This dish is very fast to cook, brings you the carbs you need, some greens (technically reds), and has a distinct enough flavor to fight monotony in your eating habits.

• 160 grams of pasta (80 grams per person, you could go up to 100 grams), I like fusilli for this dish but most pasta types would be fine
• 1 bell pepper (all colors are fine, but I have a slight preference for red as it imparts some color to the pasta)
• some salted soy sauce (the salt will be useful)
• some olive oil (we will cook it so no need for high-quality stuff)
• some herbes de Provence (you could use another dry herbs mix but do use dry herbs, they make the flavor of the dish)
• some cayenne pepper (optional)

• fill a pan with water and bring it to a boil (big bubbles, small bubbles do not count as boiling, you will be delighted to discover that I met people for which this is not obvious)
• add the pasta when the water starts boiling and keep cooking for about 10 minutes (until your pasta is cooked)

• once the pasta is in the water, put the diced bell pepper in a wok (or similar large pan) on low heat
• add a generous splash of olive oil
• add a generous splash of soy sauce (this will bring you the salt in the dish plus a lot of the flavor)
• add a very generous sprinkle of herbs (you can hardly overdo it here)
• optionally, add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper (you want enough for people to realize the dish has some hotness but no more, it is not a hot dish)
• cook on low heat

• once the pasta is cooked, add a splash of pasta water to the wok, this will help with the sauce consistency (you can be approximate with the quantity, too little and your sauce will miss a bit of thickness, too much and you will have to reduce longer: either way the result will be fine and you can do better next time) you can do it directly from the pasta pan, no need for an intermediate container (that would give you additional opportunities to burn yourself)
• strain the pasta and add them to the wok (it is okay if there is some pasta water left with the pasta, we have pasta water in the wok anyway)
• raise to medium heat and keep mixing until you get the sauce consistency you want (the mixing time will depend on the amount of water you put, you should be done in two minutes)
• serve on a plate, feel free to add butter and shredded Parmesan to pimp the result slightly

Using the pasta water comes from French guy cooking’s Alex and is a game-changer for pasta sauces.

The cayenne pepper comes, obviously, from food wishes’ Chef John.