red wine pasta

to rival flavi in her cooking goodness is something to which i constantly aspire. my method to attempt such an ascension to greatness must come through finding absurd recipes on the great world wide web; i have not had the joy of building a mental cooking repertoire as flavi has. this week i received a nice little email from my wonderful sister containing a recipe involving an entire bottle of wine, and (dreadful) spaghetti. of course, i need to move away from pasta and chicken for every meal (but they are so good!), so this recipe needed to be quite unique to pass muster- but i think the full bottle of wine covers that.


the dish has most of my favorite individual ingredients: red wine, pasta(i chose rotini instead of spaghetti), olive oil, garlic, broccoli rabe (more on this shortly), and red pepper flakes. incidentally, that qualifies it as vegetarian, so all the hippy bowdoinites can be satisfied. :)

the broccoli rabe the recipe called for is this interesting plant that, despite resembling broccoli quite closely, is not related to it at all. it looks rather like a leafy form of baby broccoli. the taste is a bit bitter and it is quite pungent. i would be careful to make sure it does not over power lighter dishes. this recipe is quite strong though, so no worries.

to start, cut the rabe into 1 inch wide pieces and blanch. set aside. boil pasta in broccoli water, just 5 minutes (über al dante). in the meantime, start the bottle of wine boiling in another pot with a bit of sugar. reduce it a bit and then add the pasta. boil until the pasta soaks up the wine. while the pasta boils, saute lots of garlic and some red pepper flakes in a big skillet with evoo (aside: i dont think i like this abbreviation, but there is this enticing looking restaurant near my apartment that goes by it, so the restaurant has inspired me. to be proper, i should have sampled this establishment prior to including its moniker in my post, but alas, time dictates otherwise). once the garlic has permeated the room with its scent, and once it looks appropriately pale golden brown, add the broccoli, some salt, and pepper and cook for a minute or two. add 1/2 cup of the pasta water (which you obviously saved). boil it off for a minute and pour in pasta and remaining wine (there shouldnt be much wine left). toss the whole mess together for a few minutes with tongs. add some freshly ground black pepper and, of course cheese!!

serve the dish immediately- it is best served warm. i completed the meal with my usual baguette and oil/vinegar combination to compliment the purply pasta. official review from ryan: the best thing i have attempted so far. im sure attempted is the key word, but best is always nice to hear. if it stood a chance to rival a flavi-dish, i would be ecstatic, at the very least. i doubt such greatness was achieved, but the meals does begin my foray into the bizarre dish category. an entire bottle of wine is a lot to use on such a simple dish for two people, though if one reduced the amount of pasta used it should still work out. or, one could go for slightly less saturated pasta. the picture describes just how, well, purple, the pasta was. i suppose a lavender hue may work out.

in the end, the dish was great. the pepper offsets the pungent rabe and the flavors of the wine come out quite nicely when they have been absorbed so well by the pasta. i might choose a stronger wine next time (this was chateau haut peyruguet '03 bordeaux from whole foods), some strength in the pasta would be nice to go along with the pepper and the rabe. but the strong flavors all seem to fall together in an interesting mix- not quite a cacophony, but surely a lively combination.