Houston Ballet’s Chae Eun Yang Shares Her Tinned-Fish Pasta Recipe

Houston Ballet demi-soloist Chae Eun Yang has at all times liked going out to eat. When eating places closed through the pandemic, Yang’s fiancé, Houston Ballet principal Connor Walsh, gave her a subscription to Bon Appétit. “I discovered my ardour for cooking,” she says.

Yang, who initially hails from South Korea, continues to search out new sources of inspiration whereas touring with Walsh. She loves mixing Japanese and Western flavors. Her kitchen repertoire presently consists of Thai curries, Japanese oyakodon (a rooster and egg dish), and Korean stir-fries.

Yang found artisan tinned fish at her favourite connoisseur grocery retailer, Houston’s Central Market. She fell for the gorgeous packaging first, and the contents second. “I used to be like, ‘I’d like to have these at residence as a part of the décor,’ ” she says. “There are vintage-looking ones, and generally I splurge on fancy ones.” (Her favourite manufacturers are Fishwife, Berthe, La Barca, and José Connoisseur.) Yang developed her pasta dish from there, explaining that the stability of carbs, protein, and wholesome fat from omega-3s make it the proper post-performance meal: “Even when it’s actually late, and my legs are so sore I can not stroll another step, the act of making one thing actually energizes me.”

Contemporary Herb Fanatic

If there’s one meals Yang can’t reside with out, it’s recent chives. “I exploit them each morning for breakfast, on eggs or salad,” she says. Yang loves topping dishes with recent herbs and retains a variety within the fridge, able to go. “I normally even have cilantro and dill,” she says, including that should you don’t have parsley readily available for her pasta recipe, you may substitute basil.

Yang’s Secret Ingredient

Yang loves white balsamic vinegar for its stability of sweetness and tartness. “It deepens flavors,” she says. She makes use of it in salad dressing, and in sauces for baked rooster and greens. An added benefit? Not like common balsamic, it doesn’t change the colour of a dish.

Substances (Serves 2)

• 160 g dried spaghetti (This quantities to slightly over one-third of a standard-sized package deal. Yang used squid ink pasta right here, however usually makes the dish with common spaghetti.)
• sea salt, to style
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1 tin of sardines or mackerel fillets in olive oil (“I really like each, however should you’re new to tinned fish, go together with mackerel,” suggests Yang, noting that sardines have a fishier style, and extra small bones.)
• 1 small shallot, diced
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise (Yang likes to go away a few them entire. “It’s enjoyable popping them in your mouth,” she says.)
• 1 garlic clove, crushed with the aspect of a knife, peeled, then roughly chopped
• 1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
• crushed-red-pepper flakes, to style
• freshly floor black pepper, to style
• floor parmesan, to style
• zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
• flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to garnish

Directions

1. Boil water for the pasta in a heavy bottomed pot, and salt closely. (“I by no means measure, however you must add much more than you suppose,” says Yang. “The water needs to be salty.”) Prepare dinner the pasta in keeping with the package deal directions. When achieved, drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water.
2. Whereas the pasta is cooking, warmth the olive oil in a big pan over medium warmth. Add slightly oil from the tinned fish should you desire a fishier style, then drain off the rest and set the fish apart.
3. Add the diced shallot and stir for 1 minute.
4. Add the cherry tomatoes and chopped garlic. Stir gently till the tomatoes soften and start to launch their juices.
5. Add the white balsamic vinegar and pink pepper flakes, and stir to mix.
6. Add the drained pasta and reserved pasta water, and stir till the sauce seems to be shiny.
7. Add the drained tinned fish, and blend effectively to interrupt up. (“I like my fish fairly chunky,” says Yang.) Take away the pan from the warmth.
8. Style, and taste with freshly floor pepper and floor parmesan. Simply earlier than serving, prime with recent lemon zest and juice and chopped flat-leaf parsley