Pasta is a student’s best friend, one of the most versatile meals you can make and one that is incredibly cheap and delicious. As a broke student myself I have accumulated a variety of pasta dishes that are both easy and cheap to make (but beware some of these are odd.) Also worth mentioning is that I am a pescatarian and have been one for fifteen years of my life so unfortunately for meat lovers, you will not find anything meaty in this article but instead I will share one of my odd pasta dishes including fish.
The Basic B*
I call this pasta dish the Basic B* because anyone can make it regardless of whether you have €15 in your bank account or €2.
Ingredients:
- Pasta (any kind)
- Salt
- Cheese
- Sauce (of your choice)
Method:
- Boil the water and make sure to salt it.
- Add your spaghetti (or whatever pasta you choose, spaghetti is 28c so I’m going with that)
- Once the pasta is ready drain the water and add a small bit of butter inside the pot and let it melt as you mix. The more butter you add the creamier and saltier the pasta will taste.
- Then add grated cheese or sliced cheese on top. Make sure to mix well so the cheese melts in between the pasta and is stringy.
- You can add ketchup/ or canned sauces for additional taste.
Voila, pasta done within 20 ish minutes and you can have as much as you like.
The “I watched TikTok recipes” pasta
This pasta is inspired by the many Italian cooks on TikTok. They have shown me the error of my ways and sometimes when I’m bothered, I make my pasta according to this method.
Ingredients:
- Garlic cloves (2 or 3 small pieces depending on your love for garlic)
- Tomatoes (fresh)
- Pasta
- Salt
- Tomato paste
Method:
- Cut your garlic and fry it on a medium or low heat pan with extra virgin olive oil. Make sure to cut it very small.
- Cut tomatoes and whatever other veggies you like to add to the pan.
- While you are frying the veggies make sure the pasta is boiling in a nearby pot.
- Transfer some tomato paste onto the pan and add a bit of the pasta water (not too much or you’ll make soup)
- Once the pasta is finished, transfer it over onto the pan with the veggies and sauce. Make sure to drain the pasta before you transfer it.
- Fry for a little bit, mixing constantly so that the pasta can swim around in the sauce and gather flavour.
- You can add a bit of pesto and also spices that you like and voila!
My final recipe is:
“Cravings at 2 a.m.”
Ingredients:
- Tuna (canned, fresh
- whatever tuna you can find)
- Tomatoes (small little baby ones)
- Pasta (any)
- Cheese (if you want)
- Sauce (of choice but I prefer the tomato flavoured ones)
Method:
- Boil your pasta as you normally would.
- You can, if you like, cut the baby tomatoes up on a pan with the sauce of your choice and fish or you can add those later, one by one.
