Note that this recipe is part of a larger article entitled, “Our 5 Favorite Black Garlic Recipes“. Here, we give you the down-low on black garlic including how to make it yourself and how to cook with it. And of course we highlight some of our favorite GradFood recipes using it such as Creamy Black Garlic Chicken and Black Garlic & Spiced Lamb Borek. So if you like this recipe, be sure to check it out!
What is Black Garlic?
While some people say that it is fermented garlic, this is technically incorrect. It is regular garlic that is slowly caramelized (which uses the Maillard reaction) over a period of weeks at low temperature.
In doing so, it creates a really unique color, texture, and taste (note that black garlic is not actually burnt but just gets a deep dark black color due to the caramelization process).
Black Garlic Flavor
Black garlic retains some garlic smell but its taste is slightly sweeter than regular garlic (it reminds me of a balsamic reduction or tamarind paste).
We only recently discovered this delicious use of garlic and loved this black garlic chicken recipe! We definitely plan to continue so stay tuned for some more black garlic recipes and potentially/eventually a comprehensive guide to cooking with garlic!
How to Make Black Garlic
As discussed above, the process to make black garlic is fairly long and, from what we’ve heard, quite smelly. You basically let garlic sit in your rice cooker or slow cooker for weeks to months.
Meanwhile, it coats the entire room/house in a thick garlic odor. Since for our sake and our neighbors (since we live in an apartment), we opted to just buy some black garlic rather than try making it ourselves.
However, if you do want to try making it yourself, go for it! However, note that there are a variety of tutorials demonstrating a number of methods to making homemade black garlic. Unfortunately, it appears that some do not produce the same end result as others so make sure to do your research before trying!
How to Use Black Garlic
This ingredient can become a unique and versatile ingredient in your pantry. You can use black garlic similarly to how you would use regular garlic but keep in mind that it tends to be more mushy and sweet/tangy than regular garlic.
You can blend it into a paste such as hummus, blend it into a black garlic puree, mince it up into tiny pieces for recipes like the current one, or even just spread it on bread for a new take on garlic bread.
Where to get Black Garlic
Back in the day, you could only find black garlic in niche stores for exorbitant prices. However, nowadays you can get it only for fairly cheap. Here’s a link to where we bought our black garlic on Amazon. Easy peasy!
Homemade Pasta
Homemade pasta is the way to best way to make fresh delicious pasta. It’s fun to make too! You basically make a yolk-heavy dough (instructions in recipe below), then you use a pasta maker (like this one!) to roll out the dough thinner and thinner and then run it through the cutter to form the actual pasta noodle shape.
This particular recipe calls for 3 types of mushrooms, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese, but the star of the show here is of course the black garlic which provides a wonderfully unique sweet/savory sauce to the dish.
We hope you enjoy! Let us know in the comments what you think! With what other recipes do you use black garlic??
Recipes with Black Garlic
If you enjoyed this Black Garlic Pasta recipe, be sure to check out some of our other delicious black garlic recipes:
Black Garlic & Mushroom Medley Pasta
Ingredients
- 10 oz all-purpose flour
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 small heads black garlic
- 1 8 oz package cremini mushrooms
- 1 8 oz package oyster mushrooms
- 1 8 oz package shiitake mushrooms
- 1 onion halved and sliced
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 pinch Parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp basil chiffonade
- 1 tbsp pine nuts toasted
- 1 pasta maker see below for link if you don’t have one
Instructions
- Pour flour and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the center. Place the eggs/yolks in this well and mix with a fork. Swirl the fork concentrically, slowly incorporating the flour into the eggs. Once it forms a dough, knead it for 10 minutes, form it into a ball, and let rest, covered, for 30-60 minutes.
- At this point, cut dough into 3 equally sized pieces. One by one (keeping the other balls covered), run the pasta through the pasta maker, occasionally lightly dusting with flour. Once the dough has reached a thickness level of 4, run it through the cutter section, dust again with flour, and set aside to dry while you do the rest.
- Add pasta to a pot of boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes, continuously checking for desired doneness (we prefer al dente). Drain pasta and let dry.
- While pasta is cooking, peel black garlic and cut into small pieces (note that it can be a bit sticky and difficult to cut). Then sauté the black garlic in olive oil and butter on medium heat for 5 minutes as the black garlic starts to break down and turn the sauce black.
- Meanwhile, in a separate pan, saute the mushrooms and then the onion.
- When pasta is cooked and ready to go, squeeze the lemon juice into the black garlic sauce, then mix in the pasta, mushrooms, and onions. Top with basil, Parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, and salt/pepper to taste.
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