Cooking With Dali - Pasta Baby!

The beauty about pasta is you can invent endlessly, hence I am not terribly keen with the normal pasta dishes unless they are done using fresh ingredients and sauces made from scratch. Here I present 3 pasta dishes that I cook for myself frequently. They have a running theme ... lol...

The first I named it Decadence ... you will know why soon enough. You can buy cheaper whole truffles (I mean for RM150) which can last you for sometime. I use Plantin Delices truffle oil.  The other ingredient is tobiko (flying fish roe) which is widely available at supermarkets. 

Break two eggs, shave some truffles, whip it and fry. Finish with a drizzle of truffle oil. Use angel hair pasta for this dish. Fry some chopped garlic in low heat with olive oil, throw in cooked pasta, season with sea salt, switch off gas, drizzle truffle oil. Shave some truffles and wahlah ....  probably casy me RM30 per serving but its money well spent I think.



The second is Anchovy Baby! A dear friend bought some premium anchovies from London recently for me. Immediately a simple yet very tasty pasta dish in less than 20 minutes. 

Ingredients: two anchovy fillets, two table spoon extra virgin olive oil ... mashed together in pestle and mortar; chilli oil (or chopped chilli padi). Olive oil in pan low heat (as you shouldn't use olive oil in high heat) with chopped garlic. I use fettucine for this. Then put in paste  and fry for 30 seconds, put in pasta, drizzle with truffle oil to taste. Simple but oh so good, you can throw in some veggies (snow peas or broccoli).

I cannot tell you how amazing this simple dish can taste. The saltiness from the anchovy is so natural.

The third is my usual pasta dish for parties. I called it False Vegetarian. Ingredients: lots of cherry tomatoes, fry in low heat with oil till almost breaking up. Secret ingredient: chu yau char, can get from your butcher, get loads, fry with normal cooking oil that's the secret, you shouldn't allow the pork fat to fry in their own fat, it lacks taste.

I use tons of snow peas (blanched) and seared zuchinni (lightly grilled) for this. Use also loads of chopped garlic, fry in oil. For presentation, I use two tone pasta, fettucine again. Throw in veggies and half of the cyc, fry for a while, then in goes the cooked and drained pasta, toss in half a bowl of veggie stock, toss till dry. Thorw in remainder cyc, drizzle truffle oil and toss.

To serve, I use loads of tobiko and black caviar ( there are those that are not so expensive), scatter rocket leaves liberally, cherry tomatoes on top and the dish looks amazing.



Previous cooking postings:

http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2012/09/cooking-with-dali-drunken-chicken.html

http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2012/09/cooking-with-dali-pig-trotters-vinegar.html