Jennifer Garner's Instagram #PretendCookingShow episode debuted recently. I watched it 10 times—she captivated me! Two-sentence summary:
Jennifer makes Hannah's brown butter and sage linguine from The Last Thing He Told Me, a crime thriller mini-series.
After seeing the Reel, I made pasta for my family. The Last Thing He Told Me released its next episode two hours later. Perfect timing!
Boil a gallon of water for a pound of dry pasta. Table salt 1 tablespoon to saucepan. Use 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal or 1 1/2 tablespoons Morton kosher salt.
Salted water—some of which you scoop out and add to the sauce to thicken it—may eliminate the need to salt the pasta before serving.
Smartly making brown butter spaghetti takes 15 minutes. Timed myself! How to cook pasta: Put the pot of water on high heat with a lid—it boils faster. Stop waiting!
Make brown butter sauce. Drop the pasta into boiling water while making the sauce. Turn off the heat if the sauce is ready before the pasta.
Dislike sage? Skip them! No linguine? Any pasta shape works. Parmesan too expensive? Grana Padano, Piave, or Pecorino Romano. No dairy? Use olive oil. Any of these makes delicious pasta.
This weeknight pasta uses cupboard staples to make a delicious meal. Browning butter—already perfect—improves its flavor.
The brown butter and Parmesan complement the sauce's zesty lemon juice. It's a recipe with measurements, but I could make a fantastic dinner by adding more or less of any element.