unusual ways to do pasta?

[Triple Zero]

the trick is to stop pretending you're italian and break the spaghetti a littlebit :-P

either way, the recipe is probably the easiest thing ever, it's pretty much what you think it is.

- cut up some onions
- fry them a bit in olive oil until they're translucent
- add tuna from a can (preferably the ones in oil, but without the oil)
- fry a bit more
- add sour cream (actually i use "creme fraiche" which is slightly thicker, not liquid)
- add fresh ground black pepper, also salt to taste,
- add some white wine (though i found red wine works just as well, except that it gives the sauce a funny colour)
- finally add the capers, stir until they are warm too

serve with .. spaghetti, or fusilli

[LMNO]

 I dunno if this is reallty "different", so I'll just list the ingredients:

Anchovies
red pepper flakes
black olives
baby spinach
white wine

If you want how I put it together, just ask.

[Triple Zero]

anchovies + black olives + red pepper = WIN!

but it also needs a shitload of garlic?

at least that's what i did, and also a bit of concentrated tomato puree and .. something or other, i forgot. it was awesome, anyway.

ETA: if you do anything special to put it together, i'm asking, otherwise i think i can figure it out

[LMNO]

Damn.  I forgot the shitload of garlic.  Good catch.

I wouldn't do tomato paste, but I'd add a few halved cherry tomatoes at the end.


Basically, melt the anchovies in the pan (low heat) with oil and red pepper flakes, add olives, garlic & spinach, raise heat, add wine, reduce, add tomatoes & pasta, turn off heat, combine, add parmesean.

[Nast]

My favorite type of pasta is capellini.
I also really like soba noodles, but that isn't really pasta. 

I wonder if there would be anyway to use pasta as a sweet dish?
I've heard of chocolate flavored pasta, but I'd imagine the flavor of the cocoa powder wouldn't be able to stand up to stronger sauces.

Also, squid ink pasta is cool. It would be nice to serve it minimalistically, maybe on a white plate with only some olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil flowers...

[Jasper]

Does anyone here have experience making their own noodles?  I did it a few times when I was younger and it sucked.

[Triple Zero]

a littlebit. just look for recipes online, it's in fact very easy.

and if you use egg with the flour, you don't need the special "farina de semola di grano duro" flour. it also tastes better, IMO.

it's all a factor of the combination of the starch (which will absorb the water when cooked) and gluten (which provide the elastic strength), the two main ingredients in pasta. egg also provides additional elasticity when it's cooked.

basically you just mix flour, egg, water and salt. if it looks right, you got the proportions right, otherwise add more of something or other.

it's also important to kneed the dough for some time before you continue. the kneeding will "activate" the gluten (the long stringy molecules will form an elastic network). you know it's right when you can take a little ball and pull it between your thumb and fingers into a little translucent sheet. but don't overdo it, that's enough.

after that you kinda need a pasta machine, cause you need to roll/press the dough into large thin sheets, sprinkle some flour on it, let it rest/dry for 20-30 minutes (again for the gluten, but not too long because of the egg), and use the machine again to cut the sheets into small thin tagliatelle/spaghetti-like strips.

i suppose you could also do it with a dough-roller, a long knife and a ruler, but i never tried it.

or if you wanna make lasagna, you dont need to cut it. but i don't really like lasagna (oh it's good but i rather have spaghetti) so i dunno how that turns out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You can di it without a machine... just use a heavily floured surface and roll the dough very thin, then cut into strips with a knife and hang them over a dowel to dry slightly before you cook them.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Does anyone here have experience making their own noodles?  I did it a few times when I was younger and it sucked.

somewhere on here is a thread w/ a recipe that ECH (i think) gave me a recipe for pasta.
i'll look for it.
it worked good for me.