Expanding Pasta Horizons

For a Master Herbalist, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit that I don’t frequent the “organics” aisle of the grocery store. It’s not that I dislike organic food. The problem is that most of it is stuff I either can’t or won’t eat. However, my friendly butcher suggested I check there for semolina.

She was right; it was on the bottom shelf, along with rye flower. That is going to make a lot of my cooking easier. These are whole grains and bring a lot of flavor to the dishes they are used in.

Yesterday’s pasta experiment involved using a different recipe. It produced half the pasta the first one yielded, and it didn’t need any adjustments. This made me very grateful. It’s hard to tell what will happen if a recipe gets changed the first time you make it.

It was also a *lot* easier to work with. I had the pasta mixed, rolled and cut inside half an hour. While yesterday was about trying a new way to make pasta, it was also about how to use it in dishes rather than as something a sauce gets poured over.

The first experiment was with tuna noodle casserole. Instead of boiling the noodles before putting them into the casserole, I cooked them in it. It turned out great…if you like tuna. I was informed by my husband that it had too much tuna. The cat, on the other hand, thought it didn’t have enough. I believe Sapphire Samurai may have been slipped a bit of that casserole.

The next dish the pasta went in was a chicken broth based vegetable soup. The broth was also homemade. It went ok, but next time the pasta will have to be shorter. It didn’t fit on the spoon well.

The last application was with beef broth made from ox tails. It was a side dish for roasted tri tip, and it turned out really well. The thickened broth and the medium rare meat were great.


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