the art of pasta

the art of pasta is hard to perfect. The first time you try making pasta, you're like, "oh my god its so simple! all you need is to cook the pasta for 10 minutes, sautee some vegetables, garlic, onion in a heated pan for a few minutes, dump in some sausages, meat, or whatever pick of your choice, mix the pasta in and voila! you're done!" but after a few tried, you realize there is much, much more. 

i've tried cooking pasta a few times, glancing contstantly at the online recipe and as it was for my sister who doesn't like cream sauce, but since i like cream sauce, i tried a rose pasta, tomato sauce and cream mixed in together, producing a light, pink sauce. it was okay, just that as i put in too much wine (ah, my love of alcohol coming out there, can't resist, can i) there was a bit of an alcoholic tang to it that might seem a bit unpleasant (but my sweet sister devoured it, thank sweetie). 

once the seafood ingredients were overcooked, making it not tender but chewy and tough. when i was trying a fried egg pasta (one of the nyt's mark bittman's best 20 recipes, such a sorrow this column ended) i had to match the cooking time for the egg, the pasta, and the garlic, and in the end overcooked the egg, which made the yolks not runny and smooth but was just left with a specks of egg whites all over (of course i still finished it).

after i learned the beauty of al dente pasta, mastering it was also a great obstacle (not that i mastered it yet). how many minutes to cook ?(8 minutes, but shorter if you're supposed to sautee the pasta with the sauce longer) and there's always the issue of the right amount of salt. 


you can never emphasize enough about just the right amount of salt. there are loads of recipes, techniques about when to add the salt to the pasta water (when the boiling starts, before it boils, after adding the pasta, etc. i prefer to put it in before the boiling), how much salt to add to the sauce which also depends on how much salt is in the other ingredients, for instance salted salmon, salty sausages, anchovies.... 


oh well, i guess the more you try, the more you'll get what a 'pinch' of salt means, when you can feel the 'aldente-ness' of the pasta. which is why we tried a new salmon broccoli pasta today!

We first set the water to boil, steamed the broccoli and after setting the cooked broccoli to the side, we added the dry pasta. Today's special pasta is ribbon pasta, also called farfalle. We mixed up the fafalle with the leftover linguini. When the pasta was almost done, H sauteed the onions, added some cream and boiled it with canned salmon. While he was busying himself with the pasta (constantly glancing at his iphone for the recipes, I confest we are not professional cooks -or at least not now for me), I was preparing this:

 

we also steamed asparagus with the broccoli. asparagus is in season, popping up all over the market nowadays, and blogs, and in recipes everywhere. a light vinaigrette made of olive oil, mustard, lemon juice and sprinkles of pepper was drizzled over asparagus, proscuitto, and shaved parmesan. So fresh and good!

Complimented with:

the pinot noir we bought at bacco's in boston! it was smooth and easy going wine, not too light. we watched 'pasta', the cheezy tv series that was aired a year ago in korea. the characters are just plain ridiculous and the story line is so obvious and just makes you laugh out of not-knowing-what-to-say, but just about right for a simple evening with simple food and wine. 


*the pasta was cooked al dente, but the sauce was a tiny bit on the bland side, due to lack of salt (but where! we added enought salt in the water and the sauce... a matter needing investigation), and the salmon to pasta ratio was way off, as somebody was really hungry and added too much farfalle. oh well, we have yet to master the art of pasta.