Cooking Class with Chef Ivan Flowers - Lesson 45 Caprese Pasta Five Ways

Last week I taught you about a fabulous substitute for pasta, spaghetti squash. This week I’m going to teach you a dish made with the real stuff and give you five ways to serve it. I love a dish that once mastered can be easily transformed into many dishes. This caprese pasta is one of those dishes. As the name implies, it has the elements you would find in a classic caprese salad, tomato, basil and mozzarella, but in this dish, you will combine those elements with pasta and a delicious sauce. I have always loved the combination of the acidity of the tomato, the creaminess of the mozzarella and the brightness of the basil that is found in a caprese salad, so I thought why not make it a pasta?

Let’s get cooking!

This dish will serve four to six people. For it you will need: large sauté pan, colander, large pasta pot, one pound bow tie pasta (I like the bow tie with this sauce, but feel free to substitute your favorite pasta), one ½ tablespoons garlic puree (remember, garlic puree is equal parts raw garlic and canola oil pureed together in a blender), ½ cup chopped fresh basil, three tablespoons olive oil, ½ cup halved cherry tomatoes, ½ cup cubed fresh mozzarella, juice of one lemon, ½ cup chardonnay (if you don’t want to use wine, substitute low sodium vegetable or chicken stock), ¼ cup grated Parmesan, one tablespoon unsalted butter, salt and pepper.

Before I get into the recipe, I want to explain why using fresh mozzarella instead of regular mozzarella is important to this recipe. Fresh mozzarella melts VERY easily and for this dish, we want that because it is the gooey, melty mozzarella that takes this pasta to another level. Regular mozzarella melts, but not as easily and it also becomes congealed more quickly. So, please use the fresh mozzarella in this dish, you will be happy you did.

The first thing to do is to cook the pasta. Fill a large pasta pot with water and add plenty of salt. Remember, this is the only chance you get to actually season the pasta. Cook the pasta to al dente, drain in a colander, reserving a cup of the pasta water, drizzle with a little olive oil and set aside. You reserve some pasta water just in case you want to thin out your sauce. The pasta water is perfect for this because it contains starch from the pasta and lots of good, salty flavor.

Now, put the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat and add in the olive oil, butter and garlic puree. Why do you use both olive oil and butter? Because I want both the fruitiness the olive oil provides, along with the richness the butter provides, it creates a fabulous richness in the sauce. Cook this for two minutes and then add the chardonnay. Let that reduce by half and then fold in your cooked pasta, mozzarella, tomatoes and lemon juice. Stirring the pasta, cook for two minutes. Next, add the basil and Parmesan.  At this point, if you want your pasta saucier, add in some of that reserved pasta water. Finally, salt and pepper to taste.

That’s it! Did I mention that this is a super quick dish?

Now that you have the caprese pasta down, I will give you some easy add-ins that can make this one pasta recipe turn into five pasta dishes. The first is to make this puttanesca pasta.  Puttanesca sauce originated in the mid-20^th century and translated means, “In the garbage style.”  The components are garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, anchovies, capers and olives. So to turn this caprese pasta into a spin on puttanesca pasta you will need: ½ cup chopped Kalamata olives, two tablespoons minced white anchovies (you can omit these if you absolutely hate them, but I suggest you try the dish with them included at least once) and one tablespoon rinsed capers. You rinse the capers because you want to remove that brine they are packed in, if you did not rinse them, they would be overpoweringly salty. Cook the caprese pasta just as the recipe and after it is cooked, simply fold in the olives, capers and anchovies.

The next pasta is shrimp caprese pasta. I like shrimp in this pasta because the basil, garlic, wine and lemon really make the flavor of the shrimp sing. For this you will need: one pound U-12 (12 shrimp to a pound) shrimp that has been peeled, shelled and deveined, two tablespoons olive oil, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper. In a sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the o live oil and shrimp. Stirring the shrimp, cook for four to five minutes, until the shrimp just turns pink. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Now, simply add them into your finished caprese pasta.

Who doesn’t like pasta and meatballs? The next pasta is meatball caprese. For this follow the directions in my previous Cooking Class on meatballs and then top the caprese pasta with those delicious balls.

The last version is chicken caprese. For this you will need either a rotisserie chicken or a roasted chicken. You will want one ½ cups of the chicken (I like both white and dark meat) cut into chunks. Add this chicken to the pasta at the same time you add the tomatoes, cheese, etc. Then finish cooking as per the recipe.

There you have it, caprese pasta five ways. But don’t stop here; make it caprese pasta ten ways. You can add marinara sauce or cream sauce. You can make it even cheesier with some ricotta. Have fun and remember, as with any technique or recipe, the most important component is the cook’s heart. The heart is what helps you create delicious meals you’ll never forget.