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Piston Honda wrote:I bet you are a wagon wheel kind of person. Am I correct?

Uhm. What?

Never saw that kind of pasta.

When it comes to pasta, you have to have Class:




I personally think Italians have the right of it, how they only cook their pasta most of the way, so that there is this thin line of chew dough in the middle of each of them.


As for recipe's, I love this one garlic pasta with Garlic (naturally) Bowtie Pasta, and Red Peppers. So delicious.

The pasta you use is more a function of the sauce you're pairing it with than the particular pasta shape itself. Thick pasta with thick sauces, thin sauces with thin pasta.

Google Jamie Oliver. His pasta recipes are awesome. I've made proper tortelini five or six times to his recipes recently (in about 3 months) and its awesome, but quite fattening.

Anyone tried Spaetzle .... and/or tried it with anything other than butter?

thinking of trying my hand at it with maybe a creamy mushroom sauce.

I'd say any creamy or buttery sauce would work beautifully with spaetzle, just make sure you use lots of black pepper.

In the sauce or the Spaetzle?

The sauce.

helgrenze wrote:Anyone tried Spaetzle .... and/or tried it with anything other than butter?

thinking of trying my hand at it with maybe a creamy mushroom sauce.

I make spatzle quite a bit.

Couple of tips:

I don't know what recipe you're using, but if it calls for whole eggs I'd actually just use one "whole egg" and substitute just the yolks for the rest of the required amount. Same goes for any pasta, really. Also, I'd be careful about sauces, since part of the greatness of spaetzle is sauteing it in butter and getting some nice color and texture on it so you don't want to go to the trouble of making a perfect spaetzle and covering it up and making it soggy.

I like to just toss it with some fresh herbs, minced garlic and about a tablespoon or two of lemon juice (just enough to get a little bit of "acid" flavor in there.)

Isn't it similar to Gnocchi?

Melissia wrote:Isn't it similar to Gnocchi?

Not really, no.

Spaetzle is pretty much just egg and flour. Gnocchi has potatoes in it. Also, there's probably a whole semantic debate about what constitutes a noodle and what constitutes a dumpling.

Monster - So... you would suggest just sauting then adding in some mushrooms? Thinking Hen of the Woods if I can get them, with some tarragon and garlic.

Yeah! Any kind of garnish you want is fine, just try to keep it dry. I'd saute the mushrooms separately and toss them in at the end right before serving.

I'm actually now looking foward to when morel mushrooms come back into season so I can do the same thing!

Hmm.... I wonder how Shitakis would do........

Did I win?

helgrenze wrote:Hmm.... I wonder how Shitakis would do........

I'm not really the guy to ask, because I friggin' love mushrooms of all varieties.

Shitakis would be good though. Stir fry them and hit them with some soy sauce and fish sauce and toss them with your spaetzle and have some German/Japanese fusion cuisine. Try and work some Italian influence in and have all of the Axis powers represented!

helgrenze wrote:Anyone tried Spaetzle .... and/or tried it with anything other than butter?

thinking of trying my hand at it with maybe a creamy mushroom sauce.

I've consumed Spaetzle with all manner of sauces, its delicious. Have a look at chicken paprikash, its a Hungarian dish frequently served with nokedli, which is pretty much Hungarian spaetzle.

For those of you who like your food hot, may I suggest trying out Cajun Chicken Pasta. There are lots of great recipes out there, but I personally like this one: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/cajun-chicken-pasta/

My only real recommendation is to get liberal with the cayenne pepper/cajun seasoning, the more the better.

Huge fan of pasta here. Favorite has to be lasagna, if that counts (since it's more of a layered dish than a pasta), with manicotti at a close second. I love meats and cheeses in combination with pastas.

I tried spaetzle once, when we made it in class (a culinary arts school), but we basically had to make it just sauteed in butter. Most of us found it kind of...well, I hate to say nasty, but it wasn't very good. Really needs some kind of sauce on there.

So the plan for next day off is Smoked boneless porkchops, spaetzle with shrooms and tarragon, and some sauted red cabbage. nice german themed meal.

Alternate plan is heading out to local Italian place for some carbonara.

Carbonara isn't really to hard to make at home.

True, but this place has an awesome chef and is building a rep for the best pasta in town.

Best quick, easy pasta is aglio olio al pepe. Basically heat some good olive oil (this is key) with garlic and cracked black pepper, then move the cooked pasta straight from the water into the oil.

Do heat it gently though, olive oil will burn at relatively low temperatures.

Yeah, truthfully the heat is only applied to extract the flavor from the garlic and pepper, most of the heat in terms of the dish is supplied by the pasta.

Not so much a pasta per se but I'm a big fan of braciole, much less a fan of the hassle of making it.

Put a little bit of puree beetroot in it to make it red. You can't taste the beetroot at all. I am not a beetroot fan but I ate it. Also, while in Italy, I saw pasta in the shape of men's bits

Never seen wagon wheels!

Did you not make macaroni cars in kindergarten?

Piston Honda wrote:Just about done with school Semester and a half left and I am done. I be edumacated.

Then off to see if there is a need for special education teachers out there.



probably not.

Always a need for Special Education.

Also no one will say it out loud, but IF your a guy then you will probably get multiple offers assuming your grades/references are decent...