A Tale Of Two Pastas
Labels: one dish meals, pasta, seafood, she cooks
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Pasta Nero di Seppia, or Squid Ink Pasta is not for the faint hearted. Nor for the self conscious. It's black and if made properly from fresh squid ink, turns your mouth, teeth, tongue et al black. I love it.
One of my favourite ways of eating this is tossed in a cream sauce consisting of romano parmigiano cheese with lots of garlic. In this entry, I present two ways with the same base sauce.
The first one is rather fiery. That's because I use chilli infused olive oil and regular chilli oil to brown the garlic first before adding the cooking cream. I whisk everything together above a gentle flame until it thickens slightly and is well mixed. Then I throw in the grated parmiagiano, whisk it some more before adding in the blanched shrimps. Season to taste. Pour over the cooked pasta and garnish with fresh sliced red chilli. And don't forget that huge glass of iced water.
This next one is a bit more mild. Again, brown the chopped garlic in olive oil before adding the cooking cream. Follow as above but this time, toss in the blanched shrimps, sweet pea and brocoli. Season to taste and pour over the cooked pasta.
Some of you may notice how I choose to pour the sauce over the pasta instead of tossing the pasta in the pan first. I do it for asthetic reasons especially in the case of the first one. The white sauce against the black pasta packs quite a punch. With a couple of strategically placed sliced chillis, this is a visually stunning dish and I never tire of looking at it. Best of all, it can be achieved under thirty minutes.
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 10:56 pm
You are still at the age where you can have all the creamy pasta sauce you want without it doing permanent damage to you figure.
Looking good, girl!
