About the recipe

Our friend Garrett Morris from Sichuan Kitchen SLO prepared this dish for the SLO coastal school program. Lucky kids right? He's also cooked at Etto for an event, made a regular dish for Ox and Anchor at Hotel SLO and was voted best chef in the New Time 3 years in a row. Here are his Chengdu street-style noodles — nutty, spicy, numbing, and savory. We now carry his chili crunch at Etto which is a must have item in my pantry. If some of the ingredients are tough to find use the best possible substitutions. To learn all about what Garrett has cooking CLICK HERE.

Ingredients

200 grams fresh Etto pasta (Spaghetti, linguini or pappardelle) or dried Etto pasta shape of your choice
150 grams ground pork (or mushrooms if vegetarian)
3 tablespoons ya cai (Yibin preserved mustard greens, 芽菜) * optional but will make more authentic

Sauce Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Chinese toasted sesame paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Sichuan Kitchen chili oil with sediment
1 tablespoons black vinegar (Chinkiang)
1 teaspoons ground Sichuan pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoons sugar

Garnish:

1 whole scallions, sliced
2 tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed

Casarecce pasta box

Preparation

Cook the pork (or mushrooms):
Brown the ground pork in a hot pan over high heat. Add 3 tablespoons ya cai (Yibin preserved mustard greens) and stir-fry together for 2 minutes until fragrant. Set aside.
Make the sauce:
In each serving bowl, Mix together all the sauce ingredients. Loosen with a splash of hot noodle cooking water until smooth and pourable.
Cook the noodles:
Cook the fresh Etto noodles or dried pasta to package instructions. Drain but do not rinse.
Assemble & serve: Add noodles to each bowl and toss with the sauce. Top with the pork and ya cai, scallions, sliced, and roasted peanuts, crushed. Mix everything together and eat immediately.