r/Cooking

I used to think leftover rice was just… sad rice.

Like I’d put it in a container, stick it in the fridge, and then two days later it would become this cold brick that I looked at and ignored until I felt guilty enough to throw it away.Last night I was too tired to make a real dinner and too cheap to order food again. I had leftover rice, one egg, half an onion, a few mushrooms, spinach that was still alive but clearly losing hope, and a little bit of chicken from the night before.Normally I would look at that and think “there’s nothing to eat.”But I threw the onion and mushrooms in a pan, added the chicken, broke up the cold rice, added soy sauce, garlic powder, a little butter, and an egg at the end. It was not beautiful. It was not restaurant fried rice. I definitely crowded the pan and probably offended someone’s grandmother.

but it was good,Like actually GOOD！！

I will eat buttered noodles for any meal, any day of the week. 90% of what I eat is pasta just because it’s easy and comforting, but buttered noodles are the world’s best. I just made a batch that I’d argue could be the best I’ve ever done, it’s not groundbreaking but it was DAMN good and barely any extra effort.

- Cook pasta (I always do rigatoni) to package instructions
- Right before you strain, take a measuring cup and pull out at least 1/4th cup of pasta water (for 1 serving, about 3-4 oz.) depending on amount of pasta cooked. The water has the highest starch content at the end and that’s given me the best result.
- While pasta is sitting in strainer, throw about a tablespoon of butter in the still-hot pan off the heat, let it melt
- Toss pasta back in the pan, coat in the butter
- Freshly grate in a good pile of parmesan and about half of that amount of pecorino romano
- Mix, then add pasta water to turn it into a glossier sauce vs. cheese just sticking to the noodles. Amount may vary, just eyeball it until it’s a little saucy
- Season with fresh cracked black pepper

DONE. It tasted insane. I have ADHD and forget to eat/food never sounds good, and this sets me right every time. It took me 13 minutes with the pasta cooking included and was maybe 3 dishes. Again, I know it’s not groundbreaking, but maybe someone looking for an idea might like it too!

ETA: Everyone’s calling this either traditional Alfredo or Cacio e Pepe. No, I don’t think I invented either of those, but I will say I had no idea traditional Alfredo didn’t use cream in the sauce! Here I used two cheeses, rigatoni, butter, pepper and pasta water. So It’s not either of those exactly, and at this point it’s whatever you want it to be lol. I’ve also gravely offended the Butter Noodle community with the fact I used cheese and rigatoni, so maybe it’s just Noodles with Cheese. Regardless, I posted this because it’s an easy thing to throw together in one pot if you’re having a rough mental health day or just want something comforting. Like it or not, it’s still cooking. Cooking doesn’t always have to be complicated <3

Let me also mention, I was exaggerating on how much pasta I eat. I didn’t know that would raise red flags. I’ll clarify by saying this is what I make when nothing sounds good and I’m having a tough mental health day because it’s easy. Thank you for everyone’s concern about diverticulitis and fiber lmao

I recently talked with my dad about food, and he mentioned the Bolognese that his Italian friend's aunt once made. According to him it was the best Bolognese he's ever had. I've been following the official Bolognese recipe up until now, and it tastes quite good but it's clearly not on a similar level? How could I actually make sure that I make something really good?

Edit: There is a lot of feedback so I'm gonna thank you guys here xd