5 Ingredients or Fewer

Cavatelli with Asiago Oat Crumbs

by:
April  7, 2013
3.8
4 Ratings
Cavatelli with Asiago Oat Crumbs
Photo by James Ransom
  • Serves 6-8
Author Notes

Sometimes great kitchen disasters lead to most surprising dishes. I have a wonderful recipe for cookies with flour, cheese and butter, and was trying to adapt it to work with oats. The first batch of cookies went nowhere. The cookies fell apart and literally turned into crumbs. Correction: they turned into the most delicious crumbs imaginable. I had a great deal of dough left, and plenty of room to experiment. And that is how a lovely pasta was born. —QueenSashy

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: QueenSashy is a self-professed cooking addict from New York City.
WHAT: A unique pasta with customizable spice and a process that's mostly hands-off.
HOW: Endure chill and bake times for the cheesy oat crumbs, then boil some pasta, and eat!
WHY WE LOVE IT: This is a cookie dough experiment gone wrong, and we couldn't be happier for the kitchen disaster. You'll swear the crumb mixture tastes familiar, and you'll agree -- a dough once destined for cookies is a revelation on pasta. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces old fashioned rolled oats
  • 8 ounces Asiago cheese, finely grated
  • 6 ounces butter, softened
  • 16 ounces cavatelli (farfalle, spaghetti, pappardelle and fettuccine also work well)
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions
  1. In a food processor, grind the oats until powdery.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the oat powder, Asiago and butter. Mix well and knead with your hands for a couple of minutes until it comes together into uniform dough. Press the dough into a disk (or cube, or any other shape of your liking) and refrigerate for about 2 hours, until very firm.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge, and using a cheese grater, grate the dough over the baking sheet. (Make sure the gratings are uniformly distributed).
  4. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven, and leave the gratings on it to crisp.
  5. In the meantime, cook your pasta to al dente. Drain the pasta and arrange it on individual plates. Pour the crumb mixture over the top, and season to taste with pepper and red pepper flakes (this is optional -- I like them, but my husband does not). Toss well and serve very hot.
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QueenSashy
Aleksandra aka QueenSashy is a scientist by day, and cook, photographer and doodler by night. When she is not writing code and formulas, she blogs about food, life and everything in between on her blog, Three Little Halves. Three Little Halves was nominated for 2015 James Beard Awards and the finalist for 2014 Saveur Best Food Blog Awards. Aleksandra lives in New York City with her other two halves, Miss Pain and Dr. V.

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25 Reviews

Kristen
Kristen December 28, 2015
I was really excited about this recipe. Unfortunately, it fell flat in the taste department. I ended up telling my husband that he didn't have to eat it, at which point he started laughing and said he thought I was going to add cheese and make macaroni and cheese, he didn't understand the concept of this dish.
 
Ceege
Ceege February 26, 2014
Ummmmmm. Looking forward to trying this. Question on the grating. I have a box grater and it has 4 sides with various sized holes. Which one do I use for grating the disc? The fine one or the larger sized one. Thanks for you advice.
 
QueenSashy
QueenSashy February 27, 2014
I use rotary cheese grater for this dish, I think it would correspond to the finer holes on the box grater -- perhaps not the finest but the second one.
 
Lucia F.
Lucia F. April 28, 2013
This sounds so interesting. Will have to try it.
 
fearlessem
fearlessem April 27, 2013
I am intrigued! Does the pasta itself need any butter or oil? Or does the butter in the crumbs come to coat the pasta?
 
QueenSashy
QueenSashy April 27, 2013
I added a drop of olive oil, just to make sure the pasta does not get sticky. A bare minimum, since the crumbs already have a heavy dose of butter.
 
hardlikearmour
hardlikearmour April 25, 2013
Love that you turned a "mishap" into a completely delicious dish!
Congratulations!!
 
em-i-lis
em-i-lis April 25, 2013
congratulations, QueenSashy!
 
healthierkitchen
healthierkitchen April 25, 2013
Congrats! I liked this one right away.
 
ChefJune
ChefJune April 25, 2013
My this sounds delicious! I can think of a few adaptations for it, too. Congrats on being a finalist.
 
fiveandspice
fiveandspice April 25, 2013
Yay! Congratulations QueenSashy! I just knew this would be a finalist! So delicious and unique.
 
gingerroot
gingerroot April 25, 2013
Congrats on being a finalist! I can't wait to try this.
 
TheWimpyVegetarian
TheWimpyVegetarian April 25, 2013
What a great disaster story! This looks wonderful! Saving to make it. Congrats on being a finalist this week :-)
 
mrslarkin
mrslarkin April 25, 2013
I love disasters! Can't wait to try this one. Congrats!
 
Madhuja
Madhuja April 25, 2013
Congratulations! This looks terrific! :)
 
wssmom
wssmom April 25, 2013
this sounds amazing; how creative!
 
EmilyC
EmilyC April 25, 2013
Wow, I wish my kitchen disasters turned out like this! Many congrats -- this looks delicious.
 
darksideofthespoon
darksideofthespoon April 25, 2013
Congratulations on being a finalist! Good luck!
 
fiveandspice
fiveandspice April 13, 2013
Yum! I love this! It's sort of like pasta with toasted breadcrumbs, but so unique. I love disasters with happy endings.
 
Droplet
Droplet April 10, 2013
And if you end up perfecting these cookies with cheese I'd love to try them too. You got me intrigued :)
 
healthierkitchen
healthierkitchen April 9, 2013
This sounds like it would be delicious mixed with a little roasted cauliflower, too!
 
QueenSashy
QueenSashy April 10, 2013
absolutely!
 
lapadia
lapadia April 8, 2013
I love cheesy crumbs, and with red pepper flakes, too! I am thinking that perhaps with a tad more butter and some flour this dough could turn into a shortbread like cookie with oats...hmmmm?
 
QueenSashy
QueenSashy April 8, 2013
That's exactly what I was after, but got sidetracked due to everyone liking the crumbs so much. But I will prevail :)
 
lapadia
lapadia April 9, 2013
:) Yay!