hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com
with broken spaghetti risotto we
know you're tired of all your pasta
side dishes
you need something new and exciting so
ironically we're gonna fix that problem
with something broken but before we
get to the pasta we got to talk about
stock so ideally you're going to use a
really nice homemade chicken broth which
is what i have simmering here all this
was with some leftover garlic and herb
chicken
and by the way if you remember our
broth lesson
i told you not let it boil cause it'll get
cloudy I let mine boil
for this dish it's not really going to matter
but i did want to illustrate that because
that's what will happen if your heats too high
when you're cooking a stock
and of course if you don't have homemade no
worries just get a nice all-natural
chicken broth
and you'll be fine
alright so our broth is ready we're also going to need
some of this cut spaghetti
which is more commonly referred to as
broken spaghetti because most people
don't buy it like this
they break their own up
but we need one cup of broken spaghetti we're going
to head over to the stove where I have a pan
on medium heat I'm going to put one glug of
olive oil in I'm going to dump in a cup of
broken spaghetti and what we're gonna do
is slowly or not that slowly but kinda
slowly toast that over medium heat
until it turns a beautiful golden nutty
brown
now this is one of those recipes thats super easy
and relatively fast
this is probably gonna be like fifteen
minutes start to finish but you can't
walk away
if you walk away from that pasta you're
gonna cook it too dark and it'll kind of
reck the recipe
so under toasting it is fine but if
you get it too dark brown it's going to have
kind of an off taste should be very
careful you want to stir continually
until you have something that's pretty
much exactly that color
alright so that's looking perfect at that point I'm going
to toss in some minced garlic and just give that a very
quick thirty second sizzle in that
broken spaghetti and then we're gonna
immediately dump in the first addition
of hot broth
so my stock pot is right next to this
pan
I dumped in about a half a cup I'm going to
raise the heat up to medium high
so I'm going to put the first edition in and I'm going
to stir stir stir
that's gonna absorb and soak in relatively
quick
maybe two three minutes at which point I'm
going to add another splash of stock and
we're gonna do the same thing until all
the stocks added and i'm gonna give you
all the measurements of course so the
reason this technique is referred to as a
risotto quote unquote
is because we're using that same technique of
dumping some stock in cooking it until
it's absorbed dumping more in cooking it etc
okay so same drill here you're
just gonna cook stirring over medium
high heat and when it looks like most of
the liquids absorbed you add a little
more if it needs it of course you're
gonna stop when the pasta has the
texture you're looking for
so I believe my cooking time when i started
adding the liquid
was about ten minutes I know the package
says like six but it's gonna take longer
to cook than if you were to just boil it in
water but don't worry about time again
you're going until the stocks absorbed
and the pasta is tender
and of course depending on the size your
pan and how high your heat is
you may need a little more or a little
less broth but that's okay that's
cooking
we're always adjusting as we go
and when it just almost look like it was
starting to dry out that's the perfect
time to give it a little taste a little
test
at this point i usually turn my heat
down to medium low so things don't go
so quick
so I'm going to give this a little taste for salt
i'm also going to check how close the pasta is
so mine was just to that al dente
point I enjoy
so I'm gong to add some salt here I'm also going
to add some red pepper flakes you can of course
use cayenne or of course like a million other
things
and once you've adjusted your seasoning
you're pretty much done
again my heat is on medium low here and
just giving it a stir
and I'm just waiting for that perfect point
where the broth is absorbed
the pasta is cooked and it looks like that
now to finish we're going to turn the heat off
we're going to add some fresh italian parsley and
some cheese, I'm using pecorino romano
you can use reggiano parmesan of course
and once that's stirred in you're done
and by the way don't think that shine
is just from the olive oil there's really
not that much olive oil in this
that's actually the rich reduced chicken
broth
kind of coating those noodles with that
beautiful sticky goodness
so awesome
what an interesting and fun to make and
delicious to eat pasta dish maybe a little
more cheese over the top up to you
you're the boss of your broken spaghetti
alright let me take a taste of this, just so so good
very flavorful
all those noodles are separated
they're not stuck together
has a nice to toothsomeness to it
and toasting it before we added the liquid
gives it this great little subtle toasty
flavor it's really really beautiful so i
just did a small portion as a quick side
dish you could also make a larger
portion
throw in some veggies and some shredded chicken
and you would have
a fantastic full meal
so anyway i hope you give that a try
head over to foodwishes.com for
all the ingredient amounts and more info as
usual
and as always enjoy!
