The Fridge Staple Samin Nosrat Used To Put On Everything
Samin Nosrat has been having her moment ever since her book titled "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking" became a best seller and a James Beard award winner. But Nosrat's success did not end there. According to NPR and Nosrat's mentor, Alice Waters, who provided valuable advice to Nosrat, the book's purpose goes beyond teaching you to cook. Waters said it "not only teaches you how to cook but captures how it should feel to cook: full of exploration, spontaneity, and joy." It must be true because Netflix turned it into a highly praised docuseries with the same title: "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat."
Nosrat, who is American but of Iranian descent, shared with NPR that she has always loved food and while she ate peanut butter and jelly growing up, she also ate traditional foods her mom would make, including Iranian spaghetti. Nosrat explained, "It had chopped mushrooms, onions, beef (because there's no pork in Iran), and a ton of tomato sauce. And a ton of dried oregano." But according to LifeHacker, Nosrat revealed she put a fridge staple on this pasta, along with pretty much everything else she ate when she was growing up.
Yogurt
Samin Nosrat told LifeHacker that during an interview she revealed she puts yogurt on everything. Nosrat said, "I confessed that I always put it on everything, including pasta, when I was a kid. My brothers and I put it on literally everything, both for the sourness and creaminess, but also because it was a way to cool down the hot food more quickly so we could eat." That creamy tang also paired well with her mom's spaghetti. Nosrat continued, "I really love the taste of my mom's meat sauce—spaghetti with meat sauce— with this yogurt on it. It was just the taste of my childhood."
At first, yogurt on spaghetti might not get the taste buds churning; however, according to Get on My Plate, yogurt can be a great, healthy substitute for pasta recipes that call for heavy cream. And The Spruce Eats shares that yogurt is wonderful for thickening sauces with the help of a little cornstarch. However, it doesn't have to be a thickener.
Turkish Style Cooking offers a savory recipe for ground beef and yogurt sauce pasta. But the real proof point that yogurt and pasta are an acceptable combo came from an Italian woman at Nosrat's interview who shared, yogurt in pasta is "OK." That said, the woman also cautioned that if Nosrat tried to put mayo in her pasta, that's where she had to draw the line.