Who’s up for some fideo? I am, and so is one of my readers.
It is, however, difficult to find an authentic version of this dish. It’s even harder to find one like my grandma used to make. She was a short, spitfire Mexican woman who rarely cracked a smile. Though she and I rarely got along, cooking her dishes brings back warm, comforting memories. So, I often try to mimic them.
What is fideo, you may ask? It’s a thin Mexican pasta; similar to angel hair or vermicelli, but in shorter lengths. If you are unable to find it, pick up a package of one of the latter pastas and break it into smaller pieces. Make them about 4 to 5 inches in length.
After donning my Sherlock Holmes hat once again, I searched high and low for a recipe similar to the one I remember. The closest was iSaveAtoZ, a simple living lifestyle website. I changed it to match my grandmother’s simpler recipe and omitted the meat. Though there was no meat in hers, it doesn’t mean you can’t add it.
I like my finished fideo with a little liquid left in the pan (technically, it’s classified as a sopa seca – “dry soup”); unlike a regular pasta dish. It should have a mild, buttery taste and drive your taste buds crazy.
My ingredients are:
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 Tablespoons of butter
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic (In my world there’s no “too much garlic.” Add as much or as little as you wish.)
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes, including the juice
4 cups of homemade chicken broth, or 2 cups of chicken bouillon & water plus 2 cups of plain water (See note below)
6oz of fideo, or cut up pasta (I made enough for three of us: 2oz each.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil and butter, on medium high, in a large frying pan. Sauté the onions and garlic for about a minute. Watch them closely; make sure the garlic does *not* burn. Reduce the heat to medium and add all the pasta. Fry until the noodles are golden brown. It doesn’t take very long.
Add the whole can of diced tomatoes and 4 cups of chicken broth. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Voila! It’s done.
Note for chicken broth: If dissolving bouillon cubes in water only use two cups, due to the salt content, and add an additional 2 cups of plain water. Homemade chicken broth is the best, and the healthiest to use, due to cooking the bones of the chicken.
Here is a picture of the fideo in the pan as it cooks:
Silhouette courtesy of The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker Street, London, England. Go visit their website.
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