Different Pastas

Here is a one dish that was completely experimental. I had a sort of dark pasta which I can't quite recall if it was the squid ink or some type of brown wheat. I think I may have put the other obvious ingredients underneath the pasta and laid the pasta itself on top. I garnished it by sprinkling shredded Parmesan on its surface. I remember I over seasoned this with an assortment of Italian herbs that contained high levels of chili peppers (chili flakes) and therefore made it spicy. Sure didn't turn out too well! 

This is one dish that I am actually satisfied with. The texture, flavor, fragrance and overall enjoyment of cooking it made it a favorite. Instead of traditional spaghetti this time, I had used a bundle of mixed color fettucine. The ingredients included cucumbers, peppers and some shrimp. It retained quite the spring season feel with all the whole, green (and yellow) vegetables I have used which I usually don't with pasta. 

When I first completed this dish, I was so enraged. The pasta I had been working with was also fettucine but it was made of brown rice. This was a first working with it and I even followed the instructions on the package. It stated that I was to bring the water to a boil and let the pasta sit in there for 1-2 minutes and after that to let it sit for about 17 minutes with the heat off (lid on of course). The moment I lifted the lid up, most of the pasta was stuck together! There were normal pieces of pasta floating around but there were these massive, grotesque and just ugly pieces of pasta stuck together in. The mutants floated around in 5-10 strands and it just irritated me. I moved along, however, to the sauce of the meal which was a prime essential. It's not under any type of recipe I found online but really a recipe I have developed over the years of trial and error. I had added diced tomatoes, onions, fresh sweet basil leaves, garlic, olive oil and a dash of pepper, salt and a bit of sugar (to balance acidity). I also lightly peppered and salted the pasta with the mixture of fresh sweet basil leaves for the obvious flavors to stand out. If I hadn't messed up on the pasta, I think this would have been a quite enjoyable dish.