I try to mix things up for The Hungry Pinner, and this week seemed like a pasta week. With that in mind, I went hunting through my Pasta board for something interesting. Obviously, it needed to be full of things I like, but I also wanted to try something different. After all, this blog is about expanding my cooking horizons. Saucy Italian Drunken Noodles is what I ended up choosing for a few reasons. First, I’ve never tried pappardelle pasta, and I rarely cook with sausage. Those check the “different” box. The rest of the ingredients–sweet bell peppers, tomato, and white wine, to name a few– check the “things I like” box. This recipe sounds like it has the potential to become a favorite. But there’s only one way to know for sure, and that requires a trip to the market and some cooking. Let’s go!
I love using inspiration as my guide when it comes to food, the same way I try to use it when it comes to everyday living. So when I sat down to come up with a few comforting and cozy pasta recipes to share over the next few posts, I thought back on a scrumptiously unique and tasty Thai noodle dish called “Drunken” Noodles that I used to get quite often from a nearby restaurant that has since relocated, and imagined how delicious it could be to make an Italian version of the dish. Why not, right?
The Ingredients
Saucy Italian Drunken Noodles does have a fairly long list of ingredients, but it’s full of easy-to-find and relatively inexpensive ingredients. I had no trouble finding them all in a single shopping trip.
The pappardelle pasta was a little pricier than, say, spaghetti, but still affordable. How much more? We’re talking $6.99 for 12 ounces of pappardelle versus $0.99 for 16 ounces of spaghetti at Whole Foods. I wouldn’t pay that much for an everyday pasta dish, but it’s not terrible for a once-in-a-while dish.
The Process
I have to say that I thought making this recipe would be a lot more difficult than it actually was. And I have absolutely no reason behind that fear–just me being neurotic, I guess.
The instructions were pretty easy to follow, but I did have to check the author’s pictures to see how to cut the bell peppers. The list of ingredients says “thinly sliced”, and I wasn’t sure if that meant julienned strips or thin rings. Based on her pictures, I chose the julienne them. I also cut the onions into similarly long, thin strips.
Making the sauce was most of the work, but it really wasn’t difficult. It did require a lot of hands-on/active time, so I couldn’t make the pasta at the same time. The instructions were written so the sauce was prepared, then the pasta, so I wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t cook both together. I like to multitask to save time, but I totally get why I couldn’t in this recipe.
The total time for this recipe was 40 minutes from start to finish. It wasn’t quite a “quick” recipe since it was over 30 minutes, but not by too much. This could still be a weekday meal, though. You could even shave some time off by pre-slicing the bell peppers.
