March 28, 2012

Linguine Nests

Wow, can we say normal-food  food rut? Sometimes I wonder...
why can't I just eat food normally like everyone else.
Why do I always want to try to make it from scratch or in a different way?

I guess it keeps it interesting and fun?!!! or I'm very weird!

So keeping up with my cultivate and change it up rut theme-
I decided to make Chicken Parmesan the other night and decided to make
linguine nests. I made the pasta noodles (linguine) literally shaped into bird's nests!

This is great because it uses your muffin/cupcake pans as double duty which is
always a bonus when you can use an item or appliance for multiple things.



So simply boil some pasta and strain it.


 I also took one egg and beat the sucker up, I mean the egg.


I filled the muffin tins with linguine and then brushed the beaten egg on top with a brush. You want the
egg to be on and in there to help the pasta form/bake better but at the same time you don't want the egg to cook separately on top of the noodles so make sure the egg is brushed on rather than a little puddle on top.


 Like this picture... you can't even see the egg but the whole egg is mixed in there
with the linguine nests.


After it was in the oven on broil for about 10 minutes, I took the pan out and added
a little bit of shredded mozzarella and the heat of the nests melted the cheese right away
while sitting on the counter.


It definitely helped my pasta norm-rut. They really did look like little nests.
I added a little marinara sauce and it was a good Italian food night!



I think next time I will add some roasted garlic pieces in between the pasta
when it goes into the muffin tin.