02. Dinner for one: boyfriend pasta
Apr. 22nd, 2012 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feywoodTitle: Boyfriend pasta
Cuisine: who knows
Skill level: easy
Time: 40 minutes - 1 hour
Portions: 3 (very easily adaptable)
So the reason it's called boyfriend pasta is very simple. It's pasta. An ex-boyfriend taught me it. Just as often I'll call it "spaghetti mushroom onion thing", but this makes for a slightly more elegant title.
You will need:
Mid size to large pot, colander, large fork, spatula, pan.
Ingredients:
Onion, bacon, mushrooms, pasta, cream.
As you can see, this onion is fairly enormous. And yes I use all of it because I fucking love onion. Feel free to use a lot less.
Chop your onion. I like it fairly rough here, but you can slice it thinner or mince it into little bits.
Get your pan going on medium high and throw in a large nugget of butter as well as some olive oil. Caramelising onion takes quite a bit of fat and replacing part of the butter by olive oil at the very least makes me feel less sinful. Let it melt and heat up.
When it's nice and bubbling, throw in just a little onion to check if you hear it sizzle. If you do, throw in the rest. Then turn the heat to medium low.
I had a picture showing how dramatically full of onion my pan was, but I accidentally deleted it. Suffice to say it was very full. If yours is too, don't worry. As everything, this cooks down.
Try not to stir your onion too much. In order for it to caramelise, it needs to lie still and be able to brown a bit. So give it time and go do something more interesting
Momma needs new discloths.
Don't forget to clean and chop your mushrooms in the mean time
You can, of course, choose not to caramelise your onion. In that case, as soon as it's soft, proceed to the mushrooms.
You can also add a little salt and sugar to the onions to speed up the process. Don't forget to add pepper as well.
This is as far as I took it. It can cook down and caramelise even more, but I was really hungry.
Add in your mushrooms and watch your pan fill up again. But, yeah, you guessed it, mushrooms cook way down.
You might notice your mushrooms giving off a lot of water. That's normal. You can pour it in the sink if you're in a hurry or just give it the time to evaporate on its own.
In the mean time, don't forget to get your pasta going.
Also remember to add salt and olive oil to your pasta water. Cook as long as your packaging says. (If you make it yourself, I applaud you. Homemade pasta is just amazing.)
This is also where that oversized fork comes into play. By using it or something like it to stir your pasta as it cooks, you can avoid the worst of the sticking together and sticking to the bottom of the pot.
When your onions are done, add your bacon to the pan.
Sadly, bacon also gives off a lot of water. This fact pisses me off a lot, but the solution is the same as with the mushrooms: sink or evaporation.
You can choose at this point whether or not to add cream to the pan. I like a bit of (light) cream in there because it brings it all together and because it will bind up the last of the remaining water.
It works just as well without, though.
When your pasta is done, pour it into the colander and run some tapwater over it.
The tapwater is the best way to keep your pasta from sticking. I know a lot of books and people say olive oil, but unless you fucking douse your pasta in oil, it's not going to work.
The reason it sticks is because pasta is made of flour, which is a starch which is sticky when wet. Want to get the sticky starch off? Rinse. It's that easy.
Then add the pasta to the pan.
Give it a good stir, let your pasta warm up again and then dish up!
Enjoy. :)
Cuisine: who knows
Skill level: easy
Time: 40 minutes - 1 hour
Portions: 3 (very easily adaptable)
So the reason it's called boyfriend pasta is very simple. It's pasta. An ex-boyfriend taught me it. Just as often I'll call it "spaghetti mushroom onion thing", but this makes for a slightly more elegant title.
You will need:
Mid size to large pot, colander, large fork, spatula, pan.
Ingredients:
Onion, bacon, mushrooms, pasta, cream.
As you can see, this onion is fairly enormous. And yes I use all of it because I fucking love onion. Feel free to use a lot less.
Chop your onion. I like it fairly rough here, but you can slice it thinner or mince it into little bits.
Get your pan going on medium high and throw in a large nugget of butter as well as some olive oil. Caramelising onion takes quite a bit of fat and replacing part of the butter by olive oil at the very least makes me feel less sinful. Let it melt and heat up.
When it's nice and bubbling, throw in just a little onion to check if you hear it sizzle. If you do, throw in the rest. Then turn the heat to medium low.
I had a picture showing how dramatically full of onion my pan was, but I accidentally deleted it. Suffice to say it was very full. If yours is too, don't worry. As everything, this cooks down.
Try not to stir your onion too much. In order for it to caramelise, it needs to lie still and be able to brown a bit. So give it time and go do something more interesting
Momma needs new discloths.
Don't forget to clean and chop your mushrooms in the mean time
You can, of course, choose not to caramelise your onion. In that case, as soon as it's soft, proceed to the mushrooms.
You can also add a little salt and sugar to the onions to speed up the process. Don't forget to add pepper as well.
This is as far as I took it. It can cook down and caramelise even more, but I was really hungry.
Add in your mushrooms and watch your pan fill up again. But, yeah, you guessed it, mushrooms cook way down.
You might notice your mushrooms giving off a lot of water. That's normal. You can pour it in the sink if you're in a hurry or just give it the time to evaporate on its own.
In the mean time, don't forget to get your pasta going.
Also remember to add salt and olive oil to your pasta water. Cook as long as your packaging says. (If you make it yourself, I applaud you. Homemade pasta is just amazing.)
This is also where that oversized fork comes into play. By using it or something like it to stir your pasta as it cooks, you can avoid the worst of the sticking together and sticking to the bottom of the pot.
When your onions are done, add your bacon to the pan.
Sadly, bacon also gives off a lot of water. This fact pisses me off a lot, but the solution is the same as with the mushrooms: sink or evaporation.
You can choose at this point whether or not to add cream to the pan. I like a bit of (light) cream in there because it brings it all together and because it will bind up the last of the remaining water.
It works just as well without, though.
When your pasta is done, pour it into the colander and run some tapwater over it.
The tapwater is the best way to keep your pasta from sticking. I know a lot of books and people say olive oil, but unless you fucking douse your pasta in oil, it's not going to work.
The reason it sticks is because pasta is made of flour, which is a starch which is sticky when wet. Want to get the sticky starch off? Rinse. It's that easy.
Then add the pasta to the pan.
Give it a good stir, let your pasta warm up again and then dish up!
Enjoy. :)
