Inspired by Rachael Ray on Iron Chef last night (Battle Cranberry,) and with a request to make my famous meatballs, I tried something new tonight: spaghetti boiled in red wine instead of water.
The resulting pasta was pretty tasty even without any sauce, but definitely had a "different" taste. James ate this purple pasta with normal tomato sauce, meatballs, and Parmesan cheese, and it was fantastic.
Not wanting wine to go to waste, I used the residual boiled red wine to make a garlic butter sauce. The sauce didn't mix well with the meatballs (very different flavors), but went well with the pasta alone.
Ingredients:
1 bottle red wine (I used a cheap-ish Cabernet)
2 cups water
16 oz uncooked spaghetti (1/2 box)
*Use less water if you are not cooking the whole box.
Sauce:
1/2 stick butter
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup reserved boiled red wine from cooking pasta
Salt to taste
Bring wine and water to boil in a large saucepan, salting lightly as you normally would for pasta sauce. Cook pasta according to directions on box, stirring frequently. The sugar in the red wine makes the pasta stickier and easily gets stuck to the bottom of the pan if you space out and forget to stir (as, of course, I did). When you drain the pasta, reserve at least a half a cup of wine for the sauce.
While the pasta is cooking, peel and dice the garlic. Melt 1/2 stick of butter in a large saucepan. Add garlic and cook on low heat, stirring almost constantly or the garlic will burn. The butter will be boiling and foaming. Add a little olive oil if you need more liquid. Cook until mixture just begins to brown - no more, or it will burn.
Add 1/2 cup of wine and mix well. The sauce will thicken quickly, as the wine now has starch from the cooked pasta. Add pasta, mixing until covered. Continue cooking on low until sauce is thickened to your liking. Remove from heat.
Serve to your most adventurous friends - this recipe is fun, but I wouldn't recommend it for picky eaters!
