Bubble trouble

Sarah came over to help me test out one of Abuela Rosa’s pasta recipes before I officially add it to my heritage cooking collection. Simple plan: boil water, add pasta, don’t burn down the apartment.

Bubble trouble

Turns out there’s a critical step we missed about watching the pot once you add the pasta. Who knew that particular brand of whole wheat penne creates enough starch to turn your entire stovetop into a bubble factory? Sarah’s standing there with this wooden spoon like she’s conducting an orchestra of chaos while sudsy pasta water cascades onto everything.

Teamwork makes the dream work, even when the dream is just turning off the stove before we flood the kitchen.

Crisis management kicked in pretty quickly though. I jumped in to turn off the burner while Sarah held the pot steady, both of us laughing at the absurdity of it all. Jake wandered over to document our domestic disaster, probably filing it under “reasons Elena shouldn’t be trusted with family recipes unsupervised.”

The pasta turned out perfectly, by the way. And now we know that particular recipe comes with a mandatory foam warning. Abuela Rosa definitely would have mentioned that detail if I’d asked the right questions. Next time I’m calling her before we start cooking, not after we’ve redecorated the kitchen with starch bubbles.