I tried Bella Hadid’s TikTok-famous prosciutto pasta, a colorful, flavor-packed recipe that would make the perfect summer dish with a few tweaks

I ate a bowlful of a pasta recipe shared by supermodel Bella Hadid. Maria Noyen/Insider I tried making a viral pasta recipe supermodel Bella Hadid shared on TikTok. The dish is sauceless but is loaded with chunks of garlic, prosciutto, pine nuts, and oil.

  It could be well suited for a light summer meal to impress friends or a partner with less salt. I’ve been loving supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid’s recent pasta creations, so I thought I’d give Bella’s most recent TikTok hit a try. Bella Hadid showed off her ingredients and finished pasta dish on TikTok.

Bella Hadid/TikTok/LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty ImagesRemember when Gigi Hadid’s spicy vodka pasta recipe was all the rage in 2020, and even went on to impress the likes of Gordon Ramsay? Well, I definitely do. Like many others during the height of the pandemic, it was a comfort food I made multiple times. Fast-forward to 2022, her younger sister Bella Hadid appears to now be taking up the baton for pasta recipes.

I came across a viral pasta recipe that she shared on TikTok on July 1, which has amassed over 4. 5 million views as of Monday. After seeing it I thought to myself, why not add another Hadid recipe to my cooking repertoire?  From what I could tell from the video, which didn’t include a list of ingredients, the recipe uses an array of colorful ingredients.

The ingredients include parma ham, basil, and pine nuts. Maria Noyen/InsiderBella has not shared a step-by-step guide to this recipe outside of her TikTok, so I’ve compiled a list of ingredients based on what she shows throughout the minute-long clip:Spaghetti Pine nutsParma hamParmesan BasilGarlic clovesMinced garlicOlive oilChili flakesSaltPepperA few things I had to guess about were the type of cheese, herbs, and ham she used. The ones I selected looked visually similar, so I followed my instinct.

 Unsure of the exact quantities to use, I put a handful of pasta into salted boiling water. I put a handful of pasta into salted boiling water. Maria Noyen/InsiderWith few specifics to work with, I aimed to make a decent amount of pasta that I could either include fully in this dish or save for lunch the following day.

 I cooked the pasta until it was al dente, around nine minutes. After draining the pasta, I poured a generous amount of olive oil on it before giving it a mix to ensure the noodles didn’t clump together.  Bella’s video skipped over most of the prep, so I decided to get to work peeling my massive garlic cloves while the pasta cooked.

My garlic cloves were quite big. Maria Noyen/InsiderBella’s video makes the recipe look straightforward because much of the prep is cut out. One particularly time-consuming step she skipped was how she peeled the garlic cloves.

 While she used what looked like over 12 cloves of garlic in the recipe, I stuck with six for two reasons. Firstly, I was only cooking for myself, and it looked like she was serving up a meal for two. And secondly, my garlic cloves were larger than the ones shown in her TikTok.

Bella appears to use quite a lot of ham in her video, so I then roughly chopped up six slices of prosciutto for my single serving of pasta. The chopped prosciutto. Maria Noyen/InsiderSince I was making pasta for one I kept it to one packet of prosciutto, which included six slices.

  Next, I sliced the garlic cloves into thick slices and chopped up a handful of basil leaves. At this point, I realized this is not a recipe to make for a first date. The sliced garlic and basil leaves.

Maria Noyen/InsiderIf anything, this stage of the recipe made me a bigger fan of Bella Hadid because, clearly, she’s big into garlic. In the recipe, she uses super chunky slices of garlic, which I really appreciate but I know it can be a bit much for others. Being so garlic-heavy, I realize this dish is probably not one to make if you are cooking for someone for the first time.

But for those in relationships or thinking of sharing the pasta with good friends, a little garlic breath never hurt anyone, right?I’ve always thought you were meant to toast pine nuts on a dry pan, so I was confused when Bella’s looked so oily. But I trusted the process and added oil to the pan. I toasted the pine nuts in an oily pan.

Maria Noyen/InsiderInstructions from cooking sites like Good Housekeeping are quite clear that pine nuts should be toasted without oil.  But Bella’s had the distinct glisten of oil, so in the interest of trying it her way, I decided to forgo what I thought I knew about toasting pine nuts. Though I added a drizzle of oil to the pan, I couldn’t help but wipe up some of the excess with a napkin.

 It took forever – around seven minutes – for the pine nuts to show some color. The pine nuts took a long time to brown. Maria Noyen/InsiderStaring at my medium-heated pan after five minutes of toasting the pine nuts, I told myself that if just one of these pale-looking little things showed some color, I’d be happy.

Thankfully, after waiting a few more minutes (and increasing the heat slightly), a few began to brown. But then I started to get a waft of a burning smell. Even though most didn’t have that lovely tan color the way Bella’s looked, I took them out of the pan to avoid burning them.

 I put the pine nuts in a small bowl and set them aside. Next, I sauteed the sliced garlic with some minced garlic. It was the first time I’ve ever used two forms of garlic in one recipe, and I couldn’t wait to taste it.

I used two different forms of garlic. Maria Noyen/InsiderI added a big drizzle of oil to the pan and cooked the sliced garlic. After they began to show some color, I then added a heaped spoonful of minced garlic, per Bella’s recipe.

 For garlic lovers like me, the more garlic the merrier.  After adding the minced garlic, I went in with a heaped teaspoon of chili flakes before popping in the prosciutto with another drizzle of oil. Next came the chili flakes, ham, and more oil.

Maria Noyen/InsiderI love a bit of spice, so I went all out with how much chili I used, but anyone attempting this recipe can customize it to their palate.  After letting the chili flakes mix with the garlic for a minute or so, I added the sliced prosciutto. Bella added another pour of olive oil before adding the ham, but I added it when I saw that the minced garlic was starting to burn a little.

  At this point, I popped the pine nuts and basil into the pan and loved how colorful it looked. The smell of all the ingredients blending together was very appealing. All the toppings were added together in the pan.

Maria Noyen/InsiderSince I didn’t want the pine nuts, the ham, or the smaller pieces of garlic to burn, I lowered the heat before moving on to the final big stage: adding the pasta.  After adding enough pasta to the pan for this recipe, I realized I overdid it with the pasta. I had a lot of pasta left over after adding enough for one to the pan.

Maria Noyen/InsiderLeftover pasta just means I’ll be having pasta for lunch and dinner the next day. Let’s be honest, that isn’t the worst thing in the world.  Following Bella’s TikTok, I seasoned the pasta with salt and pepper and topped it off with slices of parmesan cheese.

I topped the pasta with salt, pepper, and thick slices of parmesan. Maria Noyen/InsiderAt this stage, I was a little concerned that the pasta was going to be quite salty from the seasoning, the prosciutto, and the parmesan cheese. I added another pour of oil, like Bella did, and gave the pasta dish a stir.

It reminded me of a classic Italian dish that relies on pantry staples like olive oil. The recipe called for even more oil. Maria Noyen/InsiderThere is a lot of oil in this dish.

But actually, the lack of sauce and a large amount of oil reminded me of the traditional Italian dish, Spaghetti aglio e olio. Michelin-starred chef David Shim of Cote in Manhattan previously told Insider’s Anneta Konstantinides that this iconic Italian garlic pasta is perfect when you need to “get a quick meal in. ” “It’s one of those meals that doesn’t take a lot of prep time,” he said.

“And I’m sure everyone has garlic and olive oil at home. ” This recipe felt just like that, but with a little extra oomph from the prosciutto and spice.  With the pasta ready to go, I plated it, added some fresh basil leaves, and took my first bite.

My first impression was that it looked professional but tasted much saltier than I wanted it to be. The pasta was quite salty but looked delicious and colorful. Maria Noyen/InsiderThe colorful pasta looked restaurant worthy.

The streaks of red prosciutto running through the noodles, browned pine nuts, garlic, and bright green basil leaves made the dish look pretty professional-looking, at least to me. But I was correct in my suspicion that it would be too salty for my taste, especially when my bites of pasta included bits of cheese and prosciutto. Although the oil balanced the saltiness at some points, it wasn’t enough.

 Of course, this all comes down to personal preference. Maybe Bella prefers more salt in dishes than I do – to each their own, I say. If I try it again, I probably won’t bother adding salt because the cheese and prosciutto add enough to the dish.

 A big bowl full of pasta can generally make me feel very heavy afterward, but I thought the lack of a thick sauce on this dish made it the perfect summer pasta dish. Bella had vegetables and pesto covered toast on the side with her pasta. Bella Hadid/TikTok, Maria Noyen/InsiderWithout a thick sauce, this dish actually has the potential to be a lighter type of meal I personally prefer having in the summer.

And while the idea of supplementing a sauce with large amounts of oil initially put me off, I actually didn’t mind it in the end.  Bella ate the pasta with a couple of sides, including toast with pesto and parmesan and colorful vegetables, but I thought enough was going on with the pasta.  Cooking all the different elements of the pasta alone took me roughly 25 to 30 minutes of my full concentration.

You must add oil at various times, watch your pine nuts like a hawk, so they don’t burn, and make sure your cooked pasta doesn’t stick together while everything else cooks. To recreate the entire meal Bella made, it’s probably worth getting an extra pair of helping hands to help you through the process — and maybe to remind you to use less salt than you think you’ll need. Read the original article on Insider.