If you know anything about me, you know that I love pasta.

You may ask if there is any particular shape of pasta or flavor of sauce I love best. The answer is simply yes. I cannot turn down a well cooked, al dente noodle. Does it have chicken on it? Fish? Sausage? Beef? Alfredo, marinara or pesto? Just olive oil or butter? I’ll take it all.

I blame my parents for taking me to Italy as a teenager. We weren’t necessarily going to Italy, just stopping in on our way back from a conference in Egypt. But to this day, I can close my eyes and imagine the tiny restaurant we stopped in when we first arrived in Venice.

We were all starving after our train ride. My family ordered pizza. I ordered a plate heaped with pesto pasta. It came with nothing else on it. And I can still taste it. The noodles themselves were fresh, the sauce bright. It was the best meal I’ve ever had.

The unfortunate part of my pasta passion is that it is not acceptable to eat it all day every day. Despite all of its forms, society has limited pasta to a dinner food. And my body and current diet goals limit pasta to a “once in a while” food. It’s a painful reality.

Lately, I have been scrolling through high protein foods and other healthy recipes online, trying to stay creative as I switch up my food intake. But even as I’ve been trying to focus on macronutrients, the internet has continued to feed me a steady stream of pasta-based content. Especially with all of the one-dish pasta recipes circulating around the internet, promising to come together in just a few steps and in less than an hour.

My mouth cannot stop watering when I see something so delicious. What’s a girl to do?

Well, this week, I gave in to my pasta craving when I saw this recipe. Salmon is one of my favorite proteins, and tomatoes and feta are a weak spot. I knew I had to try it. But I didn’t want to completely give up on my goals. So I made this with a few changes in the prep process.

First, this is not an advertisement or endorsement, but I bought Barilla’s protein penne pasta instead of just my regular boxed penne. You may have seen it start showing up on shelves at grocery stores recently, and it has been a game changer for me. I promise, the texture is exactly the same as your normal, everyday pasta. It just comes with an extra kick of protein to keep you fuller longer.

Because of that protein kick, I also feel better after eating a smaller portion of this pasta. While before, I could never believe the two ounce serving size on the box, now, I feel satisfied after just one serving. And eating less always means we have more leftovers for later in the week, which is basically the original meal prepping.

When the pasta craving finally overtook me this week, I scrolled back to this recipe, made a quick run to the store for the ingredients, and basically threw everything but the pasta into a casserole dish to cook. The hardest thing to do was take the skin off of my salmon, and then to wait for the fish and garlic to be fully cooked.

So if you really want a recipe that is low-effort, but high reward, try it out. And let me know if you want to hear about the other easy recipe swaps I’ve been making recently. But go on, get your pot out, you’ve got pasta to boil.

ONE-DISH SALMON PASTA

(Adapted from Fresh Fit Food)

Ingredients
300 grams salmon fillets (two fillets)
200 grams cherry tomatoes (about one container)
1 whole garlic head
120 grams feta cheese (about half a block)
240 grams uncooked pasta (about half a box of the Barilla protein penne, if you want to use the same kind I did)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Grease a small casserole dish or other baking tray with a tiny bit of olive oil, wiping with a paper towel. Clean skin off of the head of garlic, chopping off top and bottom to expose cloves.
■ Put salmon fillets, cherry tomatoes, garlic head, feta cheese and olive oil into prepared dish. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook for about 40-45 minutes, until fish is cooked and garlic starts to turn golden.
■ While you wait, cook your pasta according to package directions.
■ When cooked, remove dish from oven. Squeeze out garlic cloves with a fork and mash. If there is still any remaining garlic skin, be sure to remove. Mix all the ingredients together until homogenous. Add your pasta and stir. Taste, adding more salt and pepper as needed. Crumble any extra feta you have on top to serve and enjoy!