It would be really odd to live in thé country of pasta and to avoid eating it. Lunch or dinner, most of the italians take minimal once daily a primi with pasta. In my eternal struggle to keep my weight under control this would be a very bad idea ;-). The ‘pasta-department’ in the supermarket is impressive and I notice the gradual change to increase the whole-weat pasta brands. 85 grams of pasta unboiled is 299 kcal. I try to avoid counting kcal, but occasionaly it’s interesting just to have an idea. I still have the bad habit to eat most of my kcal in the evening, mainly because it’s the cosiest meal of the day. Pecorino or parmigiano is 422 per 100 grams, thus for 25 grams approx 105 kcal. For tomatoes and rocket salad I will count 60 kcal in total. Pine nuts are optional and they contain 635 kcal per 100 grams, thus 1 table spoon is approx 120 kcal (impressive!). Last but not least I need some good olive oil to get the proper flavor, 1 table spoon is 120 kcal, waw, thus let’s mimimize the amount up to max 2 table spoons pp.
So this simple meal made by whole weat pasta, chopped and fried garlic, with fresh cherry tomatoes (put the halved cherry tomatoes with the garlic, some dried basil and the olive oil on baking paper in the oven to intensify the taste), a few pine nuts, pecorino and rocket salad = 645 kcal.
PS Don’t forget to keep some of the boiling water to mix with the cheese (cfr cacio e pepe) and to add a lot of black pepper.
Buon appetito 😉
Doc V's Healthy Kitchen 