Boiling the Pasta Noodles Correctly

Whenever I hit the kitchen to cook a pasta dish, I often get frustrated because I screw up the noodles. They always end up kind of softer than usual and I hate it! Even when I use that special kind of pasta that is said to stay firm even when overcooked, I still can't quite get it right.

Recently, I was dining at a local Italian restaurant and ordered Aglio Olio e Peperoncino. The noodles was just perfectly cooked! It was firm but soft enough to not fall off the fork as you eat it. I was stunned. And inspired - I HAVE to make my noodles as firm as this! I realized I at least had to try.

And so, as I was attempting to make my own Charlie Chan Chicken pasta from a recipe I found online, I also made it a point to look for tips on how to boil the perfect Spaghetti noodles found this article from eHow. It seemed really easy to follow.

Deriving the technique from the article I mentioned above, what I did was the following:

Steps on boiling the pasta noodles correctly

1.  Boil the water
2. Add in salt (I just used regular salt, not iodized. Although I'm pretty sure the latter will be fine)
3. Add olive oil (I used about 2 table spoons of it)
4. I made sure it was still boiling as I placed the noodles. As I did so, I slowly bended them to make sure the top part of the noodles were completely immersed.
5. Cover it up and boil it for a full minute.
6. Bring the fire to its lowest setting and cover your pot with the lid
7. Let is sit for 10 minutes. I made sure I would stir it up a couple of times to be sure they're evenly cooked.
8. After which, I took it out of the pot and poured it in a colander and swished it around to prevent sticking together of noodles.

So that's it! It went pretty well. The noodles were a lot firmer than the previous ones I've cooked. YahoO! Hope this tip will work well with you guys as well.

How to Make Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan Pasta

Charlie Chan Chicken pasta is a recipe by Yellow Cab Pizza Co. It is a sweet and spicy type of pasta. I'm not sure why they named it after a fictional character but they may have done so because of this pasta's Chinese ingredients. Its creators may have wanted to emphasize that origin.

So anyway, I fell in love with this dish from the very first time we ordered it through Yellow Cab delivery. I remember that day clearly. I was watching the film Eat Pray Love. In the "Eat" part of the movie, Julia Roberts, who played the main character, was in Italy and was devouring in pizza and gelato and yes...pasta! In the middle of watching the close-up pasta scenes, I hit pause and rushed to my sister and asked her - would you like to Yellow Cab? I always knew she'd say yes anytime. LOL! And so we ordered a box of their pizzas AND the Charlie Chan pasta. After that, it was on my fave list.


A couple of days ago I was craving for it again. But for some reason, wanted to cook, instead of just buy it. And so just looked up the ingredients online and came across the Charlie Chan recipe from food.com. I realized how easily I'd find the ingredients and hit the mall the day after to look for them.

The recipe from food.com will give you a finished product that isn't at all spicy. The original Charlie Chan pasta always made me wanna drink soda or water in between devouring in it. But one could eat this food.com version quite quickly without blowing any spiciness off. So I'd suggest that if you want a really spicy Charlie Chan, add more chili-garlic sauce. Here's is the slightly modified Charlie Chan recipe.

Click here to view recipe >>

How to Make White Puttanesca

It's funny because I didn't even know that there actually is a recipe named White Puttanesca until a certain random and unplanned cooking session by my apartment mate. She was actually cooking a red-sauce pasta when she had leftover noodles and capers. She didn't know what to do with it and asked if my chef brother-in-law ever happened to have leftover anchovies. When I went to check on the fridge, he indeed had a can left! And so she thought of putting together the anchovies and capers and the leftover noodles and whoala! I had pasta nirvana while eating it! My apartment mate didn't know what to name it. She also didn't know that the White Puttanesca name existed.

White Puttanesca Pasta

After that incident, I would look for pasta with capers and anchovies in it. It was practically obsession, I could easily say. I went to an Italian restaurant and asked the waitress if they had any pasta with capers and anchovies. She said yes and that it was called Pasta ala Puttanesca. That's what I ordered and went on pasta nirvana for the second time. I went home and told my friend that I already had a name for her pasta - White Puttanesca and put it on my food blog in post entitled Home Made Pasta - White Puttanesca. Later on I would make my own Puttanesca, the red one. But that wouldn't be for another blog entry. For now, here's my friend's recipe for White Puttanesca. She also wrote it about and called it Pasta ala Capers & Anchovies.

Click here to view recipe >>