Keeping the kiddos happy! Jimmy Kimmel recently donned an apron to share a recipe for a dish he makes for his kids on a regular basis.
“By request, this is my recipe for Pasta Tina, it’s one of few things my kids eat.” the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, 52, said in an Instagram video posted on Wednesday, April 15. “It’s a name they made up.”
According to the comedian, who shares Jane, 5, and Billy, 2, with wife Molly McNearney, the basis for the dish is “any small-size pasta.” The Pasta Tina sauce is then made with cannellini beans, which he blends together so his kids “won’t know” they’re eating them, garlic and olive oil.
The Brooklyn native even shared a bit of culinary wisdom along the way, noting that he often tilts the pot he’s cooking the sauce in so he can cook the garlic and get it “nice and golden.”
To give the Pasta Tina topper some additional “flavor,” Kimmel adds a concentrated chicken stock — or chicken base — to the mix.
Once the pasta is fully cooked and has been strained, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host combines the noodles and the sauce and mixes them together.
“The most important part of the whole deal,” he noted, comes near the end of the meal prep when it’s time to add some cheese. “Have good Parmesan cheese, it’s very important,” he explained. “Not just for recipes but for your life.”
As the producer mentioned in his Instagram caption, this is a meal he makes for his younger kids “almost every day.” Kimmel also has two older children, Katie, 29, and Kevin, 26, from his first marriage to Gina Kimmel.
Not surprisingly, the pasta dish was a hit with the little ones. “It’s good,” Jane declared, giving her dad a thumbs up.
When Kimmel asked if “other kids will like it,” the duo replied with a resounding “yes.”
Kimmel previously opened up about how he’s cooking for his family amid the coronavirus pandemic while interviewing Ellen DeGeneres for his show, which has been temporarily rebranded as Jimmy Kimmel Live From His House, on April 8. “The thing I cook more than anything is something we call Pasta Tina,” he explained to DeGeneres, 62, at the time. “Basically it is cannellini beans, garlic, olive oil and a little bit of flavoring.”
“[My kids] demand this everyday,” he added. “They would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day.”
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