It’s Spaghetti Time! But What Sauce?
I’m sure you’d have guessed some sorta pasta from the hint I gave y’all last week. That was the easy part. The hard part was to guess the specifics of the pasta. You still have time to guess after looking keenly at the cover image. Got it?
No?
Okay, let me reveal it. It’s a version of Linguine in Bloody Mary sauce that Gordon Ramsay makes. The actual recipe on his YouTube channel is quite vague, unfortunately. And it’s not vegetarian either. So, I made it into my own version.
Why did I choose this recipe?
It’s not that I cannot make pasta on my own. I don’t wanna boast or flaunt, but I can make 7 to 8 different sauces. I also have 4 different pasta at home — fusilli, penne, farfalle, and spaghetti. But there’s a connection with this recipe that pushed me to have the pasta armory I have today.
During the pandemic, when everyone was locked into their homes, I found solace in cooking. I started watching Chefs on YouTube. You had nothing else to do — no college, travel, nothing. Wake up, get ready, work on yourself, read, meditate, work out, eat, sleep, and repeat.
I was exploring Gordon Ramsay’s channel for some vegetarian recipes to try. If you know him, you’d know how hard it is to find something vegetarian by him. After an eternity of scrolling, I came across the title — Grilled Lobster with Bloody Mary Linguine.
I thought if I could skip or somehow substitute lobster with something vegetarian, I’d have something to try. So, I did.
And when I started exploring and cooking several cuisines, this was the first exotic pasta recipe I’d made. I’ve good experience cooking it. So far, I’ve made it 7–8 times. I’ve made it for a bunch of friends as well, and everyone’s praised it to the moon.
Let’s get started then, shall we? And I’ll tell you everything I’ve changed in this recipe as we go through it.
What is Bloody Mary though?
Cocktail enthusiasts will definitely know about it. It’s almost that cocktail but transformed into a pasta sauce. I made a virgin Bloody Mary. I live in a dry state, and I’ve nothing else to say about it.
Here’s everything you need to make it
So, I’ll do this — I’ll list down the ingredients that Gordon used, and I’ll point out the ones that I substituted with something local. If I’ve skipped something entirely in my recipe, I’ll mention that as well.
The list below is for two portions — I made it for me and my sister.
- Spaghetti — around 150 grams. Linguine is not available here. It’s just a thinner version of spaghetti.
- 3 medium-sized tomatoes
- 2 medium or 3 small-sized onions
- 7–8 garlic cloves
- Crushed black peppercorns
- Tabasco Sauce
- Worcestershire sauce, but I substituted it with soy sauce. Why? I’ll tell you later.
- Celery salt — skipped it. It isn’t available where I live. And honestly, I didn’t feel like I missed it.
- Sugar — a quarter of a teaspoon
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Parmesan cheese
- Cilantro leaves
Okay, so what all prep did I do?
It’s easy. And I don’t follow the recipe to the T. The first time I made it, I just went through the video and cooked with my feelings. It may sound like a flex, but I don’t even need to watch the video now — I remember the whole thing.
I started by cooking the spaghetti
Cooking spaghetti is foolproof. You just gotta follow the instructions on the packet. Take around a liter of water, add a spoonful of salt, and let it come to a boil. My spaghetti needed a cooking time of 10 minutes. So I let it cook in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained it. I ran it under cold water immediately to stop the cooking.
Now, I’ve seen people add olive oil to the water in which they are cooking the spaghetti. I find it dumb.
I’ve tried it, and let me tell you, it’s purely a waste of olive oil. Instead, I drizzled the drained spaghetti with a little bit of olive oil and seasoned it with a pinch of salt. It keeps the spaghetti from sticking into a lumpy mess.
Also, I kept some of that pasta water aside. I’ll use it to thicken the sauce at the end.
Then, I chopped the onions, garlic and cilantro
The important thing to keep in mind here is to chop the onion slices long and even. So, they’ll cook evenly. You can also dice them fine. But I like the mouthfeel of long slices, perfectly caramelized.
For garlic, chop it as fine as you can. That’ll help release its flavor quickly.
Cilantro — we only need the leaves. Pluck and wash them, and keep them aside for garnishing at the end.
Tomatoes?
I cut them into big chunks, pureed them in a food processor, and kept them aside. And we are done with the prep.
La dolce vita — putting it all together
You’ll feel like this is the easiest pasta recipe ever. And I promise you one thing, it doesn’t feel easy on the tastebuds. It feels rich, flavourful, and unlike any other pasta you’ve had before.
In a pan, I added some olive oil and let it come to a temperature. As soon as it was hot, I went in with the finely chopped garlic. I swirled it for 15 seconds and immediately added onions. I seasoned them with salt and black pepper.
Then, I drizzled some Tabasco sauce. This is the only thing that’ll add spice to the dish. And it’s spicy, the sauce. So, be careful with the amount you add. My blisters were almost gone, so I added a generous amount for some fire, hehe!
Now, according to Mr. Ramsay’s recipe, we add Worcestershire sauce here. But that doesn’t fit into my vegetarian diet.
Worcestershire sauce typically adds umami with a bit of tang. So, I replaced it with a combination of soy sauce and vinegar. I believe it worked.
I added soy sauce after Tabasco sauce. I’ll add vinegar once the onions are caramelized with the combination of sauces.
We want onions to release their sweetness. We want them nicely caramelized. So, let them cook, release their water and reduce. Everything should be a nice deep red gel.
At this point, Mr. Ramsay adds vodka to deglaze the pan and add that distinct flavor. I live in a dry state, and I don’t consume alcohol. That’s all I can say about it.
Once the onions were caramelized and reduced, I added the tomato puree, followed by some salt, a touch of sugar, and 10–20 ml of vinegar. I let it reduce and thicken as well. I added the pasta water I kept to help the thickening process.
Now is the time to check for seasonings.
Once thickened, I added the cooked spaghetti and mixed it well with a pair of forks. Spatula doesn’t help mix the spaghetti, and I don’t have a pair of tongs. I make do and improvise with whatever I have in the kitchen.
Parmesan cheese comes into the picture here. And trust me, it transforms the dish. I grated it into the sauce to make it extra creamy and rich.
Be generous with it. I know it’s expensive, but the flavor is worth it.
I mixed everything well and covered it with a lid to let the flavors combine and do their magic. After 2–3 minutes, I lifted the lid and added the cilantro leaves as a garnish. You can also grate parmesan cheese with cilantro leaves.
I didn’t. I prefer it in the sauce than as a garnish. I cut off the heat and added a healthy drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
If you aren’t drizzling extra-virgin olive oil over your pasta at the end, you’re missing out big time! The smell, the richness, the flavors, uff!
And that’s it. That’s how I twisted Mr. Ramsay’s recipe of Bloody Mary Linguine into my own version — vegetarian and with the ingredients available to me.
Impact of this recipe
When I decided to make it for the first time and had to find substitutes for a few ingredients, I took it as a challenge. And that challenge opened doors to so many new creations that I can claim of my own.
It made my cooking sense better. It helped me create and work out combinations.
So, what’s up for next week?
Next week, we’re back in India. Where? Well, start guessing. It’s a one-pot meal. That’s the teaser/hint for y’all. Keep cooking, keep experimenting, and keep exploring food combinations. That’s how most dishes are brought to life!
I cannot wait to hear your takes and feedback on this recipe. Comment and let me know. Follow me if you loved what you just read.
See y’all in the next one.
Happy cooking!
