Miso mascarpone shells
Six ingredients and one pot. The audacity of it.
At a Glance
Story
The trick is that miso and mascarpone split the work a cheese sauce usually does alone. Miso brings the deep savoury note, mascarpone brings the fat and silk, and the pasta cooks directly in the miso broth so its starch thickens everything into a sauce with no roux, no grating and no second pot.
Ingredients
- ½ cup white miso
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
- 1 lb dried pasta shells
- 8 oz mascarponeabout 1 cup
- black pepper
- chile crispto finish (optional, and correct)
Method
A pasta that tastes like an intensely creamy mac and cheese and asks almost nothing of you. No chopping. Nothing to brown. One pot.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, whisk 5½ cups of warm water with the miso, oil and salt until the miso mostly dissolves. Lumps are fine, they sort themselves out.
- Stir in the shells over medium high and bring to a boil, stirring now and then. Drop to a brisk simmer and cook, stirring often as the liquid reduces, until the pasta is tender and the pot has gone thick and glossy with starch, 20 to 22 minutes.
- Off the heat, stir in the mascarpone. It will look soupy for a moment. Hold your nerve, it thickens as it sits. Loosen with hot water if it tightens past comfort.
Season with a scandalous amount of black pepper and serve. A spoonful of chile crisp over the top is the right amount of chaos.
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