Possibly the best pasta I've ever made

So I'd seen a post on instagram about plating a pasta, and I thought I might want to try that, so I made an aglio e olio and tried to plate it. Ironically, the plating was the only part of this I couldn't do. 

My pasta had 3 main elements. The pasta, the carrots and zucchini, and the mushrooms. First, the pasta. Now pasta is traditionally made with 00 flour, eggs and a little bit of water, but I actually didn't use eggs in most of the pasta. I made a multicoloured pasta with beetroot puree for the red, carrot puree for the orange, spinach puree for the green and an egg yolk with some turmeric for the yellow. If I'm going to be honest, the turmeric was a huge stroke of luck. When eating the pasta, I could actually taste the turmeric, and it somehow played perfectly into the flavours I'd picked. For an aglio e olio, the main ingredients are usually garlic, oregano, chilli flakes, pepper, salt and chopped parsley. Basically, you brown the garlic slightly, add the chilli flakes, wait for a couple minutes and add everything else. Then, you toss the pasta in the oil, and of course, serve with a bit of parmesan. I also added some toasted pine nuts to the pasta, which gave a nice crunchy element to the pasta. This recipe isn't the most complicated, but TRUST ME, it makes a beautiful pasta. 

Now coming to the vegetables. I just bought a beautiful paring knife which worked perfectly when cutting the carrots and zucchini. Basically, I cut them into really thin slices. I blanched the carrot slices in some water for a bit, and then stir fried the carrot and zucchini slices with some oil, garlic, chilli flakes, salt and pepper. The vegetables just serve as a side with the dish, and help when plating. Also, my mother wouldn't let me make pasta without some vegetables, so this is what I did. 

The pasta and the vegetables follow a very basic flavour profile, and that needs to be broken in some way. I used the mushrooms to do that. I used King Oyster mushrooms, and I started by scoring them nicely. Scoring your mushrooms allows them to absorb the liquid more easily, and makes them a lot more juicy. I browned some garlic in oil and then squeezed half a lemon. Then, I put in 4 oyster mushrooms, halved and scored, and added some butter. The butter and the lemon juice get soaked up by the mushrooms through the scoring, and the oil helps brown the mushrooms nicely. I also added a bit of salt and some fresh pepper, which offset the lemon a bit and made it a more well-rounded side. Also, salt, pepper and acid are the 3 basic flavours you need in ANY dish, and this achieved all three. 

This was definitely the best pasta and the best mushrooms I'd made, so plating was very important here. The dish needed to look as good as it tasted. I couldn't get my pasta to stand up like you see in most instagram posts, so I decided to plate it in a ring mould. Now came the vegetables. I alternated zucchini and carrot to surround the pasta, and then put two halves of a mushroom facing opposite directions on the plate. Finally, I grated some parmesan on the large size holes of the grater and garnished the pasta. 

My notes:

1. The carrots tend to bend slightly when they're being pan-fried, so I'd recommend watching them and slowly pressing down to prevent this bending. 

2. The mushrooms soak up a lot of juice, so make sure that you don't use too much lemon, as they WILL soak it up. I used just the right amount for 4 king oyster mushrooms, so adjust your recipes accordingly. 

3. The orange pasta tends to turn more peach as it is boiling. I think that a mix of chilli and turmeric may work if you want a more brilliant orange. 

4. If your kitchen scale isn't working, 1 cup of 00 flour is around 120 grams.

5. TRUST ME, TRY MAKING THIS PASTA. IT WAS INCREDIBLE, AND I'M VERY SURPRISED AT HOW WELL EVERYTHING CAME OUT.