How to Build Your Own Pasta Dish - Beyond the Basics
February 10th 2010 22:55
In one of my last posts I talked about creating delicious pasta dishes at home worthy of restaurants - even fancy restaurants that hire experienced chefs.
All you need to do is take the basic technique and build on it. Here's more detail. What I'm doing is taking the original instructions from that previous post and building on them so you will feel confident creating your own unique pasta dishes.
1. Cook the pasta of your choice to al dente in salted water.
You can literally choose any pasta you want. My favorites include spaghetti, linguine, rotini, farfalle, tagliatelle, and orzo. Sometimes the type of pasta will help shape what kind of dish you create. For example, orzo makes me want to include lemon. So I might decide to create a simple pasta with lemon, parsley, and Romano cheese. Sounds good, huh?
2. Reserve some of the cooking water when it's done and set it aside.
This is only in case the final product is too thick. I hardly ever use the water at the end. It tends to dilute the flavor.
3. Drain the pasta. Let it sit in the strainer for a second.
See? So the water might be needed that we reserved if the pasta starts to stick in the strainer. But you'll add the water later.
4. In the same pan, set the heat on medium and add olive oil and a chopped garlic clove or two. Cook for one minute. You can also add a few red pepper flakes if you like.
You can pick what you want. Sometimes I use garlic OR onions OR shallots. Sometimes I use both garlic AND onions (or shallots) or all three. No matter what you decide, just make sure the oil doesn't get too hot. I like to add the oil, chopped onions and/or garlic, and THEN turn on the heat.
If you want to add extra ingredients such as veggies or pasta, do so do it after letting the garlic and/or onion sit in the pan for a minute or so.
5. Add the pasta and some crushed tomatoes or plain tomato sauce (the plain unseasoned stuff).
It doesn't have to be marinara sauce. You could opt for no sauce, pesto, lemon juice, wine, olive oil, Alfredo sauce, etc.
6. Set the heat to low. Toss the pasta until sauce and pasta are well combined.
This step is always the same no matter what.
7. Add chopped, fresh basil and toss until well combined
You can skip this part or add whatever herb you like either dried or fresh.
8. Serve into plates and top with fresh grated cheese.
It can be any cheese you like - or you can skip this part all together.
And that's it. If you're confused don't worry. Over the coming days I'll share a variety of pasta dishes that will hopefully solidify what I'm talking about.
All you need to do is take the basic technique and build on it. Here's more detail. What I'm doing is taking the original instructions from that previous post and building on them so you will feel confident creating your own unique pasta dishes.
1. Cook the pasta of your choice to al dente in salted water.
You can literally choose any pasta you want. My favorites include spaghetti, linguine, rotini, farfalle, tagliatelle, and orzo. Sometimes the type of pasta will help shape what kind of dish you create. For example, orzo makes me want to include lemon. So I might decide to create a simple pasta with lemon, parsley, and Romano cheese. Sounds good, huh?
2. Reserve some of the cooking water when it's done and set it aside.
This is only in case the final product is too thick. I hardly ever use the water at the end. It tends to dilute the flavor.
3. Drain the pasta. Let it sit in the strainer for a second.
See? So the water might be needed that we reserved if the pasta starts to stick in the strainer. But you'll add the water later.
4. In the same pan, set the heat on medium and add olive oil and a chopped garlic clove or two. Cook for one minute. You can also add a few red pepper flakes if you like.
You can pick what you want. Sometimes I use garlic OR onions OR shallots. Sometimes I use both garlic AND onions (or shallots) or all three. No matter what you decide, just make sure the oil doesn't get too hot. I like to add the oil, chopped onions and/or garlic, and THEN turn on the heat.
If you want to add extra ingredients such as veggies or pasta, do so do it after letting the garlic and/or onion sit in the pan for a minute or so.
5. Add the pasta and some crushed tomatoes or plain tomato sauce (the plain unseasoned stuff).
It doesn't have to be marinara sauce. You could opt for no sauce, pesto, lemon juice, wine, olive oil, Alfredo sauce, etc.
6. Set the heat to low. Toss the pasta until sauce and pasta are well combined.
This step is always the same no matter what.
7. Add chopped, fresh basil and toss until well combined
You can skip this part or add whatever herb you like either dried or fresh.
8. Serve into plates and top with fresh grated cheese.
It can be any cheese you like - or you can skip this part all together.
And that's it. If you're confused don't worry. Over the coming days I'll share a variety of pasta dishes that will hopefully solidify what I'm talking about.
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