and toss with a splash of the reserved water until it melts into a glossy sauce that coats every strand.

  4. Add more of the reserved water, a spoon at a time, if the sauce looks tight rather than glossy, then taste for salt.

  5. Tip into a warm bowl, scatter over the last of the Parmesan, and eat immediately, while the sauce is still loose.

Watch-points

  • Use white pasta only, cooked fully soft, a minute past the packet time.
  • Grate the Parmesan finely so it melts into the sauce rather than sitting in shreds on top. It is also the only thing that goes over the finished bowl.

Stoma note: Pasta cooked this soft firms up loose output, which makes a small bowl of it worth reaching for on a day when things are running quickly.

Make it more nourishing

  • Use 40 g of butter instead of 30.
  • Stir in a tablespoon of mascarpone or cream cheese along with the butter, for a rounder sauce.
  • Use 55 g of Parmesan rather than 40, or add a spoon of grated Grana Padano.

Swaps

Instead of Parmesan, use a hard cheese labelled vegetarian, or mature Cheddar
most Parmesan is set with animal rennet, and Cheddar melts into the sauce as readily
Instead of the reserved pasta water, use 2 tablespoons of warm whole milk
it loosens the sauce the same way if you have already tipped the water down the sink
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