Savory Nom


This time of the year, I usually feel pretty left out of the cookie exchanges. I'm just not a sweets person and not a baker. We use the over pretty much as storage for the bagillion pots and pans rather than for turkeys, cookies, casseroles etc. I do make some mean savory noms though. After hanging with a girl friend who has been bloggin a lot about her successes cooking up PW's recipe while we watched Julie & Julia, wanted to share this one course wonder nom gem with yall. It includes some crunchy pancetta but I believe I balanced out the grease with a tofu noodle and broccoli. I know the tofu part is pretty intimidating for some of you but I swear, these noodle does not have the weird soy aftertaste so even gringos are cool with it. So they are a great substitute for pasta with none of the carbs.





Mind you, I really lack the ability to cook small portions so I used three packs of the tofu pasta to make enough for 4-6 servings. These pasta comes in spaghetti and languini shapes so they are pretty versatile as substitites.




In one pan, I chopped a pack of sliced panchetta and just let it fry in it's own fat until they are crispy. The cubed panchetta packs saves time when chopping but this version crisps a lot faster and is more flakier as a contrast texture too all the mushy stuff later. Once they are crispy enough, drain them into a bowl because we're using that pan for somethign else in a bit.




In a separate small sauce pan, I threw in a cup of chopped baby pearl onions and half a cup of chopped garlic. I've also used shallots instead of the baby onions, I think they are equally good or my palate just isn't that developed. Oh yeah, I added 2 tablespoons of white balsalmic vinegar. Why white? Because it is usually sweeter than the brown kind. Unless you have really sweet regular balsalmic vinegar, I'd stick to the white kind. When the onion/garlic mix starts to get a bit too dray, add in half a cup of water to get a light sauce going and then set that sauce aside.




The pan greased up with the leftover panchetta grease? Oh this is where we add the pasta, chopped brocoli, and chopped shrimp until it's all cooked. Sounds kinda bland but all the flavoring will come from the onion/garlic sauce and pancetta.





For easier mixin', I threw the pasta, onion/garlic sauce and the pancetta all into a salad bowl and oh my god, it is awesome for the salt cravers like me. All this is easily made in less than an hour and just in time for a juicy game of hockey. And by juicy, I hear there's some player cheating with another player's wife ON THE SAME TEAM! Wooo now that's some good shit, drama and noms.


Man, aren't hanging with friends inspirational?

2 comments:

  1. *sniff sniff* Julia would be proud! I KNOW I AM! Looks yum, I'm going to try it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. dude, it's cool - where did you get that pasta? It would be a nice addition to our gluten-free diet.

    ReplyDelete

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