(smooth jazz music) - Welcome to Home Movies, Season 2. We are in a new space, it's a new year. We're in a new energy, we're
in a new creative mindset. We're in a new everything. It has been a beautiful
three years of home movies, season one, and it just became time to do something a little bit differently. We're still in my kitchen,
just in a different place. And the food is the same. It is still accessible, it's
primarily pantry-focused. It is still easy. I'm not gonna like do anything that I wouldn't have done before. So don't worry, we're
still gonna be making food and that's what makes a
home movie, a home movie. (bright bossa nova music) So we're making lemon pepper pasta. It's pasta, it's Parmesan, it's butter, it's pepper, it's lemon. So it's a pantry pasta,
which is the kind of pasta that is like 100% built with things that like you kind of always have on hand. Caper, anchovy, tomato. Most pastas that I make are pantry pasta. In 2023, I opened a little pantry shop in a place called Bloomville, New York. It's called First Bloom, and inside we have, you know, groceries, sort of everything that
you need to make a meal plus a few things that
you might just want. There's of course about
a million types of beans, pastas, spices, anchovies,
and a million candles. It's just precious, and I love her. So we're making lemon pepper pasta and obviously, that's like
pretty nondescript pasta. Well, what kind of pasta? There are millions of types of pasta. And I think just like the way that cutting a sandwich
into a triangle shape kind of changes the way that it tastes, the pasta shape really does sort of inform your experience of eating. Some are like logistical
reasons why you choose a shape. Like a tube with ridges catches a sauce that might be thinner or
it fills with a meat sauce, which is why it's really good with things like bolognese or a ragu. There's a rhyme and a reason. It's not totally- Why
am I like out of breath? I'm so excited! Other things, like long thin noodles are better for like silky thin sauces like a carbonara or
like a simple marinara. This one is one that we're gonna use for the lemon pepper pasta because they are so starchy that they really give up
their goods to the sauce, which like make it that really sort of silky luxurious situation. Other acceptable shapes for this pasta include pretty much anything here because as long as there's pasta, it's gonna give you pasta water, it's gonna have starch and that's what you're
building your sauce out of. And I just think like having
other different shapes of pasta in your pantry opens you up to a world of possibilities. And with that said, we're
gonna make this right now. (smooth bossa nova music) We are gonna be cooking
on an induction burner, which I think is really cool. People have been talking about them, they're like, oh my god,
they're taking away my gas. Take away my gas, that's fine. I am super happy to cook
on this induction burner. This was a choice that I made. This was not paid for by big electric. I'm just an enthusiast of
this really beautiful piece of equipment that makes
my pasta water boil in about 90 seconds. So this is sort of similar
to like a cacio e pepe or a pasta al limone, sort of the marriage between the two. But it came about
because I was desperately craving macaroni and
cheese and I made a version of macaroni and cheese right
here in this kitchen by myself, late night with the shells. And I ate it and I was like,
I wish this were from a box. And then I was just thinking
how much more satisfying a simple cacio e pepe is. And then I was thinking
about pasta al limone and how like if that
just had cheese in it, wouldn't it be so much better? Anyway, that's where
this kind of came from. So I'm starting here with the
pasta and the salted water. I think one pound of
pasta feeds six people. I think 12 ounces of
pasta feeds four people. While this boils and cooks again, because of this style of pasta, it is gonna take a little bit longer. It is gonna take closer to like 16, 17 minutes to boil rather than
like a traditional 10 to 12. That said, I'm gonna
start making the sauce. (smooth bossa nova music) So I'm adding six tablespoons
of butter to a skillet. I'm eyeballing, that
might be six and a half, it might be seven. And I'm just gonna sort of like let this gently start to melt. I don't wanna put it on too
high of the heat and walk away because that's when you burn things. So I'm just gonna like let
it do its thing in the pot. I'm gonna add the pepper straight to it. I'm gonna add the chili flake to it. I'm gonna zest the lemon and like this is gonna be like
where everything happens. So meanwhile I'm gonna get my broccoli. I'm gonna cut it up so when
the pasta's out of the water, I can add the broccoli right away, which takes like 60 seconds. I am grabbing the broccoli. Is that fun and playful? Do we like that? Broccoli is underrated. A beautiful piece of just cooked broccoli with lemon juice and salt is just about the
most delicious thing ever. And I gotta be honest, broccoli is not my
favorite looking vegetable. And you know me, I don't,
I mean maybe you don't, but if you do know me, you
know that I don't always love to do like a fussy vegetable. I will not peel a carrot to save my life. But I will peel the outer
layer of a broccoli stalk because that is what is coming out as like a little fibrous. A little fun fact for you, but we're gonna give it some help by just cutting it nicely. And just like a pasta shape can like transform your
experience of eating it, so can the shape of a vegetable. I just cut it lengthwise,
quarter the stock, and then cut into long thin pieces. If there's like an
intact floret like that, I will cut it lengthwise,
especially if it's a bit thicker. But because it all goes
in at the same time, you do want it to be, you
know, sort of even pieces. Okay, so my broccoli is
ready in its little pile for the blanching, the
great blanching of 2024. I'm gonna turn up my butter. And this is probably close-ish. Ooh, fun, right? Like are you already having a better time? We're close. The butter's making noise. The butter needs attention. I'm just gonna like cook like this. This is why people wear aprons. I know that, I just don't. And that's okay. I like using a whisk for my brown butter because all of the brown
bits really do kind of stick to the bottom of the pan. I just feel like you get a more evenly browned butter. For those keeping track, we're at a six, which I would call like
a medium, medium high. I think adding stuff like chili flake to the brown butter is a really nice way to like augment the black
pepper's, natural spice-ness. Spice-ness? Spiciness? Wow, it's been a minute. I'm gonna reduce the heat
so it doesn't continue cooking that much more. But once I add the spices
and the lemon zest, you're gonna see, it's gonna start to almost like sizzle
and fry in the butter. (pepper grinding) And I'm not measuring this,
but if I had to guess, we're looking at like a half teaspoon. And this is not the pepper
from a little shaker. This is not the pepper
from like pre-ground. Freshly ground black
pepper from a pepper mill is always gonna taste different and always gonna have
like a different vibe. So we're doing this because we are blooming
the spice in the fat. Both the chili flake, the peppercorn and the lemon zest all have oils in them which come alive when
you basically toast them or expose them to heat. Especially so in something
like a fat, like butter. (smooth bossa nova music) This is my favorite part,
and this looks really fun, and it smells really good. This is a very basic pasta. It's it's butter, it's spices,
it's cheese, it's lemon. But somehow the way that
everything comes together, it still like tastes different than any other pasta that I've had. All right, now comes the time
we've all been waiting for. Okay, this is like al
dente in a really good way. Any more than this and
it would spend too long. I'm not draining it because
I'm already gonna add water to the skillet anyway. So to have extra water on
the pasta is fine with me because it's gonna go in there anyway. So this is my favorite way to make pastas when I just go from
the pot to the skillet. I don't even bother taking it over there to drain if I can avoid it. All right, I'm gonna turn
this back onto a boil so I can cook my broccoli and I'm gonna salvage
about two cups of water. I'm gonna crank this heat
to like a medium high. And right now it looks like
kind of soupy, a little weird. You're like, how is this gonna
be delicious and wonderful? And so while this comes together, I'm gonna also add about a half-ish cup of cheese to the skillet. This is very much like a
cook-to-taste situation. Pecorino would also be really nice here. But basically the cheese
as it melts into the butter and the pasta water is what's
gonna create our sauce. And tongs are like
truly the best companion for any pasta dish, but especially
for something like this. Okay, so already it's like thickened up, it's glossy, but it needs
a little bit of loosening. So I'm gonna add the
other half a cup of water. There's starch coming off the pasta. There's also starch in this pasta water, and all of that starch is
like, what's thickening this, and what's giving you this really luscious macaroni and cheese-ish sauce. Our water's boiling, I'm
gonna add the broccoli. And basically we're doing this until the pasta is cooked through and that's why we cook it al dente, because if you added
fully-cooked pasta to this, it wouldn't have enough
time in the skillet before you made the sauce, right? 'cause you would overcook the pasta. So the idea is that you can
add this full two-cup of water to the skillet without your
pasta becoming overcooked. I like to test periodically. It's almost there. I find myself using anywhere from one to three quarters cup of water to the full two cups of water, depending on when I pull the pasta. The broccoli cooks for like 60 seconds. It goes from kind of like regular-looking to a really bright neon green. Your light is blinking. Is it always blinking? No, not, yeah. Sorry, I'm gonna add
pea to this real quick. Surprise! There's peas. I forgot that I was gonna add peas to this because I thought it
would be so delightful to eat broccoli and peas together. These are frozen peas,
which I'm a huge fan of. It also makes it feel like
I am cooking for a toddler. It's me, I'm the toddler. And like in the last 30 seconds
of cooking your broccoli, add like a half a bag of peas. You could just do broccoli, but something about the
peas kind of makes it feel more like a side dish. And because peas are fully cooked when they go in the freezer, you're really just kind of cooking them until the chill comes off of them. (smooth bossa nova music) (water splashing) People are always like,
"what's a cool new vegetable?" And I'm like, I don't know broccoli? From the grocery store? Am I regressing? Is this baby food? It's so good. It does want that last
half cup of pasta water. So I'm glad I went the full two. Unlike cacio e pepe, the predominant flavor
here is lemon and pepper, hence the name, lemon pepper pasta. The cheese is there for texture. It's there for creaminess and saltiness, but it's not the primary. Because it is such a simple pasta, you do need to kind of make sure your salt and pepper is on
point, which sounds basic, but it's simply true. So last but not least, the
lemon in the lemon pepper pasta. Obviously the lemons zest doing a lot, but it's not gonna do as
much as the juice will. I like a full lemon's
worth of juice in here, which is anywhere from
two to three tablespoons. That's what makes this lemon pepper pasta and not just like pasta
with lemon or something. This isn't always about like
the most complicated thing that you could do to a piece of food. It's about being like, isn't this easy? Don't you feel excited to cook it? And I know this is like a
plate of blanched vegetables, but this is sort of to me
behaving like your salad moment. You could also add garlic to this pasta. You could add preserved
lemon to this pasta. Mm. It's like a very customizable thing. But I do encourage you to
try something at its simplest before you decide how you wanna adjust it and then make it your own. I'm gonna add a little
garlic to the broccoli. I love adding raw garlic to
something when it's still warm. Like adding garlic at that moment kind of like blooms it while also simultaneously
mellowing it out. And you could do this in a mixing bowl or add it to the lemon juice or whatever, but this is how this happened. Alright, that's so good. So the thing about this pasta in that it is a fat cheese
pasta water-based sauce, you really do kind of need to like make it and serve it and eat it in
pretty quick succession. This isn't like a red sauce, let it sit out for a few hours, eat it now, eat it later situation. Finishing anything with lemon zest makes me feel like I'm in a restaurant. It does have the like box
macaroni and cheese energy. This is so good. I wanna
eat this every day. But yeah, I don't think
it needs anything else, especially if you dress
this with like garlic and lemon and salt, eating that with this, you're gonna get every
single thing that you need. You could add a clove of grated garlic just like I do with my carbonara. You could add some chopped
garlic and parsley at the end, like shallot pasta. You can like take a lot from
a lot of different pastas and marry them together to augment this. But I think just like a
box of macaroni and cheese, this is kind of perfect as is. - [Camera Man] This is fun. - It's so fun! (smooth bossa nova music) - [Camera Man] Thank you!
- [Alison] You're welcome!
