Practical Alchemy: Crispy Salted Garlic Noodles
Ever since my early cooking days I've been obsessed with noodles and different ways to make/prepare them. Today I want to cover a new technique I'm experimenting with that can elevate fresh egg noodles from their normal lofty excellence to something even better. You heard me: better than excellent! This preparation technique makes for a crispy salted exterior that crunches delightfully in the mouth while still having a rich noodley center with a bit of chew to it.
To follow along with the recipe, click through the jump.
To start off make the fresh egg pasta as detailed in a prior Practical Alchemy. Once the dough has been kneaded, rested, and cut into thin strips the dough should be soaked for 10 minutes in heavily salted room temperature water. This will help hydrate the noodles and get them properly seasoned without cooking them.
While the noodles soak heat up a cast iron skillet and saute some garlic and pepper in butter. I usually use about a tablespoon of butter per egg that went into the pasta dough. By the time the pasta is done absorbing the salt water the skillet should be quite hot and the garlic should be starting to brown. Be careful not to brown the butter yet, turning down the heat as necessary.
Drain the pasta and transfer to the heated skillet once the pasta is done dripping. Be careful not to get splashed with water contacting the hot butter as it will pop and sizzle quite spectacularly. Fry up the noodles moving them constantly so they don't stick to each other or burn. As they fry they will start to brown and become lightly crispy. Once they are nearly cooked turn up the heat and stir quite vigorously to brown the butter a little bit and then transfer to plates for the good eating. Make sure to eat this pasta dish quickly while the butter is still warm and delicious.
And there you have it - 10 minutes of dough prep time, and 15 minutes of cooking time after for delicious garlicky noodles with a crispy browned butter finish.
--Sparky
