Transcription
This is what Italians actually eat at home. You won't find this on a fancy restaurant menu, but you'll definitely find this in a lot of Italian kitchens. It's simple. It's just pasta and lentils. And this is really the heart of the Mediterranean diet that not a lot of people talk about.
You don't really hear about this dish that often, and it's really good. I grew up eating this. I wasn't too crazy about it when I was a kid, but now I love it. So, today I'm going to show you how to make it.
So, first we're going to heat up a generous amount of olive oil. The more the marrier. And we'll add in a few cloves of garlic. We're going to leave the garlic whole. This is really just to flavor the oil. So, we'll give that a minute. As you can see, we have a lot of oil in here, but the garlic is cooking. We don't want to burn the garlic, but we want that oil to pick up all the flavor. And once you smell the garlic, we'll add in the tomatoes. Mix this up. So now we're going to sauté the tomatoes for a few minutes. And once you see that they're starting to fall apart, we'll add in the lentils. And this is really like the flavor base of this dish. So you definitely don't want to skip this step. And once you see this color in this pan, you can see the tomatoes are starting to fall apart. This is the point where we'll add in the lentils. And these are green lentils. I just rinsed them and drained them. I didn't soak them. We're just going to throw them in. Now, we're going to mix this up and we're going to allow the lentils to pick up all this flavor in here. So, we'll sauté it for about a minute. And this is another important step in creating the flavor in this.
Now, at this point, the garlic pretty much did its job. So, we're going to remove the garlic. And if you like garlic, you can keep it in. And if you really like garlic, I have a good trick. You can take all this garlic and then put in a little bowl and smash it up. and then put it in right before it's finished cooking. Because if you leave this cooking in here, it's going to pretty much be tasteless by the time this soup is done. So, if you take it out now, it still has a little bit of a punch and you can put it in at the end if you want. Or you could just kind of eat it while you're making it. But if you're eating it, make sure the other people in the house eat a clove, too, so you're not the only one smelling like garlic.
So, I just want to show you what this looks like before we add in the water. You can see the lentils are picking up the color from the tomatoes. Now, we'll add in some water. We want to add enough water to cover the lentils by about an inch. Let's check this out. That looks pretty good. Now, we're going to season this up with a little salt, some pepper, and we're going to bring this to a boil. So, pretty much we're just bringing this to a boil. Now, we're going to turn down the heat, give this a little stir, and we're going to let this simmer for about a half hour.
So, it's been about 30 minutes. Let's check this out. The lentils are pretty much fully cooked. You can see they're starting to fall apart. We still have some water in here. Enough water to cook our pasta. So, this is kind of the moment where you determine whether you're having a soup or you're having a pasta, a creamy pasta. So, I'm going for more of a creamy pasta. So, I'm not going to add any water to this. I'm just going to add in the pasta. And I'm using dubeti. And you could use ditalini. I mean, you can really use any pasta shape you want, but these are definitely like the classic shape. these little rings. So, we're gonna let this cook for about 10 12 minutes. It actually takes a little longer to cook because I have this on low. So, even though pasta is al dente in 8 minutes, usually winds up taking 10 12 minutes to cook. So, we're going to let this cook on low for 10 12 minutes.
So, it's been about 10 minutes. We're going to add in some fresh parsley. But before I do, just kind of want to show you this like the consistency in here where there's like a little level of like cream on the top and I stir it. You could see it. It's like the mix between a soup and a pasta. So now we're going to add in some parsley. Kind of finish it off. Stir that up. And that's really it. I mean, this is the meal that like when your parents when you're younger, they're like, "We have food at home." This was the food at home. You always have lentils and pasta. So, this was definitely on repeat on the regular. And, um, when I was a kid, I wasn't really too excited about it, but now I love it. Um, I mean, most kids probably aren't excited about this, but I mean, can you blame them?
All right. So, we'll get this in a bowl. So, you could see in here the pasta is fully cooked. It's al dente. And you really want to be careful when making this because like if the pasta sits, it's going to soak up more water and blow up. So, you definitely want to add the pasta in when you're ready to eat it. So, don't let this sit. Just make it and serve it. And this is perfect. And lentils are also good luck for New Year's. In Italian tradition, eating lentils on New Year's is good luck and prosperity because they look like little Roman ancient coins. So, if you're catching this video before the new year, you can add this to your New Year's menu. I'm sure everybody will be excited about lentil soup. We'll top it off with a little olive oil and then we'll get in here. Show you what we got. You can see the creamy pasta. It's definitely like a mix of a soup and a pasta. That's so good. We have to top it off with a little cheese. It's a must. Takes it to another level. That's it. [snorts] So simple, but so good. So good. Especially on days like today, it's snowing. Something like this. Really, it's like a comforting bowl of bowl of soup, pasta. I'll let you guys decide what it is.
So, you can see in here, this has been sitting for about 10 minutes. And you can see the pasta is already like it absorbed all the water in here and it's really thick. So, like I said a little earlier, you definitely want to make this one and serve it because if it sits too long, this is kind of what happens to it. It's not bad. Still tastes good. It's just the pasta is a lot softer. And Italians eat a lot of pasta. And a lot of people have this negative association with pasta, but this is the kind of pasta that they eat on a regular basis. This is healthy. This is one of those dishes that's like like everybody's trying to figure out how to live to 100. And uh I feel like this is one of them. You know, you have the the lentils. They're rich in fiber, protein, and uh good olive oil, a little cheese. I mean, it's just really like a comforting bowl that's healthy for you and it tastes great. So, you definitely have to try this recipe. And if you try it, let me know how you like it in the comments. Don't forget to hit the bell. I think if you hit the bell, you'll get notifications when I post. And don't forget to like and subscribe. And also, if you like this one, I also have a recipe for pasta fajoli. It's linked right here.