Pasta a la RJ

Rishabh "RJ" Jain

I've never had a traditional family dinner since my family never sat down together around the dinner table, but we were still a happy, average family.

The downside for my mom when she made dinner for the family was everyone always wanted something different to eat. I did not want to eat anything with peas, carrots, corn, or broccoli. My brother did not want to eat anything that did not have at least one of these vegetables. So, my mom would have to make separate potatoes and rice, one with vegetables and one without. Then my dad did not want rice. He wanted to chapatti (flatbread), so now my mom would have to make fresh flatbread, too. So at this point, my mom would end up making about four or five dishes a night.

One day, my parents were working late, and my brother was with his friends. My mom called me up and asked me to make dinner, baked ziti, for the whole family. I called my brother and told him that I was making baked ziti for dinner and not to eat dinner with his friends and he replied, "I don't want baked ziti. I want spaghetti." This is where I came up with "Pasta a la RJ." I mixed the rigatoni noodles with spaghetti noodles. This way, everyone would have what they wanted.

When my parents came home, they thought it was a terrible idea. My dad criticized the way I think, and my mom yelled at me for ruining dinner and creating a mess. Once I added the sauce, cheese, basil and garlic and asked them to try it, they fell in love with it. Four people finished twelve servings of food. Ever since then, my family only makes my dish and nothing else.