Spices for pasta side dish?

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I tried a simple pasta side dish yesterday to experiment with flavors, with pasta, butter, garlic and basil, next to chicken liver in tomato sauce with bay leaves. The combination worked well for me, but I found that I especially liked the smell of garlic and basil together, so I'll have to look into what I could try with this in the future.
 
I tried a simple pasta side dish yesterday to experiment with flavors, with pasta, butter, garlic and basil, next to chicken liver in tomato sauce with bay leaves. The combination worked well for me, but I found that I especially liked the smell of garlic and basil together, so I'll have to look into what I could try with this in the future.
First rule: pasta isn't a side dish. You first eat pasta, then if you want what you call the main dish. There is some recipe where pasta is both the first dish and the the main dish ("piatto unico"), very rich, but real italian pasta is itself a main dish.
Said this, you could try a good fresh tomato sauce: you fry garlic and canned anchovies in little oil (oliva oil. Butter isn't good for this recipe), then you add slided tomato. When tomato is a little cooked (not too much, it has to be quite compact) you take away the garlic, add the pasta very "al dente" (not too much cooked) with very few cooking water. You finish to cook it, then add few oliva oil. Red pepper is really good for this dish.
 
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Thanks for the suggestion Fos, I'll keep it in mind. I wasn't looking to cook an Italian dish, and maybe it's just the term "pasta" that implied this. I could have said "flour and egg based unleavened dough", but then I suppose some people would have been scratching their heads in confusion :P.
 
Thanks for the suggestion Fos, I'll keep it in mind. I wasn't looking to cook an Italian dish, and maybe it's just the term "pasta" that implied this. I could have said "flour and egg based unleavened dough", but then I suppose some people would have been scratching their heads in confusion :P.

You could also say noodles :)
 
Thanks for the suggestion Fos, I'll keep it in mind. I wasn't looking to cook an Italian dish, and maybe it's just the term "pasta" that implied this. I could have said "flour and egg based unleavened dough", but then I suppose some people would have been scratching their heads in confusion :P.
You can call it in the way you prefer, but eating pasta as a side dish you ruin both pasta and the other dish. Listen a suggestion by someone who eats pasta every day since was a child :chef:
My spaghetti are really better than my english :LOL:
 
My Brother told me to be softer, to not be a food nazi. If you want use pasta as a side dish, use the sauce of the main plate: another sauce in the pasta would ruin both.
I hope to not have been too huge, but pasta is my first love.
 
Don't worry Fos87, I'm sure we all understand your passion for pasta! Usually for my midday meal, pasta will be the main. But for an evening repast, pasta becomes the side. That's just me, of course. :innocent:

Gads, I sooooo dislike the touch pad!

But Fos87, you have to realize that many countries have their own version of pasta and/or noodles. Asian, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, and of course :LOL: ITALIAN.

North Americans often use pasta as the starch part of their meals, as a substitute for potatoes or bread and/or rice.
 
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