Par-cooking pasta?
My neighbors just had a baby, and I was thinking of bringing them a dish I made recently that I thought was really tasty -- fusilli with smoky red pepper sauce. I was planning to give them the sauce separate from the pasta, and I'm wondering if it would work to undercook the pasta by a couple of minutes, and give the food to them with instructions to simmer the pasta in the sauce for a couple of minutes to reheat. I always finish cooking my pasta in whatever sauce I'm making, but I've never waited a period of hours between cooking the pasta in water and finishing it in the sauce. Will the fusilli continue to cook too much if it sits out for too long between steps? Wondering if this will work OK or be a mess...thoughts?
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Boulangere, here's the sauce recipe (I made it on the fly from what I had in the house, so it's not a super-precise recipe): cut one smallish onion into thick slices and tossed in a little EVOO, cut the top off a head of garlic and wrap it in foil, and take 2 large or 3 small red bell peppers (not sure if these needed a shmear of EVOO as well or not, since the skin gets removed, but I chose to shmear them), and put them all on a baking sheet under the broiler until the peppers are well-roasted, the onions are brown in spots, and the garlic is soft.
(The next step introduces chicken into the sauce, which is totally optional. I put it in b/c I like the infusion of the chicken juices into the sauce, and my husband is always happier if I add some meat.)
Meanwhile, cut about a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and season w/ S & P. Saute in a skillet with a little EVOO until the chicken is barely cooked through, and remove the chicken and set it aside. Pour off as much of the fat from the pan as you can without pouring out the juices released from the chicken.
When the peppers are thoroughly charred, put them in a ziplock bag and waited until they're cool enough to handle; then remove the skin. Transfer the peppers, onion, and garlic (cloves removed from skin, of course) to a blender with about 1/4 cup + 1-2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream, somewhere between 1/2-1 tsp of Spanish smoked paprika, and S & P to taste. Then transfer the blended mixture into the skillet and simmer gently for a few minutes until it thickens a little. Add chicken and simmer for a minute until heated through; add pasta (and about 1/2 cup pasta water) to finish, and voila! Hope you enjoy it if you make it! IMHO, it's the smoked Spanish paprika that makes the dish. That stuff is magical...