The power of pasta

Noodles, pasta, call it what you will. When hunger strikes, a hearty bowl always sets you right. From old-school spaghetti with meat sauce to spicy pad Thai, pasta hits the table in mere minutes to satisfy the soul and fill the belly. But what about the girth of that belly? If you’ve quit eating pasta in the name of carb avoidance, try a strategy that will put it back on your plate: more sauce, less pasta. Flip the traditional ratio of noodles to sauce so the pasta’s still integral to the meal, just not the focus. Whether the sauce highlights vegetables, cheese, seafood or meat, it’s almost invariably the best part of the dish anyway. Start with these recipes and you’ll discover that you can shift the balance of almost any pasta dish in favour of sauce supremacy. The best part? You might end up tipping the scales in the right direction, too

By: Mark Bittman

Photo by Charles Masters Apr 13, 2011