Hi Blogging friends 🙂
Shefali here, back with a weird update on my journey to becoming more cooking-savvy. I had this whole plan on posting my pasta picture, and maybe even a selfie of me with the food… But alas, the evening had other plans. I did end up making the pasta, but my power went out…! So my family and I ate dinner in the dark and had no leftovers as my portions matched enough for everyone to eat the dinner I made. It was quite the storm of emotions, realizing I had no visual and having no food to take a proper picture.
However, I learned that using my other senses to judge the outcome of the dish is definitely an option.
To recap, the original recipe literally called for asparagus, pesto, Parmesan cheese, and pasta and spices. Pesto in itself is an oil-based sauce, and besides nuts and herbs, there is no true intense flavour. It’s more of a complimentary sauce than a powerhouse flavour on its own. The overall dish was good! The Parmesan and the asparagus complimented each other nicely, and the cheese is always a bonus. The pesto was the appropriate vessel for the asparagus and parmesan to contribute their own unique flavours on their own. Overall, the original recipe, I would give the dish a 6.5/10. Although, knowing me, I made some modifications… I added mushrooms and chilli flakes to give a nice subtle heat and add a source of protein. This boosted the rating to a 7.5/10.
Tip! Toast the chilli flakes on their own to enhance the level of heat that they bring to your dish :).
Here is the link to the original dish Spring Pesto Pasta with Asparagus
Hopefully, by Monday (the 13th) I can re-make it and upload a proper picture! For now, you are left with a screenshot of the BC Hydro outage map and a picture of a dish similar to what my pasta looked like. 🙂
Update: I made the pasta dish again and took a picture! I think this time it turned out even better, so the rating is now officially an 8/10!! Must try, I cooked everything low and slow this time and topped with a healthy amount of parmesan. 😉
Til’ next time… Shefali out!
laurenjohansson February 14, 2023
Hi Shefali,
Wow! That pasta recipe looks fantastic, I love that you added chili flakes to enhance the flavour palette. I commend your patience when it comes to cooking because I tend to get frustrated if a recipe requires more than 10 minutes of prep time lol. Are you a “follow the recipe step by step” kind of person or a “go rogue and ignore the recipe” type of person? I’m definitely more of a “go rogue” kind of person when it comes to cooking. I find it’s an activity that oddly requires a lot of creativity, so I tend to feel limited when I stick too closely to a recipe. Plus, sometimes when you add a bunch of random extra spices, they end up meshing really well! It’s all about experimentation.
Have you ever made pasta from scratch? My childhood best friend was obsessed with Italian food as a kid, so her grandmother used to make pasta dough by hand and shape every individual noodle. It took her forever, but it was amazing. That was one of the perks of hanging out at her house instead of mine, haha 🙂
shefalitoor February 19, 2023 — Post author
Hi Lauren,
I definitely take the approach of “going rogue and ignoring the recipe”. Which is why I’m trying to follow recipes as part my inquiry. As you can tell, it’s not going exactly to plan so far hahaha. BUT, this is the most I’ve followed a recipe outside of baking! It’s definitely a process of patience, but I can say that it is well worth it so far :).