In previous quarters, I described Chow Down as a column exploring the intersections of food and culture on campus and beyond to encourage new, thoughtful engagement with food.

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Despite the changes brought by our collective retreat to domestic life, Chow Down’s original mission to reevaluate our relationships to food and food service workers remains applicable. With panicked shoppers depleting grocery aisles of kitchen essentials, everyone — regardless of their level of cooking expertise — is confronting the challenge of assembling nourishing meals with constrained pantries.

As these times demand greater flexibility, I took to Reddit to ask students their cooking questions. Unless you enjoy cooking mealy, gray, ground meat, continue reading for advice and an unconventional pasta recipe using lasagna noodles to make something other than lasagna.

u/realanalysis_sequel: “How do I cook ground meat? It just scatters into a mess.”

As J. Kenji López-Alt explains on Serious Eats, ground meat breaks up and takes on an unappealing gray color because moisture escapes more easily than heftier pieces of meat. The excess moisture prevents the meat from developing a crispy, brown exterior, a process also known as the Maillard reaction.

To successfully brown ground meat, heat a pan over medium-high heat with enough neutral oil (canola, vegetable, grapeseed) to coat the bottom. Add the ground meat to the pan in an even layer and generously salt, leaving the meat undisturbed for a couple minutes until you see the edges begin to brown. After a crust develops, flip the meat over and break into smaller chunks.

Leave spaces between the ground meat to encourage the crust’s development and prevent steaming. If you have a large quantity of meat to brown, cook in small batches, pushing aside browned meat before adding more to the pan.

u/poop_toliet: “What do I do with moldy cheese and five years old pasta?”

I know this question is a joke, but for what it’s worth, unopened boxes of dried pasta will not develop “harmful bacteria” according to the USDA. They “may mold if exposed to dampness,” so proceed at your own risk.

u/TravelJunkie2017: “I don't have my ingredients anymore. I left my dorm and had to leave them behind. But what could I do with Lasagne apart from a lasagna? I made a veggie lasagna once and didn't really like the outcome. And I'm trying to become a vegetarian so no meat options would be great.”

True to my reputation among friends for disregarding recipe instructions, I’m going rogue to answer this question. Purists of Italian cuisine should look away because the following recipe combines chopped lasagna noodles with a popular home-style Chinese dish I foolishly despised during the picky-eater days of my youth: stir-fried tomatoes and egg.

Eating the comforting stir-fry now, I relish in the complex layers of salty, sweet, umami: the pillowy, ricotta-like eggs and the bite of the ginger and acidic tomatoes. It’s often eaten with white rice, but trust me that the chew of al dente lasagna noodles improves the traditional dish.

Best of all, the recipe is substitution-friendly and comes together quickly. Unlike the long ingredient list of vegetable lasagna, this dish relies on eggs and canned tomatoes, two ingredients commonly stocked in home pantries. I add seasoned rice vinegar to the simmering tomatoes to introduce extra sweetness because that’s what I have, but you might prefer ketchup or sugar. Finishing with a splash of sesame oil adds depth, but olive oil would probably taste great too. I might even add fish sauce and garlic chile crisp. Go wild. Don’t let convention hold you back when the results are this delicious.

If that still sounds unappealing, break the dry lasagna into shards and cook them into a vegetable soup or stew.

Recipe: Deconstructed Chinese Lasagne Serves 2-3 Cook time: 20 to 25 minutes Ingredients: Kosher salt 4 lasagna noodles 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 2 green onion stalks, whites chopped in 1 inch lengths, greens thinly sliced 1 ½ inch knob of ginger, peeled and finely chopped 4 eggs White pepper, but black pepper works 2 tbsp. neutral oil 1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, preferably unsalted 1 tsp. rice vinegar 1 tsp. Sesame oil Steps: Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. While water comes to a boil, prep garlic, green onion, ginger. Gently smash and peel garlic clove before finely chopping. Repeat with ginger after peeling its skin but don’t worry about precision — you won’t taste a difference. Place lasagna noodles in the boiling salted water. Set a timer to check on noodles two minutes before the cook time specified on the box. As noodles cook, crack eggs into a bowl and add a few pinches of kosher salt and white pepper. I substituted white pepper for a few cranks of black pepper. Whip the eggs until homogenous. Remove lasagna noodles from the pot before noodles fully cook and stack them on your cutting board. Here’s the sacrilegious part: cut the noodles in half or into fourths lengthwise. If cutting into fourths, half the noodles should resemble tripoline pasta and the other half resemble pappardelle. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium-low and add eggs into the pan, constantly stirring. Pour eggs back into their original bowl before they finish cooking. The eggs should look wet. Add remaining oil into the pan and turn the heat up to medium. Add the green onion whites, garlic, and ginger to pan, stirring occasionally until you can smell the aromatics, about 30 seconds. Pour tomatoes into the pan and add a splash of seasoned rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar, or a dollop of ketchup. Stir to combine. Add chopped lasagne into the pan to finish cooking in the tomato sauce. Add an extra half cup of water if necessary to loosen noodles. Let simmer on medium-low while the noodles absorb extra liquid and tomatoes reduce. Stir eggs into pan and salt to taste. Top with thinly sliced green onion and a splash of sesame oil.

Reach columnist Estey Chen at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @esteychen

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