Yesterdish’s Garlic And Parmesan Pasta Chips

Sometimes, pasta wants to be dipped.

Sure, it may seem strange at first to see pasta baked into crisp bites of Parmesan and garlic. But you’ve probably had fried ravioli at the bar, right? Well, pasta chips are fried ravioli, minus the ravioli.

Really, it’s no stranger than flour tortilla chips, pita chips, or crispy wonton skins. Flour tortilla chips are probably the closest in flavor and texture; both are a bit more delicate than their corn-based counterparts.

That delicate texture makes pasta chips a perfect partner with a wider variety of dips than tortilla or potato chips, ranging from the harissa I use here to whipped artichoke souffles and even savory smoked salmon cheesecakes. Of course, you can also dip them in pasta sauce, which is surprisingly satisfying.

Using homemade pasta will give these chips the magical combination of egg, garlic, and Parmesan that makes Caesar salad a favorite.

You’ll notice the recipe is a bit different than Yesterdish’s basic pasta dough.

Olive oil is the major structural difference. Whenever you’re frying a pasta, whether it’s that fried ravioli from the bar, a shallow-fried pumpkin ravioli in butter, or this oven-fried iteration, adding oil to the dough will help ensure that the pasta stays delicate to the tooth. If you don’t add oil to the dough, once the water is cooked off, the pasta will be tough and sort of chewy.

Another difference is the addition of salt. In standard pasta, the salt is provided by the boiling salted water. Obviously, we’re skipping that step here.

As you could probably imagine from these recipes, I don’t like the use of wonton skins in making ravioli, and I don’t like them in making pasta chips, either. Although commercial wonton skins have some of the same ingredients as homemade pasta–flour and egg–they’ve got some other things, too.

Most use lower protein flour, then add gluten later in the process, and use more egg whites than yolks, and more water than egg altogether. And then, to give this low-protein-and-water flour something resembling a flavor, they add vinegar. All of that is fine, if you’re intending on loading this structure up with pork and garlic and frying it–but it’s a poor substitute in any application where you’re supposed to taste the wrapping itself.

Nor will wontons have the texture you’re looking for in a pasta chip–they’re made to be crisp, but not with the same shatter as homemade pasta chips. So leave the wonton skins for the wontons. Using homemade pasta will give these chips the magical combination of egg, garlic, and Parmesan that makes Caesar salad a favorite.

There’s a world of appetizer dips waiting to be unlocked with these, and I’d like to re-imagine some favorite pasta sauces as hors d’oeuvres bites. How about a lasagna Florentine bite with creamed spinach and fresh tomato, or a carbonara bite with bacon, pea puree, and a fried quail egg? Or, y’know, something more down home–a tuna noodle variety?