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Sopa seca de fideo con ancho
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Sopa Seca de Fideo Con Ancho (Noodles in Ancho Sauce)

Course Meal
Keyword Ancho Pepper
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Ancho soaking time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 4 servings
Calories 519kcal

Ingredients

For the sopa seca de fideo con chile ancho

  • 4 ancho chiles soaked for 30 minutes in just enough boiling water to cover them. The ones I used were about 4 inches long, and 3 inches wide.
  • 11 ounces durum wheat angel hair pasta or vermicelli pasta. I used a pack of Italian ‘Capelli d’Angelo’ with the pasta nicely formed into sort of roundish, spun ‘nests’ about 3 inches across. That weight gave me 3 pasta nests per person – which is what I wanted.
  • 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
  • 4 whole cloves finely ground
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 heaped teaspoon ground sea salt
  • 3 ½ cups chicken stock I used 1 good stock cube dissolved in 3 ½ cups boiling water
  • ¾ cup sunflower oil for frying the pasta

For the essential garnishings

  • 2 ripe avocados medium-sized, halved, stone and skin removed, and each halve cut into 3 slices
  • 2 ounces parmesan cheese I thinly shaved that amount from a block of parmesan with a potato peeler
  • 2 limes cut into quarters
  • 1 ½ ounces fresh cilantro left whole in leafy sprigs

Instructions

  • Put the ancho peppers in a small mixing bowl and add just enough boiling water to cover them. Set aside to let them soak for 30 minutes. Then drain them thoroughly, remove and discard the stems, and roughly chop the peppers, seeds and all.
  • Add the ancho peppers to your food processor together with the garlic, cloves, cumin, chicken stock, and salt. Blitz the lot until smooth. That’s the ancho sauce done, and it’s ready to join the pasta once it’s had some hot frying – which happens right now in a couple of batches.
  • Add the sunflower oil to a medium size saucepan and set it on a high heat. Let the oil heat until its surface just begins to shimmer, drop the heat to medium, and add the pasta nests in a single even layer. You want the nests to turn a deepish golden color – so let them sizzle in the hot oil for 90 seconds, then turn them over and fry them for another 90 seconds.
  • Remove the golden nests with a slotted spoon and set them aside to drain on kitchen towel. Repeat the frying process for the next batch of nests.
  • Now choose a saucepan that’s easily big enough to hold all the sauce and the fried nests. Set it on a low-medium heat and add the sauce. Give the sauce a few stirs as it comes up to a slow simmer.
  • As soon as that happens, drop the heat to low and add the pasta, so it’s covered by the sauce. I took some care here so that the nests stayed pretty much intact in the sauce – rather than stirring the pasta into the sauce.
  • Cover the pan and let it simmer away on that low heat for 15 minutes. You want to check you’re keeping that slow simmer going – so, adjust the heat if necessary to keep the covered pot rolling at a gentle bubble. Done – and ready to serve.

Notes

After that 15 minutes’ simmering, you’ll probably find the pasta nests have lost their shape, that’s fine. 
I set my range of garnishings onto a few pretty little serving dishes, so folks could help themselves at the table.
For the sopa, I ladled it into big, warmed bowls, so there were even amounts of fideos and ancho sauce in each bowl.
And just like all grand pasta dishes, I enjoyed mine with a soup spoon and a fork.

Nutrition

Calories: 519kcal | Carbohydrates: 66g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 673mg | Potassium: 1516mg | Fiber: 22g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 10278IU | Vitamin C: 35mg | Calcium: 241mg | Iron: 5mg