I use lime or lemon zest with some seafood pasta, especially when no other ingredient can cover the fishy smell, which sometimes, in some specific cases, can be too strong and “distracting”, for instance when I make pasta with “bottarga”, that is the dried roe pouch of bluefin tuna.
When I prepare fish in the oven, any fish, I mix lemon or lime juice, olive oil, smashed garlic, salt and parsley, that’s my magic sauce!
When it comes to pasta, my favorite sauce is made with fresh cherry tomatos. I boil them for 5/10 minutes in the same water I’ll use to cook the pasta, then I peel them and I use a mixer to make a cream, adding olive oil, garlic, basil, almonds and chili powder.
Thanks for tagging me, I didn’t know this brand but it looks very convenient and easy. To be honest, these ready-to-cook products are not very popular in Italy: we would just boil water in a pot, grate some cheeses and melt them together with some milk or cream and in 10/15 minutes you have your smoking dish on the table.
I found the use of bottarga very interesting! I’ve Googled about it, but I can’t seem to find it here. I could find tobiko (flying fish roe) instead. It is commonly used for sushi toppings. Now, I just got a fresh idea for my next pasta creation!
Usually I only use salt and lime juice to remove the fishy smell. Thanks for the tips! I will “steal” your magic sauce hahaha
Oh, it seems like bolognese sauce. I usually use normal size tomatoes for making bolognese sauce. That sounds interesting! I will try your recipe and use cherry tomatoes next time And what about the toppings? Do you add meat or seafood?
Thank you for sharing your recommendation of a pasta brand @PennyChristie
I think I haven’t seen this brand yet in Indonesia. Next time if I could find it either in a grocery store or from online shopping, I would love to try it.
I bet you won’t find bottarga there, unless imported from Sicily but then it would be very expensive.
About Bolognese sauce, you can use any tomato, small or big, as long as they are juicy. The ones with more meat and less juice are good for salads. But the Bolognese is a very different sauce compared to the one I mentioned, it needs hours of preparation and cooking, while my sauce with almonds takes less than 15 mins.
About toppings, we don’t have this concept in Italy, we don’t use pasta as you use rice in Asia to accompany the main dish. Pasta goes with its sauce, which can contain seafood or meat in some cases (but never chicken, that’s why we don’t “understand” pasta Alfredo in Italy), but usually the fish or the meat are prepared and served separately as a different course. Is a long topic which can be material for another post maybe.
I agree with you. Making bolognese sauce will take a longer time compared to your favorite tomato sauce. This one sounds very easy and shrimp would be a perfect topping for me. I will try it soon.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. Really appreciate it Now I know how the real Italians eat their pasta. It is an interesting fact actually, especially for an Asian like me. I think most of Italian restaurants here have adjusted their pasta dishes to local taste.
It would be great if you could write a post about pasta. I’m sure I will love to read it
Brava @Lusianaa it’s a good process… for the next time you will try to shake the pot with spaghetti and rest of condiments to have more creamousity from starch of pasta. At end (my tip) put some extravirgin olive oil crude as dropping.
WOW! We got a masterchef over here @Lusianaa !! I will definitely try to recreate it, I love western food with Indonesian twist on it. Is this your own recipe?
Haha I’m just an amateur @AngieYC and this is not really my own recipe. I got the inspiration from this and this restaurant, and try to replicate at home using available ingredients. Pasta dish with sambal matah is a good match. I hope you give it a try.
and this is not really my own recipe. I got the inspiration from