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Mark Bittman's spinach carbonara is a vegetarian twist on a classic Italian dish. He says spinach adds "a variety of different nutrients and just mixes things up a bit." Jim Henkens hide caption
toggle caption Jim Henkens
Mark Bittman's spinach carbonara is a vegetarian twist on a classic Italian dish. He says spinach adds "a variety of different nutrients and just mixes things up a bit."
Jim HenkensFast cooking isn't about skill. It's about strategy.
That's according to six-time James Beard Award-winning food writer Mark Bittman. So when he sat down to revise How to Cook Everything Fast, he had an eye toward teaching technique, not just showcasing recipes.
"There are patterns [in cooking] that after you do many times, you begin to recognize and you do automatically. But beginning cooks don't see those patterns, and they don't have them laid out for them," Bittman tells NPR.
And he's indeed cooked — and written about cooking — many times. He's the author of numerous cookbooks, and spent decades writing about food for the New York Times.
This is part of All Things Considered's "In A Pinch" series, where cookbook authors discuss meals that can be prepared with a handful of ingredients and a little bit of time.
"The attempt in Fast is to say: Here's how you really need to learn how to cook, here's how to organize ingredients. Here's how to use the right technique."
Bittman breaks down three strategies for faster cooking. His responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
From the archives Three ways cooking has changed over the last 300 years
1. Prepare as you cookThere's a lot of downtime in cooking. It takes time for the heat that you're using to be applied to the food that you're using it on. And you can use that time to do other things that make the whole procedure go more quickly.
2. Keep a well-stocked pantryThere are challenges around cooking besides the cooking itself. And one of them is shopping. To the extent that you can keep a good pantry, you can cook a lot of recipes without shopping. And that's a real advantage.
3. Always cook more than you need — think leftovers
From the archives The history of our love-hate-love relationship with leftovers
If you're cooking beans for a dish, then cook a lot of them and either refrigerate or freeze what's left. Same with whole grains.
Whenever you can, it almost always pays to cook more, even if it's just cooking more of the given dish. That's the kind of thing that veteran cooks know and learn.
Below are three recipes from Bittman's revised edition of How to Cook Everything Fast that you can try at home when you're in a pinch. They have been excerpted by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Spinach Carbonara
With the richness of eggs and Parmesan and the fresh bite of lightly cooked spinach, this recipe offers a hearty meatless alternative to more traditional pasta carbonara. You can replace the spinach with escarole, kale, mustard greens, chard or broccoli rabe. Just cut the ones with large leaves and stems crosswise into ribbons and cook a little longer if necessary.
SERVES 4
Salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound spinach
2 cloves garlic
1 pound any long pasta
3 eggs
4 ounces Parmesan cheese (1 cup grated)
Pepper
Directions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.
2. Put 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over low heat.
3. Trim off any thick stems from the spinach.
4. Raise the heat under the skillet to medium-high. Cook the spinach, adding a handful at a time and stirring between batches, until the leaves are just wilted, about 5 minutes.
5. Peel and chop 2 cloves garlic, adding them to the skillet as soon as you can (they'll cook with the spinach).
6. When the spinach is tender, turn off the heat.
7. When the water boils, add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally. Start tasting after 5 minutes.
8. Crack the eggs into a bowl.
9. Grate 1 cup Parmesan cheese and add to the bowl; sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper. Whisk with a fork to combine.
