Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by D’mytrek Brown
We developed this recipe with Aftershocks writer Nadia Owusu, inspired by her memories of childhood meals with her Armenian-American mother (you can read her beautiful essay about a shared meal here). The dish gets its wonderful nutty flavor from toasting dry pasta in copious amounts of butter, a method used in pilaf traditions across communities, including in the Armenian diaspora, Syria, and Lebanon.