I tried to find out the history of this pasta because I don't think my grandmother was rolling pasta dough. I'm pretty sure there is a historical story, something to do with Italians or French invading and settling in Syria and forcing them to eat pasta, but all I got from my mom was "what do you mean by whats the history of this dish? we make this all the time, for as long as I can remember" And then she proceeded to tell me other ways I can create this dish.
So traditionally my mom uses Syrian white cheese or Nabulsi cheese which is a white sheeps milk cheese thats salty and melts when heated. I can only find these cheeses at the ethnic supermarket which isn't close to me so I found a really close alternative at Costco. This is not a sponsorship post I swear haha, but I'm obsessed with Costco's cheese section. Great variety and great prices, I'm always shocked at how much I shop at Costco considering it's just the three of us; my husband, my 2 year old and myself but I act like I'm shopping for a family of 15. #nobueno
The red cap tin cheese pictured below is a cheese that is very similar to Feta. I used to only find it in the ethnic supermarket but lo and behold I started finding it at my Costco. Another score for Costco. So for this dish I used the Quesco Fresco, the Piknik cheese, a little bit of mozzarella, and tons of parsley. You have to have it with a tomato to get the full "I'm sitting on a balcony on a warm summer Damascus day eating my 3 cheese pasta" feeling because parsley and tomato go hand in hand in Syrian cuisine, much like garlic and cilantro but I'll talk more about that in another post. FYI, I feel like I'm writing so much, please comment and let me know how I'm doing lol. It feels so weird to be writing to open space Internet world! And to be honest, I feel kinda lost without emoticons, I didn't realize how often I use them to express myself. But anyway, let me know how I'm doing and if you try this dish and how you like it!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 box of thin spaghetti boiled and drained
- 1 circle of queso fresco shredded
- 1/2 crumbled feta or piknik white cheese
- 1/4 mozerella shredded
- 1/2 chopped parsley
- 2 Tbl black sesame
- salt & pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Boil the pasta according to package instructions, drain and set aside
- Chop the parsley
- Crumble the cheese
- Add the pasta to the pan on low heat
- Add the cheeses and let them melt and come together at low heat
- Keep mixing until all the cheeses melt together
- Add the parsley and black sesame the last few minutes
- Add Salt & Pepper
- Enjoy and let me know how you like it in the comments!
