live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Subscribe: https://bit.ly/28Kc0Cd
⏩More Info: ⏪
Learn how to make mouthwatering, restaurant-quality pasta in less than 15 minutes with a culinary chef extraordinaire, in our first episode of "Cooking with Trevor". The best part of this recipe? It's completely gluten-free. Check out the website here: https://www.weinkeller.ca/!
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theheartysoul
Website: http://theheartysoul.com
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
We are here at Wine Keller Restaurant
0:02
It has been a unique dining experience in the Niagara region for the past five years
0:07
It's an exciting work environment for young chefs or professionals like myself
0:11
who want to keep their culinary skills sharp. Hey. Hey, everybody
0:29
Trevor here. I'm at Wine Keller Restaurant in Niagara Falls. Today, I'm going to teach you some quick, easy pasta
0:34
dishes to make at home. And the first one we're going to start with is one of my favorites with a little bit of a dirty history
0:40
It's called pasta puttanesca. And the reason we call it puttanesca is because the ladies of the evening of Naples in Italy
0:47
used to have to make something really quick so they could get back out to their jobs
0:51
As well, the strong aroma attracted men from the streets into the women's kitchens
0:56
So today, we're going to make that dish super easy, super quick, and you'll be eating
1:01
in less than 15 minutes. So we're going to start today with some garlic
1:06
All right. Now, a lot of times we chop up garlic really small
1:09
But today, we want the flavor of the garlic to flavor our oil
1:13
So what we're going to do is make thin slices of that garlic clove
1:17
And we're going to make what's almost like a garlic chip. OK
1:22
There's no race here. You want them all to be the same thickness. So take your time
1:27
We're going to use about a half a clove of garlic for our pasta. Another ingredient that adds to the puttanesca is olives
1:34
Olives offer a very salty characteristic flavor, and they're what help make the intense aroma of this dish
1:40
So today, I've got two different kinds. You've got black ones here called Kalamata olives
1:46
So they're brined differently. Their characteristic green color turns brown over time with the liquid
1:51
And then, because I can and I absolutely love garlic, I have garlic-stuffed olives as well that
1:57
are going to go into our pasta. You're going to need about six to eight olives
2:02
And all we want to do is just slice them into little round circles
2:08
And the thing with olives that I really, really enjoy is they're very underrated
2:12
A lot of people go, ew, olives. But the best part about olives in this dish
2:16
is they add to the very intense aroma that we're looking for to attract those men
2:22
off the street, if you will. Here's what you're going to need to make your puttanesca
2:25
First, we're going to need some extra virgin olive oil. OK? I have that in my squeeze bottle here
2:30
We're going to use about a tablespoon of olive oil. Next, we have the garlic that we're going to chop
2:34
It's going to go into the frying pan, and it's going to saute quickly. Then our olives, which are going to add
2:39
our intense salty flavor, which will be paired with capers, which will also lend an intense salty flavor to our dish
2:48
and really increase that aroma. Next, because it is tomato season, we'll be using some cherry tomatoes in our dish today
2:54
And because it's a superfood, and it's green, and we love it, we're going to add some spinach into our pasta as well
3:01
Just to finish off, to coat those noodles, I've just got one cup of tomato sauce
3:06
This is plain, straight tomato sauce. You can make this yourself. You can buy it in a jar
3:12
What we're doing here is using the tomato sauce as a base flavor
3:16
We are enhancing it with all of our other ingredients. So at this point, it's OK to use a jarred product
3:21
For our pasta today, we're using a product I like to use called GoGo Quinoa
3:26
It's a quinoa-based product that is GMO-free, gluten-free, and corn-free, and it's also vegan
3:32
So it doesn't contain any egg products. It's a really good pasta. It offers the same flavor and texture
3:37
you would get from a durum wheat pasta, but without all the gluten. And the best part about this pasta
3:42
is you don't have to change your pasta method. We can cook it exactly the same way to al dente
3:47
and we get the same texture and results. So a little trick I'm going to offer you today is to use your index finger and thumb and make a circle
3:54
Now, the circle you're going to make depends on the size of portion you want
3:57
I use currency. So if I want one portion for just myself
4:01
I'm going to use a hole through my finger the size of a dime. I'm just going to put that pasta into my finger
4:08
until I have enough pasta there that it looks just like a dime
4:12
Now, before we put our pasta into our boiling water, there's something we need to discuss
4:18
You only have one chance to season this pasta, and that's when we're boiling it
4:22
And a general rule of thumb when you're seasoning pasta water, you want to season it as if you would season a soup
4:27
It's got to have that salty flavor to it, but it doesn't have to be overly salty, OK
4:32
And for that, I'm going to use natural sea salt, OK? I love using sea salt because it lends a better
4:38
flavor to our dishes, and it also is a lot more intensely salty without having
4:43
to use lots and lots of salt. So all we're going to do is put a couple of pinches of that salt in our water
4:49
We can be generous because we really want to make sure that water is seasoned
4:54
We always want to drop pasta into boiling water. If we drop our pasta into water that is not boiling
5:01
what we're going to do is start drawing out the starch in the pasta before the pasta itself
5:05
starts to cook, and we're going to end up with soggy, broken noodles. So in goes our pasta
5:10
And just with a pair of tongs, you want to gently massage that pasta into the water
5:15
and work it for a couple of minutes just until it lightly bends into the water
5:21
without breaking the noodles. What we're looking for here is a term we call al dente
5:27
which means to the bite. So when we take this pasta out of the water
5:31
it should still have a little bit of a rigid bite to it in the center
5:35
That way, it allows us to finish cooking the pasta in our sauce without it overcooking
5:40
And after about 13 to 15 minutes, we will have beautifully cooked pasta
5:45
So what we're doing right now is we're just testing our pasta for doneness
5:49
So very bravely and very carefully, you're just going to take a noodle out of that hot water
5:54
And you're just going to taste it and make sure we have that to the bite texture
6:01
But when we're at that stage, it's time to take that pasta out of the water
6:05
And the biggest mistake that people make is they spend all this time to cook perfect pasta
6:10
and then they rinse all that starch off the outside with cold water
6:13
You want to keep the starch on those noodles. So all we're going to do is turn it off the heat
6:19
We're going to take a cloth and grab the handle. And we're just going to drain that water off
6:29
And the little chef secret that we always do is we don't drain it fully
6:33
We leave just a little touch of pasta water in there because all the residual starch in that water
6:39
is now going to help thicken our finished sauce. The pasta was the hardest part of this dish
6:44
It's all going to come together really fast now. Olive oil, one tablespoon into a hot pan
6:49
Olive oil has a very low smoke point. So we do not want this oil to smoke
6:53
We just want it to get hot. So as soon as you start to smell that smoke
6:57
it's going to be hot. So as soon as you start hearing a crackle or the oil itself starts to get shiny
7:03
and coat the side of the pan, we know we're hot enough. Then in goes our garlic
7:08
We just want to kind of separate all those garlic cloves because we almost want to toast them like chips
7:14
And what that's going to do is it's going to extract the oil from the garlic clove itself
7:20
and it's going to flavor that oil. And you'll start to see a little browning happen
7:25
in that garlic there. That's when we're ready to add our olives, our capers
7:39
our lovely tomatoes grown right here in the Niagara region in the middle of tomato season
7:46
Now, if your pan starts to get too hot at this point, we're done frying the garlic. We can turn it down to low and just
7:52
let all that kind of simmer. Next, we're going to add in our spinach, and we're just going to let that wilt for a couple seconds
7:58
And to help that wilting out, we're just going to add a little salt. Once we get to a stage
8:04
where it's nice and wilted, we see our tomatoes are starting to get a little bit of color
8:08
and our garlic is nicely browned. We know we've got a really intense flavor going on
8:13
in there that's only going to enhance the flavor of our tomato sauce
8:17
In goes our cup of tomato sauce. I wish you could smell it in here right now
8:22
Then finally, with that little bit of excess pasta water we have in there and our beautiful, perfectly
8:28
cooked al dente spaghetti, we're going to get that right inside that pan
8:33
and we're just going to work that pasta together, fold in those ingredients, and just
8:41
let that residual starch thicken that sauce. You're just going to let that simmer for about three
8:47
to four minutes until the noodles grab all that excess tomato sauce and start
8:53
to coat everything nicely. Another big mistake we make when we cook pasta
8:57
is we think we need tons of sauce on it. The reality is, if you've done your job right
9:02
and you've cooked the pasta properly, that's the star of the dish
9:06
All the sauce does is enhance the delicious cook on that pasta
9:10
So once you get to this stage and you see very thick bubbles going on here
9:14
the sauce is nicely coating, we can go to the plate. And now we're just going to take our pasta
9:20
transfer it to a workable surface, and we just want to kind of spin all that sauce
9:25
into our noodles. Grab all those lovely noodles. You can see the sauce is just coating the noodles
9:31
We're not swimming in sauce here. What we're looking for is all of the goodness in this pan
9:36
to become part of this dish. We don't want anything left behind. And as you can see, we've got all this beautiful goodness
9:42
here that we're just going to top our pasta. And there you have it
9:48
Pasta puttanesca my way. Perfect if you need a meal in a hurry or if you need to attract that new man off the street
9:55
See ya
#Cooking & Recipes
#Food
#Grains & Pasta
#Healthy Eating
#Gourmet & Specialty Foods