A simple fried pasta

One day, I decided to do an Internet search for "fried pasta". Surprise! Surprise! I read several forum posts written by Italians, saying their mammas and grand mammas regularly fried their leftover pasta - and that they enjoyed the dish.

Yet this is not something one normally comes across in pasta cookbooks. Perhaps it is considered too lowly a dish. I have yet to come across any pasta cookbook recipe for, say, fried spaghetti or fried linguine.

Nor have I come across any pasta restaurants serving such dishes - although I did read about one place that serves a dipping sauce with deep-fried farfalle (pasta ribbons). Hmmm I must try that out some day. It sounds interesting.

But we are not taking about deep fried pasta here, just ordinary stir-frying done in a pan or a wok, the way the Chinese make fried rice or fried noodles - over a big fire.

Fried spaghetti or other pasta is done the same way. In my opinion, it is even better than fried noodles, because the al dente texture of pasta keep its whole after frying. Many types of Chinese noodles, in contrast, break up and turn mushy when fried.

Fried leftover linguine

Ingredients (serves 1):

• 1 tbsp cooking oil - untoasted sesame oil or rice bran oil
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Japanese cucumber (kyuri, the type with the dark skin), cut into thick strips
• pinch of sea salt
• black pepper
  
• coriander or other herb for garnish
  
  
• one serving cooked pasta

Method:

1. Heat a wok or heavy pan. Add the oil and allow it to heat up.
2. Add the garlic and salt, and fry for about two minutes, until fragrant.
3. Add the egg, spread it out and allow it to cook, about 1 minute.
4. Add cooked pasta and cucumber and fry over high heat for about 5 minutes, until pasta is well-heated up and cucumber is cooked through.
5. Serve topped with black pepper and garnished with coriander.

Notes:

This recipe was done using whatever ingredients I happened to have. Feel free to make your own fried pasta with any other ingredients.


I chose cucumber for this recipe for two reasons: First, I wanted some vegetables in my pasta and I happened to have cucumber. Second, although cucumbers are normally eaten raw, I had eaten some fried cucumber recently (at one of those "economical rice" stalls operated by Chinese immigrants in Singapore) and I found it surprisingly delicious.


Another way to make fried pasta is, of course, to fry it with whatever leftover pasta sauce that you happen to have. You can still add an egg or some other ingredient so that it becomes a slightly different dish and you get less of the feeling that you are eating leftovers.