Comfort Rice and Comfort Noodles

Back in the day, a bowl of spaghetti with olive oil and breadcrumbs was one of my go-to meals when I was on my own for dinner. It could be thrown together quickly, and it was soothing and nonconfrontational. I don’t miss the pasta, but I wanted to recreate that experience: a warm, comforting bowl of food that can be twirled to make big, soft, round bites... the kind of food you eat while wearing pajamas, unplugged from the rest of the world. Trust me: These do not taste like bowls of vegetables. The garlic and olive oil transform these dishes so they taste like neither vegetables nor eggs, but some miraculous, snuggly merging of the two.