One Pot Sweet Potato and Arugula Penne Pasta

Disclaimer: KitchenAid shared with us a set of cookware so we could test it. We also received a full, shiny set as, wait for it, a giveaway. Come back on Monday to get details for a chance to win a 10-piece set of KitchenAid Tri-Ply Stainless Steel Cookware valued at$750. Oh the things we do to make sure your purchases make sense.

I’m not one of those people who has to buy the next new, great kitchen gadget. A fancy strawberry huller sounds like a good idea but nothing works better than a good ole straw to me. (You know that trick right? You push the straw up the middle and it removes that white Styrofoam-like stem.) Plus playing kitchen storage origami with gadgets isn’t what I like to do with my free time. However, I’m all ears if you’re talking about a new set of cookware.

Photos by Maya Visnyei

When KitchenAid asked me to road test their Tri-Ply Stainless Steel Cookware set I was keen to start cooking. Obviously, I have cookware. However, over time, the pieces from the lovely but modest set I received oh so many years ago when I was married have either been retired or replaced. An impossibly shiny, gorgeous new coordinating set makes the everything-must-match-soldier in me giddy with excitement. After I took each new piece—with its mirror-like shine– from the box, I wanted to keep them out on the counter just because they looked so majestic. But, let’s be honest, it can’t just look good it’s got to cook the pants off of my food.

If your appliances are the backbone of the kitchen then your pots and pans are the muscles—working each day to ensure food has been prepared well and delivered to your plate in all its delicious glory. If you happen to forget a pan with a grilled cheese in it and you burn it to the bottom, well that’s not your pan’s fault. (And, by the way, I never did that. Honestly.) With a three-layer construction that sandwiches aluminum between two layers of stainless steel, this collection delivers even-heat which is the gospel of cooking food properly. I don’t know about you but nothing ruins a chicken dish more than when the right side of the chicken breast has a beautiful sear on it and the left side looks like it just walked off the farm. Cooking for a family is easier and more efficient if you have high performance equipment.

One of the first dishes I made in my new stockpot was this easy and fast dinner–Almost everything you need for this recipe is tossed into the pot and cooked together. Outside of some chopping that you can easily tackle when you come home on a weeknight, this recipe requires minimal effort but packs huge flavor. It deliver vitamin A in spades thanks to the sweet potato and I love how the arugula wilts away so kids end up eating it. The best part, despite loving all my new pots, is it only uses one of them. With an easier clean up I can offer my new stainless piece a little more elbow grease. I mean, I’ve got to keep it super shiny, right?