How to Adjust Recipe Portions

WHY ARE THE RECIPES WRITTEN AS TWO ENTREE PORTIONS?

This portion size tends to offer the best balance between ingredients and the pan. Allowing space to toss the pasta and create a super tasty dish. It's honestly just harder to toss a large pan of pasta without making a "little" mess. Even so, it's not really that big of a deal, the goal is to make it make sense when modifying a recipe.

HOW TO ADJUST RECIPE PORTIONS

Ok so you want to make a recipe for 4 people, or maybe just a single portion- because lets admit that left over pasta, while tasty, it's never *really* as good as it was when made in the moment.

THE WATER FOR BOILING PASTA

The water and pasta when cooking releases starch creating "pasta water" and some recipes are reliant on this to form a cohesive sauce.

• Single entree serving of pasta: Use 1 quart of water in a small pot.
• Two entree servings of pasta: Use 2 quarts of water in a medium pot.
• Four entree servings of pasta: Use 4 quarts of water in a medium to large pot.

SEASONING THE PASTA WATER WITH SALT

Salt in the water is essential for a flavorful dish. So lets chat about how much to use. The guideline would be "as salty as the sea", which is 1 tablespoon of salt per quart of water. This is fine if you manage the water level of your pot carefully, adding more water as it evaporates to maintain a precise level of seasoning of water. For cooking at home, I suggest using the "good seasoning" level.

• Full seasoning: 1 quart of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
• Good seasoning: 1 quart of water and 2 teaspoons of salt.
• Good enough seasoning: 1 quart of water and 1 teaspoon of salt.

POTS, PANS & UTENSILS

For two entree portions, these are pretty standard.

• 10” saute pan
• 4 quart pot
• Wooden spoon
• Cutting board
• Knife
• Bowls for ingredients
• Cheese grater

To prepare one serving, reduce the saute pan and pot size.

To prepare 4 servings, use a larger pot and saute pan.

To prepare feast size, either use really big pots and pans, or just use more large saute pans and replicate the recipe in each pan.

THE INGREDIENTS AND MAKING A SAUCE

Ok look, generally speaking just increase or decrease the amounts of each ingredient based on what you're doing. The thing to keep in mind is "is this the right amount of stuff for the pan I'm using".

A large pan with a single serving will evaporate too fast, burn the sauce and be difficult to work with.

A small pan with too many ingredients will steam and ultimately when stirring the sauce and pasta together, the pasta will fall out onto the counter top and not mix very well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Recipes are really just guidelines to prepare a tasty meal. Feel free to adjust the portions freely, experiment with ingredients, cooking temperatures. Change a red onion with a yellow onion, do you like it more? If yes, yayy! doooo it. If not, stick with the red onion. Or more like in my home kitchen, it's "oops, I forgot the red onion so it looks like I'll be using a shallot instead, LOL.