Unpopular opinion, but I personally hate pasta. I think a lot of the times it can be very one note and gets boring to eat after awhile. I know that there are people out there that agree with me on this so I wanted to create a pasta recipe that we, pasta haters, would enjoy!
While developing this recipe, I had a few different thoughts about what I could do. I am Indian and enjoy Indian food, so I decided fuse the two, Indian and Italian. Indian food is full of flavor and complexity. There are so many different layers in Indian foods that make them so delicious. I figured that this would add some dimension to the pasta dish and make it more enjoyable to eat. Also there aren't really many Indian noodle dishes so I thought it would be cool to make one.
Even though this recipe is meant to be a dish that pasta haters will like, I wanted to make a dish that everyone will enjoy. One of the most popular Indian dishes ordered at Indian restaurants is butter chicken. A lot of my friends love it and so I knew I had to incorporate it in some way. Also, a lot of my friends who enjoy pasta, love vodka sauce. I realized that the foundation ingredients for vodka sauce and butter chicken are pretty similar. They both consist of tomatoes and heavy cream, vodka sauce with the addition of vodka and cheese, and butter chicken with the addition of garlic, onions, and lots of masala. So fusing the two just seemed to make sense!
So I established how I would make the sauce, next came the pasta itself. I needed to make the pasta interesting and unique in some way. Each region of the world has a fat that they prefer to use in their cooking. In Italy, it is olive oil. In India, there are a few, but a big one is ghee, or clarified butter. I decided to incorporate this into my pasta dough.
Pasta dough requires flour as the base, of course, and then a fat and a binder (the best being eggs). Flour is needed in pasta dough in order for the gluten development to occur. Gluten is what gives dough its elasticity and stiffness, allowing pasta noodles to have the "al dente" texture. The binder is necessary to keep the dough together as it cooks. This is what helps the gluten the develop, giving the pasta dough structure. Fat is used to add some hydration to the dough so it is easier the manipulate and for flavor. You don't want to use too much fat because then you sacrifice the integrity and structure of the dough and the end result will be more mushy in texture. Salt of course is necessary in everything in order the bring out the flavors. I do recommend salting your pasta dough because fresh pasta cooks very fast, so the salt in the water does not have enough time to penetrate through the noodles.
Now for the protein, I used chicken and marinated it in Indian spices. If you are vegetarian you can use paneer instead, or tofu for a healthier option. If you would like, you could also add some fried pancetta to the sauce in order to add more complexity and boldness.
This recipe was so much fun to make and I am so proud of how it turned out! Let me know if you try it out and what you think!
Tips:
•Start by marinating chicken and then start pasta dough
•Don't have to make your own pasta dough, it is time consuming, but it is fun and tastes good! If you don't make your own, use your favorite type of noodle!
Substitutions:
•Can use paneer or tofu instead of chicken
•Store bought pasta, instead of homemade
This recipe was so fun to make and I hope you try it out! It is delicious and the sauce tastes soooo good! You can top it with any herbs you want. This is sure to be a hit with your family or friends. Let me know if you enjoy!
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