champagne pasta

When I think of a way to make a pasta recipe based on the featured ingredient of the month(which, this month, is champagne), I think of two different methods to combine the featured ingredient and a pasta dish:

1. Make the pasta from scratch and put the featured ingredient in the pasta batter.
2. Boil some premade pasta in the featured ingredient if it happens to be a liquid.

As you can tell, I chose option 2 for this recipe, and squid ink fettucine is what I had in my pantry. In my research for this recipe, I found a recipe from http://bigblackdogs.net/champagne-pasta/ that happened to cook pasta using option 2, except they used pecans instead of peanuts, which is what I also had in my pantry.

In the link for the pasta, they recommended toasting the peanuts in the microwave for 25 minutes! That's way too much for any ingredient you put in the microwave, so I decided to just toast the peanuts for 1 minute and it sufficed.

Remember I said there was going to be one recipe this month using actual champagne? Well this is the recipe. When I tasted the champagne-soaked pasta, it tasted exactly like sparkling white grape juice. How uncanny.

Most people I know put tomato sauce on top of their pasta but I do not recommend doing that for this recipe- it'll just overpower any champagne flavor to the pasta. Besides, the pasta is nice and moist as it is from being cooked in champagne.

This recipe is a good date night recipe since it is so fancy, what with the usage of the champagne. Maybe whenever I find a boyfriend again, I can cook this for him. :(

I thought the champagne was going to boil out in the cooking process, but at some point(after 8 minutes) you realize the pasta might get overcooked(I used a type of pasta that cooks in just 3 minutes), so it's probably best to
just drain the champagne using a colander, just like how you drain water from pasta. You'll still get the champagne flavor, provided you do not pour tomato sauce on top of the pasta.

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

2 large saucepans(you could only use one and put the parboiled pasta into a bowl or onto a plate while you're washing out your sole saucepan)
A large bowl
A frying pan
A spatula
A colander for draining
2 spoons for tossing the pasta(I only used 1 in the video, but you really should use two spoons for tossing pasta)

For the dish:

You will need:

1/2 cup of peanuts
Enough water to fill a saucepan almost to the top
2 1/2 cups of squid ink pasta(or any premade pasta, really)
750 ml of champagne
Olive oil
1 diced onion
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of parsley
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of basil
Pinch of oregano
Parmesan cheese to taste

1. Toast the peanuts in the microwave for 1 minute. Set peanuts to the side for now.
2. Fill a saucepan with enough water to fill it almost to the top and bring water to a boil.
3. Once the water is boiling, put the pasta in the boiling water and parboil it(partially cook it) for 1 minute(or 1/3 of however long it takes to usually cook your pasta).
4. Drain out water using a colander. Let the pasta sit in the colander to cool off for now.
5. Pour the champagne into another saucepan. Bring champagne to a boil on the stove.
6. Once the champagne is boiling, put the parboiled pasta into the saucepan. Boil the pasta for 7-8 minutes.
7. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain out champagne using a colander. Pour pasta into a large bowl.
8. Pour olive oil into a frying pan. Heat up the oil. Once the oil is heated up, pour the diced onions into the frying pan. Sautee for a few seconds first.
9. Put all spices into the frying pan. Stir the spices around with the diced onions and continue sauteeing until the onions are translucent.
10. Top the pasta with the sauteed onions, toasted peanuts, and Parmesan cheese. Toss the pasta using two spoons to distribute the garnishes into the pasta.
11. Serve with garlic bread if you wish. Bon appetit!