These Pasta Sauces are perfect weeknight meals

These are perfect weeknight pasta sauces. One is spinach garlic parm and the second is a fiery carbonara.

📃 RECIPE Link(s):

📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:

USEFUL KITCHEN GEAR

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:28 Spinach Garlic Parm Pasta
5:05 Fiery Carbonara

MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
Voice recorded on Shure MV7
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:

[nitrog]

I'm guessing not a lot of people are going to see this since this is three months after this video debuted, but there is an easier way of making the starch gel. All you have to do is microwave the cornstarch and water for 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until it's thick and translucent (takes less than 90 seconds total). I gave it a shot after seeing Luciano Monosilio on Italia Squisita to see if I could make the process even simpler, and it actually turned out better than I could have imagined.

[caraouellette]

I gotta say Ethan, this is the best you've ever been, I think. Really love the blend of food science and cooking know-how to develop a process that is much simpler to follow and execute than traditional sauce making. Kudos to you and keep up the good work.

[pgtrots]

Congrats my dude - many foodtubers seem to lose their purpose after a few years but you've been going from strength to new strength. Excited to see what's coming up!

[Drevsy]

It might sound as a weird way of coping, but thank you for what you do Ethan.

My very close friend and collegue committed suicide in October of 2021, and one thing we always jokingly "fought" about was cooking. He was a very skilled home chef like yourself who really took his time to make good quality food, even showed pictures of it, trying to convince me to cook as I never really cared much for it, thinking "food is just food". He would enthusiastically tell me about his pasta and gnocchi dishes, how he prepared meat and how well he plated it.

I remember telling him a few weeks prior his choice, that when we would get to the new office with a kitchen (Scheduled in december of 2021), we would cook there together so he could teach me.
Sadly, he never made it that far.

As weird as it is, since he was also a fit red-haired home chef, I use these videos as a cope. Some time ago I even bought a steel pan and some equipment. Today I will finally try and cook some of your recipes. I know you are just here to show home cook techniques and entertaining videos, but to some of us it means a lot more, so thank you and keep going.

[Luna-rewu]

Ethan man, you're literally killing the home-cooking YouTube space rn. I don't think I've seen many others able to achieve both such entertaining videos with both good recipes and ALSO including educational food science content. Please keep it up, what you're doing is seriously amazing.

[legendarygary]

You are easily the most helpful cook on YouTube. Make ahead sauces like this are going to save me so much time and make it so much easier to resist eating out or ordering in.

[felixschneider]

I think replacing the guanciale with chorizo could be a very fitting addition to the fiery carbonara

EDIT: Did it immediately after having the idea and used the rendered chorizo fat to emulsify it with the saucebase in a waterbath like you would with a hollandaise…and boy that was a feast. Can’t move as i‘m writing the edit but it was absolutely worth it.

[markkelderman]

This video reminds me of the time when I was learning how to cook. I had just bought the diet plan (created it from site named Next Level Diet) at the age of 23 and started preparing my own meals from the food I got in the plan. I was so motivated back then. I broke my barriers when it comes to amount of food I can eat in a day, resulting in noticeable gains for a newbie. I recommend everyone to take care of their diet first, the rest should come naturally.

[CaroLina-dggb]

I wanna recommend an additional, cheap and delicious recipe that goes hard in my house: butternut squash pesto with garlic and cinnamon breadcrumbs. Cut up a squash and steam it. Put in a blender with a shallot, some olive oil and some walnuts. Blend everything and add to a saucepan to let it simmer. On the side, boil some thick pasta like rigatoni. Then fry off some garlic in a pan with some butter and once it’s soft add breadcrumbs, parsley and cinnamon and nutmeg. Coat the pasta with the sauce, add a small cube of butter, then top off with the breadcrumbs. If you’re vegan you can leave it as it is, if not parmigiano reggiano is the ultimate touch. Enjoy ❤️

[GourmetNinj]

Dude that spinach sauce is actually BUSSIN. Literally took like 10 minutes to make and easily competes with restaurants in my city. FIRE

[KeksSektor]

THIS. This is what I want to see in food tubers. Foodsience and using it to improve and make dishes simpler.
Keep doing what you are doing man. You are on fire right now.

[conorryan]

Tried the fiery carbonara for the first time tonight - 10/10, easily the best pasta dish I've ever made, and I have more sauce left for tomorrow. This technique is honestly an instant gamechanger. I'm late to the party on this one but Ethan this sort of content is why you're up there with the top foodtubers. Keep up the great work!

[DigitalicaEG]

Made this with sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers and aubergines. It is SO GOOD. This cornstarch trick is seriously useful! Thanks Ethan!

[buttersd]

i did the spinach one, just over a week ago. I didn't have any lemons, so subbed in bottled persian lime juice. I only had 120g spinach, and used tapioca starch, instead of corn starch, as that's what I had... I didn't use bronze cut pasta, just cheap dry linguine...
best damn pasta I've ever had, and so, so, riduculously simple. Absolutely going on my regulae rotation,

[caelk.]

tried the spinach sauce this week - really enjoyed it, very pleasant, lasts well for the next night if you wanna prepare it in advance, and the added veg helps me feel less guilty about eating pasta. gonna keep that one in my repertoire for sure, thanks!

[fiztaqt]

The point when you trust your skills enough that you can come up with a recipe and see it through, confident from the conception of the idea that the end result would be amazing.

*that's a wonderful place to be as a cook*

[ra]

I just love you balance the “home chef” and “food science” concepts of a cooking channel. Big fan of everything you do!

[colewalker]

Honestly man, you’ve helped me learn a lot more about cooking. I just wanna thank you for the amazing work you do man, seriously. Because of the special techniques you teach, we get to make good food for the people we love. You’re brilliant! Not only that, but your videos are well edited with great visuals.

[gerbie]

Thanks Ethan! These easy to prepare and able to make beforehand things are perfect for me. Definitely going to try these, I think they'll be game changers! Also thanks for the principles behind these, that'll allow me to make up my own once I got the hang of it.

[viridianloom]

Hey Ethan, I really love videos like this where you're creating recipes that follow up on a technique established in a previous video. It goes to show how that technique is used for multiple dishes and why it's important to add it to your repertoire. Like, you aren't just showing me how to make the best version of a specific dish, you're showing me how to cook stabilized pasta sauces for any occasion by prepping me with multiple, varied examples. Reminds of me when I first started getting into cooking and I was watching so many Chef John videos, I started to pick up on certain things he'd mirror from one recipe to the next and thats the stuff that stuck with me in the kitchen (even if I never made his recipe). Speaking of which, out of all the food YouTubers I've seen you're right up there with Chef John in my book. He rarely collabs with anyone but it would be amazing if y'all met up and made a video together. Even if it's just to talk about food.