Pasta - - Page 7

by gansie

Friday Fuck Up: The Carbonara Scramble

My boyfriend couldn’t have been happier. I brought pig into the house. Thinly sliced, smoked pig. Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

The oven was home to our first usage—bacon baked quickly and at a high temperature for an evenly cooked crisp. We bit at the bacon in between bites of eggs and toast. A simple introduction.

We thought we’d keep it easy. Let bacon flavor an angel hair carbonara.

I looked up a few recipes on Epicurious and understood, well, thought I understood, the gist of a carbonara.

Cook bacon. Remove bacon. Cook onion in its grease. Boil Pasta. Combine parm and egg in separate bowl. Combine hot pasta, onion, bacon and parm-egg mixture. Toss. Creamy deliciousness.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. My carbonara got fucked.

by gansie

The Charm of Sloppy Seconds

Waking up before 9am on Saturday has a few perks, most of them edible. Working at the farmers market, at least my gig there, isn’t strenuous. Eager shoppers, without cash, walk up to the Manager’s Table, pass me their debit card, I swipe while asking them to sign up for our newsletter and hand them the appropriate amount of tokens.

I tweet fruit observations and celebrity sightings, gobble up sun gold tomatoes and more or less banter with strangers about food for a few hours.

And then I get to take home the good stuff. Well, not exactly the good stuff. Really the free, almost rotting stuff. Ten pounds of bruised and battered tomatoes. Tomatoes slit apart and oozing juice and seeds. Tomatoes on just this side of rotten.

These seconds, as they’re dubbed at the market, need to be loved and loved quickly. I had less than 24 hours to make the most of out of them.

Part I

in Recipe / Veggie 8 comments

by tvff

Poor Man’s Parmesan

I eat pasta more than any normal person should. I have to limit myself to one time per week as a main course, though I do make exceptions that allow for a second Asian-style noodle dish, either made at home or out at a restaurant. It’s just about the perfect food – except for the fact that it’s not crunchy.

While flavor is most important, of course, texture runs a reasonably close second when it comes to the eating experience for me. And – hooo doggie – when I can get something that’s delicious and gives a nice crunch, I’m pretty much in heaven. Hence my addiction to pretty much anything deep-fried.

So then why can’t pasta be crunchy, too? Sure you could just undercook it, but that’s not what we’re going for here. We need something that is going to elevate the dish. We need something that will remind us about the best part of the one crunchy noodle dish already out there, mac & cheese.

We need breadcrumbs.

Not just any breadcrumbs, mind you. Breadcrumbs pan-fried in olive oil, with some sliced garlic thrown in for added flavor.

Now, I’ll be upfront and say that this is no modern invention. Breadcrumbs have been used as a pasta-topper for quite a while, sometimes known as a “poor man’s” alternative to topping your dish with grated cheese. But we all know that just because something is an inexpensive option doesn’t mean it’s not delicious.

So, what does this simple topping require? Chances are, you probably already have everything you need…

in Recipe 5 comments

by gansie

You Shouldn’t Be the Chef

I wasn’t sure if it was a dream or a nightmare. I was in New Jersey (no jokes) with my family (really, no jokes) and I scanned the American-Italian menu. The usual suspects appeared: chicken parm, eggplant manicotti, veal marsella. And then I saw what should be the biggest kitchen disaster: customers allowed to create their own meal. There were no guidelines. No suggestions. No boundaries. Just boxed-in text suggesting the customer be the chef.

Maybe without a price range this option could be lucrative. But all I imagine are bitchy, bossy, hungry South Jerseyans ordering outrageous requests. Triple lobster. No butter. No Salt. Extra crab. No fat. No sugar.

This can’t be a step in the right direction in restaurant-patron relations, can it?

in Restaurants / Trends 6 comments

by BS

Hott Link: Dishwasher Lasagna

Ever wondered if you could cook lasagna in your dishwasher? Of course you have!

Check out the recipe, now with video.

(Hat tip: Good Bite).

in Recipe 4 comments

by gansie

Continuation: The Allure of the Twirl

It’s that fucking twirl. In March I identified that part of my pasta obsession revolved around the act of twirling. Twirling long strands around my fork and piling it into my mouth. In that March meal, Ricotta-ed Spinach with Noodle Onions and Parsnips, I omitted the pasta altogether and satisfied my twirl craving with butter-enveloped long, thin onion strands.

Last night, however, I doubled the twirl intake. I bought extra tall spring onions at the Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market and decided they should not be chopped. I should honor their slender ways and keep them intact.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments

by BS

100 Ways to Not Cook an Egg?

Thanks to a little help from readers, we’ve been continuously updating our list of 100 120 ways to cook an egg. Now here’s another one to crack open and throw on the pile: bucatini carbonara. If you’ve ever thought cooking up a pot of pasta and cracking an egg on top was too difficult and not weird enough, then this dish is for you — can you say crack a raw egg on top?

Read the full bucatini carbonara recipe over at Good Bite, and remember to feed us back at us in the comments if you have any more tasty egg-based dishes that should be added to the master egg list.

in Eggs 1 comments