Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Lasagnette with cannellini, water chestnut & dried scallop

When my mother-in-law was a little girl, her parents, both Italians, cooked beans if not every day would be every other day, in soup or in pasta. Those days they hardly afforded meat so beans became the main source of protein in their diet. Putting beans in pasta is a double-up of starch, I know it probably sounds odd to most of us. But after first tried I actually look forward to it now.

Lasagnette is flat noodle cut out from lasagna sheet. You don't need to be fancy like me to make it from scratch. These home-made colored noodles I made sometimes ago had been in my freeze for too long, now it's time to get rid of them. There's no sauce but only "seasoned" oil to flavor the whole dish, so I looked for something salty with a taste of ocean. Dried scallop (found at Asian food store) tastes much more intense than the fresh one, anchovy would be a nice substitute I think. With water chestnut for some crunch, and cannellini for nourishment, this dish is totally satisfactory to me.

Recipe (yield: one-bowl meal for myself)
  • lasagnette or any flat noodle
  • 1/3 cup cooked cannellini (mine were saved from making minestrone soup the other day)
  • 3 water chestnut, diced
  • 9 small dried scallops
  • 2 big cloves of garlic, finely diced
  • a pinch of red chili pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbp lemon juice
  • olive oil
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • parsley

Direction:

  • Rinse the dried scallops, soak them in a small bowl of hot water for an hour... save the water.
  • Please plan ahead... cooking fresh pasta only take 3 minutes or so, and the saute will take 3 minutes, I want them to be done at the same time. Anyway, bring a big pot of water to boil (time to start saute), add salt and pasta, cook unit the noodles are almost done as they will be cooked a bit more in a frying pan.
  • In a skillet, drizzle a generous amount of olive oil, saute the garlic, red chili pepper and scallops over low heat for 1 - 2 minutes, raise up the heat, add cannellini, salt to taste, toss for another minute. Add in drained pasta and the scallop water if the noodles look too dry, toss. Last minute add water chestnut and lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle more extra virgin olive oil to serve, garnish with parsley.

I'd like to contribute this recipe to Presto Pasta Night, the event is created by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. Please head over to her site on this Friday for the round-up.

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26 comments:

Warda said...

I am the first again to comment.. What an honnor!
What can I say Gattina, once again you amazed me with your creativity and your goegeous pictures. I would Love to get rid of your lasagnette for you anytime you want.

Ruth Daniels said...

What a colorful and festive looking dish. One of these days I'm going to buy a pasta maker and then perhaps I can make some cute pasta too.

Thanks so much for being such a great part of Presto Pasta Nights,.

FH said...

So colorful.I have never seen two colored Pasta before!Man! You come out with most delicious dishes!
Happy Mother's day.Enjoy:))

Callipygia said...

I am so intrigued with your asian/italian fusion cooking...dried scallops (yum). What does your mother-in-law think?

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Oh, Gattina, I can't tell you how many times my mom and mother-in-law tell us stories about their Italian mothers who ate beans with virtually everything. They had them in soups, with stale bread for a snack, and even for breakfast when food was really running out. Growing up in large families, it was always an inexpensive and filling way to feed everybody. I'm sure they would be thoroughly impressed with your beautiful dish.

Suganya said...

WOW!....Wat a colourful dish.. Beautiful coloured pasta...I like it very much.

Julie said...

What a beautiful looking recipe, really simple yet nutritious and flavorful.

Unknown said...

Lasagnette - I love the name. And the colors of this pasta simply tantalize my tastebuds :)

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous, GORGEOUS dish! Those flavours and colours - your presentation leaves me breathless!

Mandy said...

wow! what an intriguing use of dried scallop. I must try it one of these days! You have a pretty blog!

Anh said...

This has all of my fav ingredients! A simpple but lovely recipe. I tend to cook something like this for lunch when I am at home by myself.

Brilynn said...

That dish is so beautiful! I drool over your posts everyday.

Peabody said...

Where does one find dried scallop...this is new to me.

Anonymous said...

What a marvelous looking dish! I love the way you didn't cover the gorgeous pasta with a sauce that would obscure its beauty. That photo is so pretty it almost brings tears to my eyes!

Lis said...

Wow that's gorgeous! I like the idea of pasta & beans.. you can never have too much starch or too many carbs, in my opinion! heheee

I especially like that it's not all covered in a heavy sauce, I'm becoming more and more addicted to light sauces or just infused oils with my pasta. Yum!

xoxo

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

That is so beautiful ... again. I love it when I've already done the work and just have to reward of enjoying!

Freya said...

Beautiful pasta! I first thought it was very thinly sliced smoked duck breast, it looks almost the same colour! But pasta is even better for me!

Anonymous said...

Oh Gattina! I loved this pasta since the first! It reminds me of prosciutto...and that makes me love it even more :) I have never had pasta with beans, but I do like beans very much so I am sure I will enjoy this!

Anonymous said...

oh yumyum! I love the look of these pasta. Makes me hungry so early in the am!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful dish! I'm totally in love with the striped noodles. I think it's so cool! I still need to buy a pasta maker so I can try making fresh pasta.

Passionate Eater said...

I had never heard of "lasagnette" before this. Wow, so interesting! And I love the combination of the pasta with water chestnuts and scallops. I can imagine the flavors and textures of this dish would burst in your mouth!

Sia said...

two coloured pasta??? beautiful as usual...

Bong Mom said...

Your pasta looks so pretty, bean or no bean

Anonymous said...

wow, dried scallops in a pasta dish !! I could never think of that, thanks for sharing, sweet !:)

Gattina Cheung said...

Rose, thanks for your support sweetie! *big hug*

Ruth, interesting thing is, after I bought my machine, I found out my favorite shapes of my pasta don't need a machine to make :D But I still love my pasta machine.

Asha, Happy Mother's Day!

Calli, my mother-in-law isn't any seafood's fan (psst... both she and her son freak out by cholesterol anyway). So you know how happy I am everytime I order seafood, keekee.

Susan, right, I remember bean-spread too! I don't live with my mother-in-law, and only recently she starts to tell us more about her childhood. I will beg her to tell us more next time when we visit :D

Sukanya, thank you! Just like me, always admire your country's cruisine, very pretty, very festive!

Julie, thank you so much for your sweet words!

Angie, I love the name too! I'm bad in memorizing foreign names, but will pay efford to remember this one :D

Ellie, oh you so sweet darling!

novice baker, thanks for dropping by :D

Anh, thank you my friend! I don't always cook bean though, so happened days ago I made soup :D

Brilynn, oh you sweetie :D

Peabody, every Asian food stores should sell dried scallops. My husband said it had a kind of smokey flavor.

Sher, thanks for your sweet words! You are right, it's better not to cover the pasta with sauce, otherwise it looks like a big mess :D

Lis, me too! I addict to infused oil, so robust so spicy!

Tanna, thank you my dear! I love to do thing ahead (actually only food :D). Too much stress in the last minute I'd lose my appetise :D

Freya, it has been a looooooooong time since I had duck. Maybe I'd dream of roasted duck and pasta tonigh :D

Joey, I luuuuuuuve prosciutto! Wish it less pricey here. Thanks for your compliment sweetie :D

Bea, thank you darling :D

Amy, I also use my machine to make Chinese noodles... maybe Japanese types later. You'll love it :D

Passionate Eater, the water chestnut gives out the fantastic texture in this dish! Try it :D

Sia, thank you sweetie!

Sandeepa, oh you are so sweet to me. Thank you!

MeltingWok, I beg you have more treasure in your pantry :D Thanks for your kind words sweetie!

Anonymous said...

This looks really delicious. I haven't heard of dried scallops, though. Gorgeous photos!