Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Pasta

Sometimes we get very firm ideas in our minds about what foods should be savoury and what foods should be sweet. Take for example chocolate. Chocolate is usually seen as sweet in our collective imagination, that is until it’s put into a Mexican mole sauce and served (savoury) alongside steak or beans or chicken.

The same can be said for mozzarella, which we usually see as savoury but makes a perfect addition to the Middle Eastern dessert kunafa. Pork is savoury until there’s candied bacon on our pancakes and french toast is sweet until we have savoury french toast with feta and chives. We see pears as sweet but are fine with putting them into a creamy soup with goat cheese and walnuts.  We see cheddar as savoury until it’s baked into the layers of an apple tart, adding complexity and depth and a streak of daring.

Although we’ve come to accept certain deviations in the traditional bounds between the worlds of savoury and sweet foods, one area where we’re woefully missing out (at least in the English speaking world) is with pasta.

We’re happy with the idea of sweet rice – rice pudding is so common it’s a mainstay of airlines and seniors’ residences the world over. But the idea of sweet pasta hasn’t hit the mainstream yet.

In Italy there are countless ways to make pasta, both savoury and sweet. There are giant cocoa coated pasta shells filled with chocolate custard, sweet Sicilian fried pasta with candied orange peel and pistachios, and angel hair pasta pie. The trend extends out of Italy too. There’s Hungarian baked dessert noodles rakott teszta, sweet macaroni pie budinca de macaroane from my native Romania, Croatian sweet pasta pie stonska torta, and of course who can forget the kugel.

There are a ton of ways to prepare and enjoy sweet pasta. The recipe I’ve shared here is a classic taste of Romanian childhood (with a little added adult luxury in the form of the super decadent mascarpone addition). It has relatively few ingredients and it’s simple to prepare. Most often we would eat this at breakfast or as an afternoon snack or dessert.

Until next time,

Cristina

Sweet Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Dessert Pasta

A comfort classic in some countries around the world but woefully underrepresented in others, sweet dessert pasta brings together the comfort of a pasta with the indulgence of a dessert. Plus, it’s quick and easy to make.

• Author: Cristina
• Cook Time: 30
• Total Time: 30
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Category: Pasta
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Global

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 250 grams dry pasta
• 1 litre milk (maybe more if it reduces before the pasta is cooked and creamy)
• 5 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 big spoonful mascarpone (optional)
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

• Add the milk, pasta, cinnamon, sugar and salt to a pot and simmer on medium-low stirring often since the pasta is prone to sticking to itself and the pot.

• If you want to go the extra mile, swirl in a big spoonful of mascarpone to make it extra creamy.

Notes

• The secret to this dish is cooking it low and slow so the milk has time to reduce into a custard-like sauce.
• If the liquid has reduced but the pasta still isn’t cooked, add another 1/4 cup of milk and continue cooking or repeat as necessary until pasta is cooked and swimming in a beautiful thick sauce.

Keywords: pasta, sweet pasta, cinnamon, cinnamon pasta, cinnamon brown sugar pasta, dessert pasta, brown sugar pasta