Cooking a delicious and pretty meal, snapping a few photos of it and posting them on the internet: Life can be so beautiful.
If you suppress the impending climate collapse and all the other crises of this time.
As early as the middle of the 19th century, in the Biedermeier period, people were trying to ignore the world's problems and instead withdraw into their private lives.
The occasion was an Indonesian volcano called Tambora.
After the 1815 erupted, there was a "year without a summer" due to the ash in the atmosphere in Europe and North America.
In the famine that followed, people were forced to stay at home.
Decades after the crisis, people still preferred the perceived security of their own four walls.
Today you can observe the effect again: here a bit of allotment gardening, there a new designer couch – the new Biedermeier is called “cocooning”, hardware and furniture stores are happy.
Unlike in the Biedermeier period, however, no single natural disaster hits my mind.
But the feeling of the inability of politics, economy and society to solve any problem of our capitalist-globalized world.
Pandemic, war, climate catastrophe: one would like to run away.
Or just hibernate in a cocoon until it's all over.
more on the subject
Meat-free Wednesday in nursing homes: »The fight for the climate will not only be decided in Lützerath, but also on our plates« by Nina Weber
Boom in substitute products: Vegetables are my meatBy Philip Bethge and Viola Kiel
Agricultural expert at the Nature Conservation Union: "It is not necessary for everyone to be vegetarian" by Jonas Schaible
Why the resignation, you may ask yourself, everyone can do something.
Even on SPIEGEL.de, a text was recently headlined with the following line: "The fight for the climate will not only be decided in Lützerath, but also on our plates." It is about a retirement home that is introducing a meat-free day.
A great gesture, but here's a small example: Because I didn't eat meat between 2010 and 2020, I was able to save a total of around 4.5 tons of CO₂ (how I get the numbers.) With the coal from Lützerath alone However, 280 million tons of CO₂ are generated.
In order to “save” that, the whole of Germany would have to do without meat for 7.5 years – every day, not even a week.
You can shift as much responsibility onto the private individual as you want - in the end it is not up to the individual to save the climate.
In 2017, scientists calculated that 71 percent of all greenhouse gases emitted since 1988 come from 100 corporations.
No matter how hard I try, I can't cook against it on my own.
Because I have to try if I want to keep my job as a recipe writer, today there is a frustrated pasta with red, green and yellow components - it all ends up in the same sauce (one might take this as a political comment).
After all, the result is a delicious, pink feast for the eyes, which you can set the scene for the upcoming retreat into private life.
The lemon in the sauce refreshes the earthy note of the beetroot - so it doesn't taste like you've stuck your head in the sand.
This is what you need for four portions of »Pink Pasta«
500 g pasta, preferably rigatoni
200 g soft cheese, eg feta, or as a vegan alternative 150 g soaked cashew nuts
350 g pre-cooked beetroot
1 organic lemon, juice and zest
30 g chopped walnut kernels
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
Some parsley, or dill - if that's what you're into
oil, salt
What does this cost?
About 1.25 euros per serving for the ingredients used.
How long does it take?
About 25 to 30 minutes.
That's how easy it is to make »pink pasta«
Peel and coarsely chop the
onion
and
garlic
– everything is then pureed afterwards, so no finishing touches are necessary.
Sweat both in a little
oil
in a saucepan, but do not brown.
Remove the beets
from the packaging, reserving the
red water.
Roughly chop the beets and after a few minutes add them to the pot with the liquid.
Simmer everything together for about ten minutes.
If necessary, add some water so that nothing burns.
After ten minutes, crumble about 80 percent of the
soft cheese
into the pot by hand.
Add the zest, i.e. the finely grated zest, to half the
lemon
.
Mix everything together with a blender to a creamy sauce.
Cover and let simmer a little longer over low heat.
Optional: Roast the
nut kernels
in a pan without fat for three to four minutes, tossing well.
If you don't have time for that, eat them unroasted.
more on the subject
Cooking without charcoal: Sour makes you polite: The nicest lemon pasta in the world - for 1.50 euros A column by Sebastian Maas
Cooking without charcoal: late riser pasta with vodka sauce – for 1 euro A column by Sebastian Maas
Cook the
noodles
in salted water according to package instructions until almost done.
Reserve some pasta water when draining.
Season the pink sauce with the
lemon
juice and add some pasta water for a smoother texture.
Then add the noodles to the sauce, stir vigorously and leave to stand for another minute.
Garnish
with the remaining
cheese
, a few
herbs
and the
nut kernels (roasted or unroasted) and slice in.
Oh yes, and of course take a picture and post it!
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