Tuyo Pasta

Tuyo pasta is a simple oil-based Filipino pasta, made with flaked tuyo, garlic, tomatoes, pepper, spagatti pasta, butter and chili flakes in olive oil. If you have a low budget for pasta or simply have uncooked pasta lying on your pantry, try a quick sway from the usual tomato-based pasta and try this tuyo pasta! It is best served with garlic bread and topped with a lot of grated cheese.

WHAT IS TUYO?

Tuyo in Tagalog means “dried”. Tuyo is considered one of the cheapest ulams for Filipino households. Fry it and boom! One of the best fried ulams with fried rice, fried egg and chopped tomatoes on the side. It can also be enjoyed on top of sweet and chocolately champorado. You can buy 5 pieces for 20 pesos! We might know tuyo as simply “dried fish”. As this will be our highlighted ingredient in the tuyo pasta, what else should we know tuyo?

When you go to a market, there are a lot of dried fish in there. There are what they called sapsap, dilis, danggit and many more. All of them are dried. Almost all of them are a bit salty. All of them releases a strong fishy smell when fried. So how do we know which one is “tuyo”?

A herring is the usual fish used in making tuyo. These fish are sun dried for around 6 months. Drying and using salt were used as the preservative in the tuyo which is why it has a long shelf life. Most of the people were wondering, “Can tuyo readily be eaten?”. To answer that question, nope. Even though they are dried and salted, they needed to be fried or grilled first before consumption.

Nowadays, tuyo are not just limited to being simply grilled or fried. Some are further processed to make it upgraded and more enticing to eat. An example of this is the gourmet tuyo which are now becoming popular.

TUYO PASTA

Aside from canned goods, pasta and other noodles are one of the best ingredients to store in the pantry. Since they are dried and packed, they have a long shelf life and does not spoil or damage too easily. I always make sure to have a stock of pasta for sudden pasta cravings.

I have been a pasta lover for a very long time. I have been preparing Filipino-style spaghetti pasta to almost all of our celebrations. I have been experimenting with different sauces lately to have something to introduce in family celebrations. The sauce is the defining ingredient which will make or break a pasta so I have been trying hard to make my sauces flavorful. But then it hit me, why not try something light?

I remembered the aglia e olio pasta I ate from one of the most famous restaurants in Manila. It is an oil-based pasta dish with a predominating garlic flavor. It doesn’t seem to be appetizing to me at first because, where is the sauce? What’s wonderful about the aglia e olio is that you can enjoy the pasta which you usually do not, in a tomato-based dish.

Aglia e olio is the inspiration of the tuyo pasta I am sharing with you in this blog. As tuyo is one of the underrated ingredients available to our country, the salty and umami flavor of this dish will truly enlighten a pasta dish. If you want to try a dish using tuyo, tuyo pasta is a great starter to appreciate its naturally wonderful taste. Give this recipe a try!

HOW TO MAKE TUYO PASTA

Making tuyo pasta is very quick and simple. Even if you’re in a rush, you can still make a fancy pasta dish using this recipe.

The “meat” which will be used in this recipe is the tuyo or dried fish. This ingredient is simply cooked by frying (you can use the regular cooking oil in this step). It is a bit hard for some to determine when this fish is already cooked. If you see that the skin becomes crisp and your frying oil stops bubbling, then it is done. Flake the tuyo and set them aside.

Next is making the sauce. Unlike the usual spaghetti pasta, the sauce of our tuyo pasta is oil-based instead of tomato-based. As you can see from our ingredients list, olive oil will be the one to be used in this recipe as this oil has a delicate flavor and aroma which really stands out when compared to regular cooking oil.

Melt the butter and add the olive oil. Infuse garlic flavor by sauteing some garlic. Add the tomatoes for some acidity and chili flakes for a slight spice. Add the cooked pasta and mix. If the pasta becomes too dry, you may add some pasta water. Do a quick toss and the tuyo pasta is done!

I really like mine alongside garlic bread. But that’s for another recipe blog. Serve the tuyo pasta with a lot of grated cheese!

Tuyo Pasta Recipe (TAGALOG)

MGA SANGKAP:

• 8 piraso ng tuyo
• 4 kamatis (hiniwa)
• 4 butil ng bawang (hiniwa ng maliliit)
• paminta
• chili flakes
• 350 grams spaghetti pasta
• 2 kutsara ng butter
• 2 – 3 kutsara ng olive oil
• cheese (grated)

PAANO LUTUIN:

1. Magpainit ng mantika at iprito ang mga tuyo. Palamigin ito ng konti saka nitnitin gamit ang mga kamay. Isantabi.
2. Magpakulo ng tubig at lutuin ang spaghetti pasta ng 9 minuto hanggang maging al dente.
3. Tunawin ang butter at ilagay ang olive oil. Igisa ang bawang ng ilang minuto saka ilagay ang hiniwang kamatis at ang chili flakes. Haluin at ilagay ang tuyo flakes.
4. Ilipat ang nilutong pasta at haluin para malagyan ng sauce. Maglagay ng konting tubig galing sa pinagpakuluan ng pasta. Budburan ng konting paminta.
5. Ilipat ang tuyo pasta sa serving plate. Lagyan ng grated cheese sa ibabaw. Ihain kasama ng garlic bread. Enjoy!