Saffron Cream Pasta [For One]

I’m going to be really honest when I say that I wasn’t even sure if I like saffron? I saw Remy using it on that once scene in Ratatouille and well it’s stuck with me ever since then. I decided to play around with it via pasta because that is, my safe space. This pasta is creamy and fragrant and very, very cozy.

what you need:

• About ~1 teaspoon Saffron Threads
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Salt
• Pepper
• Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 cups pasta of your choice for creamy sauces I like to use anything tubular or small, like penne or bowties or rigatoni

what you need to do:

• Add 3 tablespoons of hot water to small bowl. Add in a large pinch of the saffron threads and stir gently. Set aside about 10 – 15 minutes.

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles as directed on the package.
• While the noodles cook, melt the butter in a large nonstick pan on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add in the garlic. The butter will begin to foam a bit, and once the bottom turns a LIGHT caramel color, reduce the heat to low, and take the pan off the heat for about 30 seconds to cool it down before adding the cream. I just pick mine up and hold in the air for a bit. If you add the cream when the pan is still pretty hot, it will scald and then curdle and we don’t want that!
• Once the pan has cooled off, add in the cream and whisk together. Pour in the saffron and the soaking water and mix.
• Sprinkle in some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Taste and adjust the seasonings as you prefer. I do not like to give measurements for these as I prefer my food a bit more salty and I don’t want you to overdo it. On my end, I used about 1/4 teaspoon of each.
• Let sauce simmer, it will thicken as it sits. Once the noodles are done, scoop them into the sauce using a slotted spoon. Stir the noodles into the sauce, completely coating them, and then let it simmer for about a minute or so to thicken up and get nice and creamy!
• Remove from the heat and serve!
• If you need more servings simply double everything in the recipe.