I'm not sure why I love food so much, or why I'm so picky on food preparation, but it's very important to me. I'd like to think it's some sort of genetic thing with the name Giordano, but who knows. Having red hair, I have a hard time convincing some that I even have Italian roots.
I really like having pasta for lunch - get your carbs in the middle of the day. Last time I worked in an office, going out to lunch was great and normally pretty quick, but would rack up the bills. I currently am lucky enough to work remote, and don't go out to lunch nearly as much now, but still wanted good lunches. I put together this system of prep and cooking pasta in a pressure cooker so it's quick, fresh, hot and ready giving you time to eat it
Protein Prep
If you are vegetarian, or want even less work, feel free to skip this step. Now, this is going to sound a little strange at first, but stay with me. As well as pasta, I also really love tacos and Mexican food. I found that the Spanish/Italian seasonings are close - they aren't exact and I know this. Especially cumin, which I love the smell and taste of cumin so this part is easy for me to fudge. Traditionally, cumin use in Italy was curbed, but it is now being used more in modern Italian cuisine. So I will use that as my scapegoat. I use this Simple Truth Southwest Taco mix for the meat. I have it on Amazon Subscribe & Save so I just get a couple cases (12 packages) sent every few months so I always have it. It's also a taco mix that doesn't have sugar and is gluten free so the wife can have it too.
I use ground turkey, but you can anything you want. I've been using turkey and have many people eat this pasta and never even question if it's beef. I get the ground turkey from Costco for about $25/4 pack, and cook one pack, freeze the rest. One pack cooked usually lasts me about a week for more than just lunch pasta; I can still make tacos and quesadillas with it too! I'm hungry.
1 pkg Kirkland Ground Turkey (1.7 pounds)
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 pkgs Simple Truth Southwest Taco mix (Amazon link)
Put the turkey, broth and seasoning into the pressure cooker. I don't even bother mashing it up yet - it will be easier in a few minutes. I affix the lid and pressure cook this for 15 minutes. De-pressure, open it up and mash up the contents. I started using my step daughters potato masher for mashing and mixing the meat and when she moved out I kept it. I suggest using one of those. Reaffix the lid and pressure cook for another 10. This is to make me feel better than it ALL for sure reached an internal temperature of 165F degrees.
I like to push a couple products from my restaurant days for home use. You can store this in either a small cambro container or 4oz portion cups. Cambros are the greatest kitchen containers mostly because when you wash them after being used, all the grease comes out and it never smells like the food that was in it before. And then the 4oz cups are great for portion control which I don't have very much self-control, so it's helpful for me. You can also get a sharpie and write the date on the lids to make sure you don't eat old portions!
Actual Lunch Pasta
The days that I already have the meat prepped, lunch pasta takes me about 12 to 15 minutes to make and doesn't leave a huge mess of dishes. The only thing that may be trial and error for you is deciding which pasta to use and what time works best with your pressure cooker depending on your pickiness level of al dente.
TL;DR
1. Put your dry pasta and any veggies you want cooked (mushrooms, broccoli) in water covering pasta in your pressure cooker
2. Pressure cook until al dente (I explain how I do one minute less than the package suggests)
3. Depressurize, open and stir in any ingredients you want blanched like spinach in the pasta water
4. Drain water from pressure cooker pot
5. Mix in your protein, sauce, other fun pasta add-ins like black olives, artichokes, capers if you like mystery
6. Top with any grated cheese (grated pecorino romano, kraft parm & sawdust, whatever you like)
7. Stir, serve, eat hot and fresh pasta!
More Details
Important note: Use a smaller pasta for this. Spaghetti or fettuccini will form a huge pasta log which is unpleasant. Larger pastas like fiori or some lumanche are good - just use more water to cover them. Costco usually has this Garofalo brand of Italian pasta that has gemelli, casarecce, and penne - all work well. Farfalle is also a great choice. The Garofalo also has the minutes that you're supposed to boil the pasta which is great! I have found a good starting point to be the suggested number minus one minute. So the casarecce in the picture says 11 minutes, I pressure cook it for 10 and it comes out just a hair past al dente - probably reduce a minute if you want it actually al dente.
I suggest using the smaller shaped pasta because you want the pasta underwater. If you have pasta sticking up over the water (iceberging - just came up with that), then it will not cook and will be crunchy and unpleasant. Now you can add any vegetables that you want cooked. This kind of steams the veggies because the veggies can be above the water level. I usually break up a couple large mushrooms, but you can also use broccoli!
Affix the pressure cooker lid, set pressure cook time for one minute less than the packaging suggests. Like I said before this step may take you some trial and error based on the pasta you use, but once you get it dialed in, it will save all kinds of time and you'll have consistent pasta everyday. That is pleasant.
Maybe not the new Ragu brand or Prego brand. I don't trust them. They say they use 8 ingredients too, but it smells just like their American chemical version full of sugar. I don't get it.
Add in any other add-ins you'd like at this point. I've used artichokes, black olives, sliced pepperoni, banana peppers (pepperoncini), green olives - really anything you want. Wonderful. Capers, DICED TOMATOES!!
After you mix it up, put it in a bowl and eat hot fresh delicious restaurant quality pasta that you made in minutes!! If you want you can top it with shredded cheese and fresh ground pepper if you have it. I prefer getting a block of Pecorino Romano from costco which is a slightly softer cheese than parmesan, more robust and there is research that it can actually lower your bad cholesterol! I'll have to post a link for that later, but it's true - something to do with the Italian Tuscan sheep. Or you can use parmesan. Even some shredded mozza or cheddar in a pinch. You make the rules.
I always suggest getting a block and grating it yourself since I learned that they add "cellulose" to kraft parmesan cheese. Had a big 'ol argument once upon a time with someone on Reddit because even though "cellulose" is plant based, and perfectly healthy / edible - it's not cheese. You're paying for cheese and not getting cheese. That's why I called it parm with sawdust above.
Anyway! Happy eating!