Quick poll: raise your hand if your staple “oh holy crap, people are unexpectedly coming over for dinner” dish is some sort of pasta? Yeah, ours too (depending on the season, either linguine bolognaise, bucatini alla amatriciana, or linguine carbonara). Pasta is great for gatherings: it’s easy, it tastes good and everyone likes it (well, except for Atkins devotees, but really, why would you hang out with them anyway?), but it can get a bit boring. Next time, why not spice up your dinner routine with an exciting variation on the pasta theme? The word “fideos” actually means “noodles” in Spanish, but the term more specifically refers to a type of thin, often short pasta that is toasted rather than boiled. The toasting adds a nice depth of flavor and brings some interesting textural variety. If you’d rather taste fideos as prepared by someone else before you bust them out at your next impromptu dinner party, here are three great options in the area.
•Oleana serves fideos as a side or a main dish. Either way, they’re spicy and served with chickpeas, green chard and orange aioli. Colorful!
•At Tasca, fideos are served as a tapa and tossed with white wine, shrimp, calamari and mussels, because you know what’s better than toasted pasta? Toasted pasta and seafood.
•At Locke-Ober, fideos come as a side to the wild striped bass, along with Maine crab. A perfect summer dinner, if you ask us.
Oleana [Official Site]
Tasca Spanish Tapas [Official Site]
Locke-Ober [MenuPages]
[Photo: pistoYnopisto]
