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Celebrities, they are just like us, only famous. But do they know how to make good pasta? I'll try to figure it out. Today I'm reviewing five pasta recipes from the stars. It's either their favorite dish or a recipe they make themselves. Will it be delicious? Is it worth trying to recreate them? Will you feel closer to your favorite star? And does it matter at all? In the end, does anything matter? The answers to this and much more are here, with Babish. This is life itself. It is the breath that sustains life. Every atom in your body was once a meal you ate. Food gives itself completely to become you.
Thus, by consuming it, you absorb all that underlies the great alchemy around which This can be heated up in about, uh, 3 minutes. Already in 30 states and that's not the limit. Follow the link in the description to see if this is available in your region. The first will be A quote from Men's Health reads: "A pile of spaghetti, half a stick of butter, lots of sea salt, scrambled eggs, and a jar of caviar on top." We call it eggs on eggs. This is a real bomb. I have to say, I'm not thrilled with the idea of scrambled eggs on pasta, but hey, let's try it. So, I'm making pasta. I fry the eggs so that the yolk remains runny, save a little water after cooking
for emulsion, drain the pasta and to this half pound of linguine I add 4 tablespoons of oil, a generous pinch of salt and a quarter cup of the water in which the pasta was cooked. I stir everything together vigorously to create an emulsified butter sauce. I add more water as needed until it's nice and creamy. Then I put it on a plate with a fried egg and a big spoonful of sturgeon caviar. Well, let's see what happens, I'll just mix it all together. This seems like the right move. So, I'm just going to cut the egg as thin as I can and spread the roe evenly, and I have to say, it turns out pretty cool. Raw egg yolk is a very common practice for truffle pasta. The heat from
the pasta itself cooks it slightly, creating an even creamier sauce, almost like the consistency of carbonara. And caviar here is just a welcome addition. I'm not thrilled with the egg whites floating around in there, but honestly, I don't care. The only missing ingredient is Jason Momoa's money to afford to add caviar to everything. Okay, sorry to say it, but it's Taylor Swift time. It seems she loves making real spaghetti meatballs according to Ina Garten's recipe, but in her own way. to find out if it's tasty. Let's start with 2 pounds (about 900 g) of ground beef. This is the first deviation from Aina's recipe, which
calls for a classic mix of beef, pork, and veal. So this is like a step backwards. Let's see what happens. To this meat we add one and a half cups of Italian spiced breadcrumbs. Another departure from Aina, who adds fresh white breadcrumbs made from whole slices of bread. We see, uh, some simplifications here, friends. We also add one finely chopped medium yellow onion, two minced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, half a cup of finely grated Parmesan, one whole egg, 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, which I decided to grind myself, and, oddly enough, 3/4 cup of warm water, which was in Aina's original recipe, so I won't argue. I will simply obey this rule.
I usually mix eggs and spices with the meatball breading, which I then mix into the meat. So I find it a little strange that they just throw it all in a bowl and mix it together. But let's see what comes of this. Don't forget to season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Knead the meat until everything is evenly combined and form 14 balls about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. I only got a " baker's dozen" (13 pieces). Now they need to be browned in a mixture of vegetable oil and extra virgin olive oil, which we will heat in a non- stick frying pan. Distribute the balls as evenly as possible. Shake them to heat evenly, give up, and eventually just flip them by hand with tongs. This can be a difficult process. It's very easy
to break your balls. It's very easy to break the balls when you do this, so be careful, okay? When we get a nice crust on most sides, we'll remove them from the pan and place them on a baking sheet with sides. They are not and should not be fully cooked inside at this stage, just toasted on the outside. They will cook directly in the sauce. There's this wonderful mixture of oil and onion in the bottom of the pan-this is what we usually make sauce in, but this pan has a nonstick coating that's chemically active. So if you cook something acidic in it for longer than 20 minutes, you'll get a weird tin or metal taste. So I'll transfer a few tablespoons of this goodness to a stainless steel pan.
I add the other half of the chopped onion, fry for about 3 minutes, add four cloves of chopped garlic, fry for another 30 seconds, and then an Then add half a glass of dry red wine. As you can see, I use it to rinse the leftover tomatoes from the can. And before I start the long simmer, I add a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley and season lightly with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Now bring everything to a boil and return our meatballs. All this will simmer for about 30 minutes. I flip the meatballs in the sauce because, I don't know, they look better that way. Cover and leave to simmer for 30 minutes, after which we get ready-made meatballs in sauce.
Now all that's left to do is cook the spaghetti. I took a deep 12- inch stainless steel pan and cooked the pasta in it in well- salted boiling water. When the pasta is almost done, a minute before the end, I drain the water, reserving a glass of the liquid it was cooked in. But then I read the recipe more carefully and saw that they were doing something I can't stand: serving meatballs with sauce on "naked" spaghetti. So I decided to mix them with olive oil and a little pasta water, like we did with the butter in the momoa spaghetti recipe, to create an emulsified sauce and avoid greasy spaghetti. We put everything on a plate, pour over plenty of sauce, which I try to scoop out from between the meatballs, and, of course, put a generous
layer of meatballs on top. Add a little more finely grated Parmesan and a little parsley. Again, there is no basil in this recipe. And here they are-the most mysterious spaghetti and meatballs I've ever made. I have to say that I wasn't expecting anything special from the sauce, but I forgot that we were cooking meatballs in it. So even after 30 minutes of cooking, they tasted like they had been simmering all day. But what about the balls? As you can see, they have a pretty nice porous texture. They didn't turn into a solid meat loaf. And, surprisingly, they are simply wonderful. I didn't know what to expect from adding three- quarters of a cup of warm water to raw meat, but it worked just like it did with
hot dog ground beef. Water is usually emulsified to help the meat retain moisture. I did n't think it would work with warm water, but as I always say, Ina knows better than me. So these meatballs turned out very simple and very tasty. Maybe I'll even go back to Ina's recipe. I would have preferred pork over veal for flavor, but if you're in a hurry and only have pantry supplies, this is a godsend. That's right, Taylor. You made a great recipe a little simpler. Next up is Lionel Messi's favorite pasta from Cafe Prima Pasta in Miami. So, the filling is spinach with ricotta. I'll start by sautéing 5 ounces of spinach with a drizzle of oil in a nonstick skillet, adding
one clove of minced garlic. When it's ready, I'll remove it from the heat and place it on paper towels. I dry it to get rid of excess moisture, roughly chop it, and mix it with a half pound of drained ricotta. I mix everything until smooth. I season lightly with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Let's taste it, because we are, in fact, inventing this recipe. We don't have the original recipe. I thought freshly grated nutmeg would go well with this, so I'll do that. I'll add a little freshly grated nutmeg.
I mix it and transfer it to a pastry bag, because we're going to make agnolotti-this is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult filled pastas. By the way, you need to prepare the pasta dough. I'll do it my grandmother's way: two large eggs and one yolk in a large bowl of flour with a pinch of salt; I beat everything with a fork, gradually mixing in the flour, until I get a thick mixture. Then I'll gather everything together with a kitchen scraper and start kneading. I added too little water, and it's much harder to fix such a dough than one that's too wet, where you can just add flour. In this case, liquid had to be added. So, I tried giving the dough a quick rinse under running water
while continuing to knead, which worked well, but it was still quite stiff. So I added a little extra virgin olive oil, which helped soften it. In the end, I got a nice, smooth, elastic piece of dough that was a little dry, but that's okay. I rolled them into thin, long sheets, since agnolotti is a pasta bag folded in half. Now I use this special pastry knife to trim them to an even width, shake off the excess flour, and place a line of filling right down the middle. And here's why I hate agnolotti: now we're going to fold the dough in half and seal the edges by wetting our fingers with water. Fold, leaving the ends open, and then begin pinching vertically about every two to three centimeters, pushing out the filling and pressing it against
each section. Then we trim the excess dough from the bottom and use a rolling pin to cut into individual pieces and seal the edges, which I find almost never works properly. They are usually cut with a figured knife, which I couldn't find, so I use a cookie knife to give them that same nice figured edge. You may need to press the edges down a bit with your fingers to keep them from opening up in the water. Just inspect the sides and make sure that the filling is not peeking out anywhere, otherwise it could all leak out during cooking. I dust them with flour and cover them with cling film while I prepare the sauce, which appears to be a regular vodka sauce. So, for the sauce, it's usually better to use shallots or something similar. I only have
regular onions, so I'll chop about a quarter cup very finely. Then, next to the pot of boiling water, I heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in a large stainless steel skillet. Sauté the onion for 3-5 minutes until it is soft and translucent. I add two cloves of finely chopped garlic. Fry for another 30 seconds. Now add a quarter cup of tomato paste. Fry for 30 seconds until it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add about half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, or more if you want it spicy. Remove from heat, pour in alcohol and try to set it on fire, which I didn't succeed in doing because I'm a coward. Oh no, now here it is.
Be sure to extinguish it. Sometimes the flame is invisible, and it can burn you badly. Cook until the vodka has almost completely evaporated. Then add a third of a cup of heavy cream and cook together for 5 to 10 minutes. I want the color to be darker and the sauce to be nice and thick. When the signature pink- orange color of the vodka sauce appears, cook the pasta until it floats to the surface, about 90 seconds, then immediately transfer it to the sauce along with a large amount of the water in which the pasta was cooked. Mix everything well so that the sauce evenly coats the pasta. Taste and prepare to serve. We'll just plate this with a little extra Parmesan and chopped basil. That's all. For some reason,
Lionel Messi's favorite pasta is this one agnolotti rosso from Cafe Prima Pasta. But what does it taste like? The answer is normal. This is pasta with a filling of ricotta and spinach in a vodka sauce. She doesn't break any records, doesn't reinvent the wheel, but she does a great job with her role. Next time I'll probably make the sauce a little thinner and add more tomato paste to make it redder, but overall-it's a very tasty dish. Next up- Stanley Tucci's spaghetti alla Nerano. This is the pasta that Stanley Tucci and his wife fell in love with in my hometown, Amalfi. Of course, I mean my Apparently they liked it so much that they eventually returned to the restaurant and took a
master class in its preparation. This story was published in the New Yorker, with a recipe attached. So I will adapt it. We'll start with three medium zucchini, which we'll cut into half-inch-thick rounds, then deep-fry in a mixture of sunflower and light olive oil. Heat the oil to 175°C, drop the circles and fry until golden brown. A very strange process, but quite interesting. Once they are golden and the seeds are very browned, place them on paper towels and pat dry. They absorb a lot of oil, and we don't want them to be too greasy.
Season them lightly with kosher salt-it's always a good idea to add spices in layers-and set aside. Now, this recipe uses a special type of cheese- provolone del Monaco. This is a very aged provolone, so it has a fairly sharp flavor and causes a numbing sensation in the mouth, similar to Sichuan peppercorns. This is very strange. I've never felt anything like this before. So, I grate about 4 ounces of this cheese and cook two stations on the stove. A large pot of well- salted water to cook the pasta and a large hot skillet where I will make the sauce. I add one tablespoon of olive oil, add a crushed clove of garlic, fry for about 30 seconds until fragrant, then add the zucchini and start mashing them. Because it wo n't just be
pasta with zucchini, it will be zucchini sauce. So, mash them a little, and then start adding the water the pasta was cooked in continuing to mash until you reach the consistency of a sauce. Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the hot sauce, stir it-it turns out a little messy, so I use tongs, turn off the heat, and add the cheese. I stir to get an emulsion, and add pasta water if necessary Be sure to check the taste by adding kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place on a plate, sprinkle some more of this cheese on top, add fresh basil and a few reserved zucchini slices. That's it, spaghetti alla neralno is ready.
Let's see if they live up to the hype surrounding Tucci. And I didn't like this option that much. I'm not thrilled with mashed zucchini. The result is not slippery, but a very thick, somewhat sticky texture full of zucchini seeds, which is not a disaster, but I personally find it a bit off-putting. The taste was fantastic, but a little spoiled by this strange cheese. I didn't like what this cheese did to my mouth. I didn't find the sensation as pleasant as that from Sichuan pepper. It was more like a mildly sour version of Sichuan peppercorns. So this recipe isn't really for me. This is definitely a hyper-regional dish for the amateur, so decide for yourself whether it's worth making.
Next up- Food Network legend Alex Guarnaschelli's favorite macarons, which allegedly brought her to tears in the French countryside. Will I be able to do the same? You'll find out about it on my podcast "In the Booth with Babish," where she'll be a special guest and I'll be cooking it up for her. But for now, you can try to do it yourself. Let's begin. I managed to find a video where a real chef from this restaurant prepares this very pasta. So I had a pretty clear plan on how to do it. We'll start with something they don't actually do -make our own pasta. I'm not bragging, it's just the way it is. This is a spinach paste, so let's start by making the spinach puree. So, I have about 300 grams of spinach, which I blend on high speed in a powerful blender,
using the pusher to get everything into the blades, until we get a smooth puree, which we strain through cheesecloth. You can skip this, but if you don't strain it, you'll still have small pieces of spinach in the pasta, which is also fine, but it's not what they serve at this restaurant. So we'll let it drain through the cheesecloth for about 5 minutes, and then we'll remember that we should have added a cup of water to the spinach in the blender, which explains why it's draining so slowly. So I'll just add a cup of water, which will give about the same result, and continue to strain until I have about a cup and a half of spinach water. For the pasta itself, we measure out 320g of durum wheat flour and add a large pinch of
salt, which I mix in by hand before adding our spinach water. I'll start with about 150g and add more as needed, gathering the dough as I would for any other pasta, kneading until I get a ball that's sticky but doesn't stick to my hands; I will knead it on a board that matches the color of the dough so as not to stain the work surface. Knead for about 5-7 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and springs back when pressed. And, like any other pasta dough, wrap it in cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes before doing anything else. Once it has rested, we will unroll it, cut it into four pieces, and roll it out using a pasta machine. My dough seemed a little soft to me, and this is a great chance to strengthen the gluten. So, run the dough
through the roller on the widest setting, fold it in three like a brochure, and run it through again. Do this three, four, or maybe five times until the edges of the dough stop cracking and there are no stretch marks on it when rolled. When we 're ready to roll out, I'll generously dust the dough with flour to keep it from sticking to the rollers, and roll it out step by step until it's nice and thin. I choose the penultimate thickness setting because I want the paste to have a noticeable density. I change the attachment to a pasta cutter and cut it into fettuccine. Well, what this cutter calls fettuccine. Actually, I think it's more like trenette or. Oh, no. It's something like fettuccine. This is fettuccine. May it be so. Now I spread this out on a mesh
pasta dryer. You could use one of those hanging dryers, but I like these better. Leave this at room temperature overnight, after which you will see that the paste has curled up a bit. But the most interesting thing is that we made it in water, which makes it much stronger and harder than the homemade paste you dried. If you've ever made it from eggs, you've noticed that it's extremely fragile, and this one has a much higher breaking strength. So, that's it, time to move on to the pesto. This is French pesto, or pistou, and it is made with Emmental cheese. So, I'll grate about 60 grams of Emmental, roughly chop three cloves of garlic, and place two cups of tightly packed basil leaves in the bowl of a food processor along with the chopped
garlic and cheese. We're going to pulse it all until everything is finely chopped. Then we will slowly pour in the quality extra virgin olive oil while the blender is running until we reach the desired consistency, which is about a quarter of a cup. We will taste, add salt as needed, and set aside until serving. So, in a restaurant, this is how they cook it: they take a heatproof dish, put it in the oven, heat it up, add a big dollop of butter, and then the pesto, put it back in the oven and heat it up for a few minutes while the pasta cooks-I'll cook it in well-salted boiling water, and then transfer it straight from the water into a bowl. That way, the water from the pasta will be nearby if you need to add more, which we will inevitably do to achieve the desired
consistency. Then we put everything in a bowl with that too much pesto that I added, and evaluate the result. It looks like regular pesto, but what does it taste like? Speaking of pesto pasta, this is simply exemplary. I really like the addition of butter. It softens and balances the spicy notes of pesto. I like that it is slightly warmed up beforehand, with just a touch of heat. This allows the flavors to combine and reveal themselves a little better. And, of course, the perfect consistency is achieved by adding the water in which the pasta was cooked. And I really like using Emmental. I thought it would be weird, but it turned out really cool. I highly recommend trying
to make homemade pasta with water. After drying, its consistency is much closer to that of the store-bought one. It is stronger, holds the sauce well and does not sag under its weight. It's cool that a simple substitution of ingredients makes homemade pasta so similar to the one in the boxes. Isn't that cool? I think that's cool. So, what did we learn today? Sometimes celebrities love pasta, and sometimes it turns out delicious. Moreover, we learned wonderful recipes for both simple and complex pasta. I was genuinely surprised at how delicious those spaghetti and meatballs turned out considering how simple the recipe was. I put so much effort into my spaghetti and meatballs, and these are only slightly better than those. So, quite an interesting
discovery, actually. And the fact that Jason Momoa really knows how to cook, because this was the easiest and perhaps the best option of all. I really liked it, and we ate every last crumb. I hope you learned some new interesting recipes or techniques today. I hope you will try making them yourself. Please write in the comments below what your favorite pasta dishes from the stars are. Which ones did I miss? Which one are you going to try to recreate today? Is Build-A-Bear Workshop still open? I'm curious. Let me know right here, with Babish. Hello, how are you? I am very excited to announce that for the first time you can try my dishes from the comfort of your home,
thanks to CookUnity. CookUnity is my long-time partner. I adore their food and business model, and was beyond happy when they invited me to join the ranks of their esteemed chefs. I've been working with them for months to test and develop my own menu, and the first courses are now available. Crispy fried chicken with tender macaroni and cheese and Calabrian honey with chili peppers, spicy noodles with chili and garlic, and the " Great American Baked Experience." That's really what it's called. Look at the box. They let me call it that. That's how cool CookUnity is. For now, supplies are local and limited, but we will expand from the East Coast as soon as possible.
Follow one of the links in the video description to check availability for your zip code and order now. You can purchase them directly through my Babish storefront without a subscription or for less if you subscribe to CookUnity and choose them as part of your plan. And new subscribers can get a 50% discount on their first week by using the code Babish at checkout. I can't express how excited I am about this, collaborating with CookUnity, creating such wonderful delicious dishes and being able to share them with you.
