Friday, March 11, 2011

FFwD: Beggar's Linguine

This week's French Fridays with Dorie, Beggar's Linguine, was...interesting.  I loved the story behind it - it's named after the four mendicant (begging) monastic orders, with each order being represented by a different fruit or nut.  Dried figs, raisins, pistachios, and almonds are sauteed in browned butter and then tossed with linguine, Parmesan cheese, and a little orange zest.  In principle, I had high hopes for this dish - I do really love sweet and savory dishes, and I often like dishes with unusual flavor combinations.  In this case, however, the combination just didn't work for me, mostly because the pasta was just too rich.  I'm all for butter, but along with nuts and cheese it was a little overwhelming.  I think this dish could be saved (for me, at least) by adding some sort of acid - maybe balsamic vinegar or lemon juice - and omitting the orange zest.  Some veggies would also likely help cut through the richness of the dish.  Overall, though, I'm definitely glad I tried this dish - it was inexpensive (yay bulk bins at the grocery!) and made for a quick lunch, and it was interesting to try out new flavors.


Here's the original recipe on Dorie's website.

10 comments:

  1. Your dish looks great! I'm still on the fence about this, though the sweet bits of fig were a nice surprise. Great post!

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  2. This one had people pretty much on one side of the fence or the other. It does look lovely, though. I think it could stand a cut back on the butter to lighten it up.

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  3. Oh well... that's too bad. I hope you are looking forward to next week's salted butter breakaways!

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  4. Sorry to hear it wasn't a hit for you. I think you could cut the butter in half, add a shot of vinegar, and have something you might like.

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  5. I loved the flavors in this dish except the amount of butter it calls for. I think you could make this with half of the butter and have great results.

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  6. I agree about the acid - that's just what it needed! Couldn't really taste the zest but maybe some lemon juice or vinegar would've been perfect.

    Your photo look delicious! :)

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  7. Yeah, I agree with you. This looked interesting, and I just couldn't tell whether I would love it or not until I actually tried it. It was just okay, nothing I'll repeat, but glad I tried it. It does look good though.

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  8. I agree, orange zest is maybe to much, but your pasta is mouth watering anyway !!

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  9. I'm with you. Never been a fan of super rich pastas. For example, I could never finish a plate of alfredo without feeling ill. Your suggestions for balancing out the richness sound good though.

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  10. Great photo. I soaked my raisins in port and I think that helped cut some of the richness.

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