When opening the refrigerator reveals little more than eggs, milk and butter, the impulse most often is to order take-out. A well-stocked pantry, however, is enough to turn “nothing” into a full-fledged meal, as Colu Henry knows well. Henry, former director of public relations and director of special projects at Bon Appetit magazine, sparked a weeknight dinner revolution with her pasta dishes cobbled together from pantry staples, and shared on Instagram with the tag #backpocketpasta. Now immortalized in Back Pocket Pasta, Henry’s easy riffs and improvisations are available (and replicable) for the masses.
Back Pocket Pasta is not filled with hard-and-fast recipes, nor are any of the dishes particularly revelatory. Henry’s formulas plant seeds of inspiration and give the go-ahead, nudging home cooks to work with whatever they have laying around.
The simplest — yet most indulgently rich — recipe in the book comes courtesy of Carla Lalli Music, food director at Bon Appetit magazine. Composed of little more than an emulsion of butter and Parmesan cheese, tossed with al dente pasta, Back Pocket Pasta‘s Fusilli Alfredo is the ultimate in empty-fridge cooking — and yet it tastes like anything but a last resort.
Fusilli Alfredo
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Kosher salt
3/4 pound fusilli pasta
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
Cook’s Note: When grating the Parmesan cheese, use the smallest holes on a box grater [rather than a Microplane], as the Microplane can make the cheese too fluffy [which becomes] gloppy when it melts, instead of “coat-y.” Alternatively, you can blitz it in a food processor until the cheese forms very small beads.
