Good Sauceability, but undecided on Forkability

New pasta shapes

https://kottke.org/21/03/the-invention-of-a-new-pasta-shape

Otherwise, a food open thread.
(via a friend on facebook)

Comments

[cleek]

i'd try it. even though it looks like a shrimp.

i'd like to know how large they are, too.

until then: gemelli.

[wj]

If it can deliver more pesto, I'm up for it.

[hairshirthedonist]

When we will get fractalli?

[Cleek]

To go with fractaloccoli?
http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?p=6430

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Beware the bucatini, the most dangerous pasta.

Why? It's a bit too thick to stay wound up on your fork, and when it energetically unwinds (as it inevitably will), it's central hole will spray sauce over everything nearby.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

[hairshirthedonist]

Cool photo, cleek.

[Cleek]

Never understood the bucatini. Too thick for me. But it’s popular enough that there was a shortage of it in 2020!

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/02/952806806/where-is-all-the-bucatini-behind-the-great-2020-shortage

Hshthx

[nous]

Bucatini is the Hazy IPA of pasta. Give it a few months and the food hipsters will be ignoring it for some other obscure food to champion (and boring us with their personal anecdotes and chatty vacuities and while making us scroll through their ads to the recipe they stole from somewhere else).

[Girl from the North Country]

This new one looks good for ragu. Or shmooshed up broccolini (or romanesco), chilli, garlic and anchovy loosened with some of the starchy pasta cooking water. Hmmm, I think I know what to cook tomorrow.

[Cleek]

So the people who designed these pasta making machine deserve patents?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/patents-behind-pasta-shapes-180971388/

[hairshirthedonist]

Bucatini is the Hazy IPA of pasta.

Hey! I’ve been drinking them happily for a few years. Barrell-aged and sours, maybe I’ll agree.

[nous]

I've drunk my share of hazies as well. I'm just sick of them accounting for 50% of the local craft brew stock being carried on the shelf (with another 20% being $20 barrel aged somethings with a severe balance problem). I'd rather a wider variety of styles be represented, including some beer-flavored beer.

[hairshirthedonist]

First World problems, nous.

[JanieM]

beer-flavored beer

First World problems, nous.

LOL.

Kinda like tea-flavored tea, and chocolate-flavored chocolate...with a few notable exceptions like burnt caramel for the latter.

[cleek]

I'm just sick of them accounting for 50% of the local craft brew stock being carried on the shelf (with another 20% being $20 barrel aged somethings with a severe balance problem).

this is how a lot of us feel about IPAs in general.

a couple of years ago i counted the # of IPAs my local grocery store had in stock. they were, IIRC, something like 70% of the total. take out the macros and the flavored stuff and there's almost nothing left.

now, it's all flavored.

[cleek]

and don't get me started on italics.

[hairshirthedonist]

I guess I'm lucky in that my local breweries always have a couple IPAs on rotation at any given point, but that's out of 15 to 20 beers. If anything, the flavored beers might be over represented, but that's not the IPAs' faults!

I actually don't have a problem with flavored beers that are well done, and I guess it depends on what you mean by flavored beers. Just for one example, our closest local brewery has a mint chocolate cookie stout (which I'm guessing won't be available much longer, if it still is). It sounded horrible to me, particularly the mint part. I wanted to try it anyway, because I respect the brewers there, and it was fabulous. It was an imperial stout (10% ABV), and very dark.

It was good because the mint chocolate cookie flavor was subtle compared to the strong imperial stout flavor. You almost had to try to taste it. And you could, but it wasn't obvious. No "did I brush my teeth while I was drinking this?" sort of thing at all.

[byomtov]

For the record, I made the West Indian Pepper Sauce from the recipe kindly provided by Priest.

It's pretty spicy, but not excessively so, and does indeed go great on fish.

Because I wasn't sure how much habanero peppers weigh, and have been having groceries delivered, I wound up with something of an overstock of the things.

Suggestions are welcome.

[byomtov]

I happen to like a pasta called pici, which is pretty much just very thick spaghetti.

It's unfortunately not widely available, though you can get it through Amazon for an outrageous price.

[CharlesWT]

Some months ago I talked to a woman who bought pallets of different kinds of packaged pasta that she packaged into variety packs and shipped to Amazon warehouses. She said her business boomed after the lockdowns.

[cleek]

Because I wasn't sure how much habanero peppers weigh, and have been having groceries delivered, I wound up with something of an overstock of the things.

Suggestions are welcome.

only takes one, but this (from my sister in law) is pretty fantastic. it's what i made the last time i had a habanero on hand. i always get one when i make Jamaican beans and rice, too.

[novakant]

I used to love pasta, but since the pandemic I've developed a love/hate relationship with it - the cause is of course my own laziness in the kitchen staring at me from the pasta bowl.

[Marty]

I no longer eat pasta, or much grains, or sugar except where those join in alcoholic beverages. I must admit to predominantly pedestrian taste, somwhere between PBR and Stella for beer, Jack Fire for parties. My only indulgence is reasonably expensive tequila on the rocks.

All to say, beer flavored beer is my preference.

[nous]

Marty - my friends who are hop heads or malt mouths would say that you prefer your beer unflavored...

[Marty]

nous - mine too

[CharlesWT]

I substitute oatmeal for pasta...

[Priest]

byomtov, happy to hear that, I made a new batch last week, larger than usual. I suspected it would need a second mango, had to wait until today before it was ripe enough to add to the base sauce.

As to suggestions for the extra peppers, it depends on dishes of choice. I will add one or two chopped to my sesame-ginger chicken stir fry. Seldom make chili without them. Also will use one if I’m making my cubed potato hash browns and need to use it before it spoils. In my younger days I may have been known to add a chopped habanero on top of a Totino’s frozen pizza before popping it in the oven.

[Priest]

You can also make a simple hot sauce with peppers, white vinegar and salt. Bring cup of vinegar to boil with teaspoon salt, add chopped peppers to boil for 5 minutes. Let cool then purée in blender; you can use as is or age a couple weeks in fridge then strain out the solid bits/seeds for a habanero “Tabasco”-style sauce. The strained out stuff can be saved for adding to other cooked dishes, as would be done with fresh peppers, but keeps well in fridge because of vinegar.

[CharlesWT]

Let cool then purée in blender; ...

My opportunity to promote my favorite brand of blenders.

[byomtov]

Priest,

Thanks I'll try that.

As to the basic recipe, I think I might modify it a bit by chopping up the mango, but not pureeing it, and using a bit less of the vinegar/water blend to get a thicker, slightly chunky sauce.

Cleek,

I appreciate the suggestion but the list of foods I can't tolerate includes yams and coconut, and I'm not crazy about plantains. This may be hereditary or something, as my sister shares these dislikes.

Well, truth be told, the coconut business might be genetic somehow - we're not descended from tropical islanders, after all - but I suspect the yam aversion has something to do with early unpleasant association with tsimmes.

[Priest]

byomtov, that is a great thing about having a recipe starting point, you follow it once and then tweak or rework to suit your taste and intended use. The chunky version you describe would be great with tacos, and as a topping for a slab of protein. The more liquid form is a better burrito condiment for the type of burrito you pick up and eat from your hands.

[Priest]

This place opened a little over two years ago a couple blocks from my house. I am benefiting from gentrification, it’s been just over 20 years since I jumped in the gentrification pool. https://www.eltesoroatl.com/