Cooking with Mary: Tagliatelle

Tagliatelle with Pancetta, mozzarella, and fresh basil.

For the gluten version: http://vikalinka.com/2013/10/22/tagliatelle-with-pancetta-basil-and-mozzarella/

I hate when gluten free food tastes like crap. Since I'm Italian, gluten free food has been an even bigger challenge, because I have a good chunk of family recipes. Tagliatelle is another Italian pasta that uses a red sauce base. What you'll need is: Olive oil, gluten free noodles, garlic, mozzarella, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, crushed tomatoes, and pancetta.

Pancetta is an Italian meat, a pork product in particular.

I've recently found these gluten free noodles, that are so fresh that they're still doughy and sticky when you pull them out of the package, it may also have something to do with the company based out of Seattle & not having to go very far to get to Alaska. They only take about 3 minutes to cook. For this recipe I used two packages.

I need to be specific on pancetta. You can probably find in your deli section at the grocery store pre packaged packs of pancetta, thinly sliced, but you'll want to ask the deli worker to slice fresh pancetta. You'll also want to ask for a size "10" thickness cut. Or whatever the diagram at the store tells you is the thickest cut of meat.

For this recipe I ask for about a half of a pound, give or take a few ounces.

Then you'll want to cube it all up!

Then take your fresh basil, and trim the ends. Then you can either "rip" the leaves apart or just coarsely chop the leaves into large chunks. Whatever your fancy.

Measure out about 2 cups of crushed tomatoes.

In a pretty large pan, you'll want to put about 2 TBSP of olive oil. I say "about" on all the measurements because I'm quite possibly the most laziest measurer due to the fact that not all measurements when converting normal recipes to GF safe recipes are accurate. I'm sure I could get a conversion chart, but I could also just figure it out as I go. Let me quote the famous painter Bob Ross: "We dont make mistakes, just happy little accidents"

Anyhoo, back to the recipe, put the olive oil in, then add the cubes of pancetta you chopped up. & start the browning process. Essentially you don't want any fat left on those chunks by the time the recipe is ready.

like so..(below)

once they're all browned, and the fat is hard to see, add your "pinch" of red pepper flakes & your garlic.

Let that simmer for about a minute, and stir it up so the garlic and pepper flakes don't burn to the bottom of your pan.

Then dump in your 2 C of crushed tomatoes and half of your basil leaves you ripped/chopped up

Then bring the temperature down from medium to low heat and let it simmer until the noodles are ready.

I wanted to show these noodles off, because this really was a leap of faith the first time I used them. & I was so pleased.

The only thing I hate about them, is that they really really stick together. Which is a pain to pull apart.

Eventually I gave up, and just put it in the pot.

You'll want to follow the directions for the noodles of your choice on the back of the package.

Another cool thing about these noodles, is there is no corn, wheat, or rice flour in them. Which begs the question: What the hell are in these noodles? Answer: Very little. But they're good, I promise! I wouldn't endorse nasty food.

Once the noodles are cooked to your liking, add them to the sauce mix you have simmering on another burner, and the rest of your basil.

If your sauce has gotten too thick while you were waiting on your noodles, grab a measuring cup with some of the noodle water. According to the recipe I got this from, normally the starch left in the water after normal noodles cook, it will help the sauce some how, but It really doesn't make much of a difference, it's just helpful to grab it from the pan because it's really hot like your sauce- so it won't drastically change the temp of your food.