Recipe What should I call this pasta sauce?

[Ellyn]

It borrows a technique from carbonara, using some basic ingredients of Hollandaise, and then at the end I just decided to turn it into an eggy sort of macaroni and cheese.

Ingredients
150 g pasta
1 egg
1 Tbsp margarine
dash of vinegar
1/8 cup each of whatever combination of cheeses you want, shredded or grated--I recommend Parmasan and/or Emmental
cayenne pepper to taste
herbs (I like thyme for this, but really anything you want can work...tarragon, rosemary, maybe even back up and boil the pasta in ginger tea, with a bay laurel leaf! Your choice.)

Directions

1. Cook pasta in salt and oil (so...I wouldn't add any salt after this, but if you want to do so then I won't stop you.)

2. In a separate bowl, crack open the egg and spoon out of the margarine. Grated cheeses can also join in at this point, in the bowl. (If you want to add black or white pepper, or even cayenne pepper at this point--go right ahead! Same with your herbs!)

3. When the pasta is freshly cooked, dump it immediately into the egg-butter bowl and
toss it so that the heat cooks the egg and melts the margarine. Add vinegar to flavor as well as denature the rest of the egg and continue tossing.

5. Sprinkle any remaining shredded or soft cheeses on top and cayenne pepper, maybe bake or toast until cheese forms a spicy, gooey crust.

(Serves one.)

 

[OhioTom76]

Interesting. I suppose I would classify it as a cheese sauce, along the lines of a mac & cheese since that's what it seems closest too. Some mac & cheese sauces include egg to help the sauce set up and become sort of like a custard texture when baked in the oven. You're not using any cream here, but you have the basic components of a cheese sauce with a form of cream (well, it's not technically dairy but Margarine/Butter) paired with cheeses. For the inclusion of vinegar, I would consider that along the lines of people adding a dash of hot sauce to their cheese sauce which also contains vinegar. Overall, it's basically a cheese sauce to me, with a higher egg ratio. Are you using the whole egg though or just the egg yolk? I'm curious how that sauce comes out if you are including the egg whites, since most sauces like this use only the yolks.

 

[Food4thought]

I like the idea of letting thehot pasta cook the egg. I don't know if that is a traditional method or an innovation.

If it's your own invention you should just call it Ellyn's egg & herb pasta or eggy cheese pasta.