If you’re like me, you have a desire to keep playing with food, coming up with new uses. Well tonight I wanted to try something new. I’ve had fried pasta before and I’ve seen dried pasta that comes in little nests before (usually in Latin markets). I wanted to make my own fried nests. The thought was that they would be crisp, but then soften in a delicious sauce.

Twisted Spaghetti Nests

Here’s the basic technique… boil off some angel hair or thin spaghetti. I used some thin spaghetti from the fridge (unused from when Jessica made the Pork Belly), they were nice and starchy. Grab a dozen or so strands (don’t count, just grab) and align them together. Drape them over your fingers and give them a twist around each other (think Twizzlers). Then pull one end of the strand under your fingers and twist them around the top (on top of your fingers). Repeat with the other end of the strand, going the opposite direction around your fingers. Once I made a loop, I found it help to put my finger through the center, and pull the pasta through.

Pan Frying Spaghetti Nest

The idea is to have the pasta spiraling around itself as it goes into a circle. Don’t worry if it’s messy, it’s a pain to do. Rest your nests on a cutting board and heat vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan. Lay in one or more nests at a time (depending on the size of your pan) and fry just until the edges start to take color and blister, about 90 seconds. Then use chopsticks to turn it over and cook another 60 seconds.

Fried Nests

Remove to paper towels to drain.

Plating Nests

I plated them by piling three on a plate overlapping each other (sort of Olympic Rings style).

Plated Nests

Then I dropped a bit of a yummy chicken with tomato & cream sauce into the center of each one. This plate is garnished with paprika, basil, and scallions — the components of the sauce.

posted by Lon at 01:59 PM Filed under Un-Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.