A grand, Chinese style fried spaghetti

To me, fried spaghetti is much better. And the reason has to do with how the Chinese prepare fried rice.

In Chinese cooking, fried rice is best prepared with leftover rice, when the rice grains have dried somewhat and become a bit hard. So it's not because they don't want to waste the rice but because leftover rice has better texture for frying.

No respectable Chinese chef will fry rice that is soft and soggy. They always use rice that is al dente or "to the tooth".

Yet the Chinese routinely fry soft and soggy noodles, I don't understand why. Doesn't it make more sense to fry noodles that are hard and cruncy - al dente like spaghetti or other Italian pasta?

The other thing I don't understand is why fried spaghetti and other fried pasta are not widely featured in Italian cookbooks?

I was surprised to find a number of Italians writing on internet forums that their mammas and grand mammas have always fried leftover. Yet I don't see dishes like fried spaghetti mentioned in pasta cookbooks, let alone served in restauramts.

Is it because fried pasta is considered a "leftover dish" and therefore too lowly? The Chinese have no qualms about that. Even though fried rice may be made from overnight rice, it is served even at wedding banquets. And all types and styles of fried noddles are popular in Chinese cuisine - yellow wheat noodles, broad and flat rice noodle, thin rice vermicelli etc etc, fried "dry" with soya sauce or "wet" with a starchy gravy.

So it's time we have a good fried pasta – one worthy to be served to guests or even in a restaurant, unlike my quick and simple fried spaghetti (actually I used linguine that day) which was done in a hurry. This more elaborate recipe is what I call a "proper" fried spaghetti...

The other good thing is that, since spaghetti is already al dente, you don't need to keep it overnight to develop the drier, crunchier texture for frying. Here, then, is my

Chinese style fried spaghetti

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):

• 3 tbsp cooking oil - untoasted sesame oil or rice bran oil
• 4 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1 cut finely diced carrot
• 3 red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped (optional)
  
  
• 200 grams medium prawns, shells removed
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce (Chinese type) or shoyu (Japanese type)
  
  
• black pepper
  
• coriander or other herb for garnish
  
  
• 300 grams dried spaghetti, cooked al dente according to instructions

Method:

1. Prepare the prawns - remove the shells and marinade with soy sauce.
2. Heat a wok or heavy pan. Add the oil and allow it to heat up.
3. Add the garlic and salt, and fry for about two minutes, until fragrant.
4. Add the eggs and allow them to cook through, about one minute.
5. Add carrot and chilli and fry over high heat for about 3 minutes.
6. Add green peas and prawns and fry for another 2 minutes until the prawns are cooked and have turned pink.
7. Add spaghetti and fry until it is well-heated up and mixed with the other ingredients.
8. Serve topped with black pepper and garnished with coriander.

Notes:

They key to a successful fried noodle (or fried rice) is high heat - and being able to handle that high heat without burning your food. So use the biggest fire you have. Chinese stir-frying is not like sauteeing but is a lot more "energetic". Often, fried rice and noodles taste better at restaurants because commercial kitchens have much bigger fire.


Because of the high heat, use a cooking oil that can handle high heat, such as sesame, peanut, rice bran, grapeseed, etc. Do not use extra virgin olive oil.


Needly to say, feel free to vary the ingredients according to what you have and what you lile. For exampple, instead of green peas you might use long beans, french beans, celery, etc. There are no rules, really, for this fried spaghetti dish. Enjoy.