Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Pink Pasta - with pine nuts instead of cream?

Pine nuts instead of heavy cream?
Pink pasta is very versatile, you can use it with fish or beef, making it a very popular sauce. The very popular staple, heavy cream, can be a bit high in fat so a substitution would have to be made. Pine nuts make a perfect substitution, all you have to do is derive the cream from the nut and viola!
But how do we do this? Its simple! There are different popular methods in doing this, but i recommend using cherry tomatoes and pine nuts in a blender with a little chicken stock (about a cup of pine nuts and 1/2 a handful of cherry tomatoes. When blended it will appear to be a really thick pinkish substance. You would add this to a tomato based pasta sauce that is ready to be served.

Well there is the theory, and here is the recipe:

Items that you need:
  • pine nuts (1 cup)
  • chicken stock (1/2 cup)
  • yellow onion (1/2 of a medium sized onion)
  • balsamic vinegar (about a tablespoon)
  • cherry and plum tomatoes (1/2 pound plum and a pint of cherry)
  • fresh basil (about1/2 cup chopped)
  • parmesan cheese (to taste)
  • Garlic (two cloves)

Method of cooking:

  1. Julienne onions (half the onion and chop to make long match stick looking pieces, if this is difficult don't worry just rough chop any way you like but just make sure all pieces are even to ensure even cooking). Toss onions in balsamic vinegar and pepper mixture. Set aside.
  2. Put pine nuts in blender with about a half a handful of cherry tomatoes. Blend and add chicken stock slowly until you reach desired consistency (desired consistency should be thick as pancake batter)
  3. Chop tomatoes and lightly salt and pepper them (both plum and the rest of the cherry tomatoes). get a saute pan extremely hot and add tomatoes then onions. Add your garlic and turn burner down to medium heat, let simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Add basil and your pine nut/cherry tomato mixture and cook for 5 more minutes.
Viola! There you go! You know have a four star gourmet sauce! This is the healthiest, most fulfilling sauce that you will ever make. This pasta sauce recipe is sure to impress just about anyone. Oh yeah and one more thing, don't forget to cook the noodles! I would say the best pasta pair for this sauce would have to be fettuccine or angel hair. Enjoy!

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