Spicy Peanut Noodles

Usually serves 1 or 2, depending upon enthusiasm.

Ingredients:

• Pasta, cooked
• 2 Tablespoons real peanut butter (not Jif)
• 2 Tablespoons tahini
• 1-2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
• small amount hot sauce, seeded and minced hot pepper, crushed red pepper, or some cayenne, to taste
  
• 1-2 tsp. rice vinegar and/or lemon or lime juice
• Optional: sesame seeds, cilantro

Cook some pasta — anything from ramen to rice noodles to regular spaghetti.

Combine all ingredients (except the pasta) and stir. Add 1-2 Tablespoons hot or boiling water (water from the noodles that are cooking works well) until sauce becomes paler and is not too thick. (It thickens somewhat on the pasta, so make sure it's not too thick.) Tinker with the ingredients — add more vinegar, ginger, peanut butter, soy sauce, or hot stuff as needed.

Add sauce to pasta just before serving — it gets drier and less good as it sits. If there are leftovers, add a little soy sauce, vinegar, or lemon juice for improved texture.

Girasole is a New England yogini whose recent feats of bravery include attempting to teach grammar to college freshmen.

< go back to the main fewmets page