Yummy Pasta Sauces

TyrantCow

so, i got a hankering for some pasta; but, something with a kick.

i pretty much hate tomato based sauces as i have a deathly aversion to most (non-green) vegetables. well, it's not like it would cause death or anything; but, fuck tomatoes and especially fuck onions. fucking hate onions.

anyway, i got this thing in the back of my head that keeps saying, 'mmmm.... maybe something with an italian dressing-esque base.' don't know if such a pasta sauce exists.

typically, when i get sick of the white sauces i turn to pesto; but, i'm not feeling that right now either. it's time to try something new!

also, thinking shrimp and maybe some broccoli to go with said pasta.

Arikado

Pesto with pine seeds?

illirica

Have you tried a good carbonara? The linked one looks pretty good, I saute in some red pepper flakes with the garlic for a little more zip, and add the egg & cheese together.

If you want to go sauceless, you can just saute random things together, dump in some noodles, and melt on some parmesan. I do this every so often. Strips of pepperoni are good, as is asparagus, as are slivered almonds or pine nuts. Green onions are nice if added in at the end with the parmesan. You can experiment by cooking however many or few ingredients together that sound good - that way you don't get as bored as easily. I would think tiny shrimp could be sauteed into this pretty easily and would be good, especially with a bit of butter, garlic, parmesan, spinach, and maybe a little cream...

You could also do the above and just do a quick red or white wine reduction with some herbs mixed in if you wanted a little sauce of some sort, that would probably work and be fairly simple.

Sheep

Cook your shrimp first. Try to get a seer on the shrimp so the proteins and all the good stuff gets caramelized onto the pan you're cooking in. Take the shrimp out.

Toss in some butter and olive oil and, since you don't like onions, maybe try some shallots, green onion, or even some leeks. Regardless of what you put in, let them cook for a moment, then add some garlic and any other aromatics you like. After about three minutes, crush some basil leafs in your hand to get the oils out, toss that in the skillet, and stir. Cook for an additional minute, add some white wine, reduce, and just as it finishes add some parsley, crush up some more fresh basil in your hands and toss that in as well. Re-add your shrimp and let those mingle for about an additional minute, salt and pepper, take off heat, mix in a bit of the starchy pasta water, and serve over pasta.

Ideally you should add the pasta into the sauce while it's still al dente so it can really soak up some of the flavors. Only problem is making sure you get the shrimp portioned correctly if you're cooking for others.

If your shrimp had shells you can make stock and do 50/50 white wine and shrimp stock.

BobCesca

salmon with creme fraiche and dill makes a pretty nice pasta sauce. Do some onions and garlic in the pan first, flake in cooked salmon, salt and pepper, then add some creme fraiche and chopped dill, cook for a few minutes, dump on pasta, all is yum.

Druhim

if you're going to use basil in a sauce, don't crush it like sheep recommends
just chop it into fine ribbons with a chef's knife

Sheep

Druhim wrote: »

if you're going to use basil in a sauce, don't crush it like sheep recommends
just chop it into fine ribbons with a chef's knife

I don't mean crush it like you're gonna make a mojito or julep, but you definitely want to damage the outer layer of the leaf to get the oil out of it.

Can usually accomplish this by just tearing the leafs into tiny pieces with your hands.

A chiffonade is too haute and leaves long pieces of basil in the dish. Maybe if there was another green in there like spinach I would recommend a chiffonade, but not when it's the only leafy vegetable in the dish. Not counting parsley, obviously.

TyrantCow

thanks for the ideas guys

i gotta try that carbonara, sounds like classy mac and cheese... with bacon

guaranteed heart-stopper

radroadkill

Not exactly a sauce but:

Cook spaghetti. Chop up tomatoes (or not, in your case), and cucumbers.

Drain, rinse, and cool spaghetti. Toss with veggies + small thing of Italian dressing. (I just eyeball it... and add more if needed). Add some McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning. Toss once more.

Cover and chill at least 4 hours, preferably over night.

Eat tasty pasta salad.

Usagi

Baked Lemon Pasta

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Entriech

If you like the flavour of onion in food, but don't like the texture (my wife works this way), one of the techniques I've seen is to add an entire halved onion into your sauce to simmer for a while, then pull it out before serving. No pieces of onion, but a great amount of onion flavour.

When all else fails, I like to melt some butter over the pasta, sprinkle with basil, pepper and garlic, and grate some parmesean cheese over top. Buttered noodles and parm is delicious.

yotes

Not exactly a sauce, certainly not Italian, but definitely delicious with linguine/tagliatelle or similiar broad pasta: cumin beef. Normally I triple the cumin and garlic from that recipe.