The last few weeks have been rough for everyone. We are still adapting to quarantine life. I am still working currently. Where are all my healthcare workers at?! Marcelo luckily has been home and doing virtual lessons for his students. We are adapting to our new normal, as I’m sure many of you are as well! We figured you all could use a super easy and pantry friendly pasta recipe to add to your rotation. This pasta pummarola is a super simple dish with only a few ingredients. There are no rules in the time of Corona – so adapt away and use what you’ve got on hand! We’ll share a few easy substitutions to make this pasta dish more pantry friendly.

Covid-19 and the Quarantine Life

We are currently in week 3 of the shelter in place rules in Dallas. I remember during week 1 thinking how daunting doing this for 2 weeks seemed. Now that we are week 3 with likely still many weeks to come, it actually seems less daunting. We’ve slowly adapted to this ‘new normal’. Don’t get me wrong, I had several breakdowns the first week and I still have my days even now. But I have seen a few silver linings to this unique situation.

We’ve gotten very creative with our cooking! It’s like an episode of Chopped every night! It’s allowed us to realize that recipes don’t matter and really truly enjoy the cooking and creative process
We’ve had time to really think about the baby’s nursery and been able to order a few things on Etsy and Home Depot to get the room set up ahead of schedule!
Minimalism has never looked easier. No need for new clothes, shoes, make-up. I’ve really thought twice about every Amazon order or grocery order I’ve placed thinking about those delivering my order and whether those items are really “essential” or not
Getting some real one on one time with our Peloton bike, which we are incredibly thankful for right now!
And lastly – incredibly thankful we both still have jobs, our health and family’s health, and a low-risk pregnancy thus far.

Actually trying to focus on the positives has helped immensely for me in getting through this tough time and I highly recommend everyone try it! That being said, let’s get back to this easy pasta pummarola!

Pasta Pummarola

Everyone needs a super simple pasta dish in their repertoire. One that you know off the top of your head and you don’t even need a recipe for. This is that recipe! A pummarola sauce contains tomatoes, garlic, and basil. That’s it! This trio of flavors is powerful and proof that sometimes less is more. We do provide you with exact measurements in this recipe, but don’t feel obligated to use them! Just go with your taste buds and what you have on hand. Someone told us they made a dish super similar to this and threw in some chopped eggplant because they had one on hand. That’s awesome and exactly what we’re talking about. This bring us to substitutions.

Recipe Substitutions

While I do think, for taste reasons, using fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic is ideal – remember there are NO RULES! You can definitely make this with canned tomatoes, dried basil, and garlic powder. The red chili flakes are optional. You can add in other veggies too if you like or if you want some protein – this would be great with some Italian sausage or meatballs. Don’t have basil – sub parsley instead! You get our drift. This recipe is meant to show you the beauty in simplicity and that you can get as creative as you like in your own kitchen with the ingredients you have on hand.

We hope this recipe provides you some peace and calm in this chaotic time! If you need some other pantry friendly recipes check out our black bean soup or Spanish garbanzo soup! Or if you are placing your grocery order this week, see our pantry staples checklist.