Julie: Pasta with caramelized onions & yogurt

Lesson 1: every ingredient matters
Lesson 2: I love caramelized onions
Lesson 3: trying to expand your husband's taste repertoire is hard

Lesson 1:
I was such a good girl, I made this dish exactly as it says... I bought beautiful fresh pasta from Market Hall, I drained the yogurt all day, I added the pasta water (I think the theory there was the starch in the water would help the sauce adhere), I caramelized the onions to perfect sweetness, and then I added the cheese. Ah, the cheese. Not being able to find the Greek cheese they recommended, the cheese shop recommended the pecorino romano Amanda also mentioned, so I thought I was golden. Well, I should have lived by the Zuni (and Jer!) rule of tasting everything before it goes in the dish, and tasting often. I didn't. I grated the cheese and dumped it in. Only then did I taste it... it was like a bland mozzarella. And not the fresh kind. The string cheese kind. It not only didn't add the complexity I thought the dish could have used, it didn't add anything other than a slight richness, and the guilt of knowing I added a cup of fat to an otherwise very healthy dish. So lesson #1 learned, or relearned really. Taste everything and taste often.

Lesson #2
Caramelized onions are amazing. So good. The aroma, the taste, all from a 50 cent item. Need to use them more often.

Lesson #3
Chris doesn't like yogurt. Making a dish where the main flavor is yogurt was a risky proposition. He's a good sport though, and was willing to try the dish. Plus it was all we had in the house for dinner, and I don't think he was willing to risk crushing my feelings by going out. I think the onions were fantastic, and a life saver. As long as he got a bite of onion in each forkful (see lesson #2) he was willing to keep eating. I had dreams of him standing up and hugging me for making this dish, as Mr. Latte did. I got the hug, but it was more of a "thanks for trying, but not so much for me" hug. That's ok. Keep trying, and reward him liberally for being a good sport.

I'm torn on my overall assessment of the dish. I did the same as Jer, and used goat's milk yogurt. I thought the flavor was perhaps too strong for the dish, and would love to try it with sheeps milk yogurt to see if it could mellow a bit. But I did like the creaminess, and especially liked the yogurt and onion combo. I think with a nice crumbly Greek cheese could have been even better. So I definitely think I will try it again, but as a side dish this time, instead of as the main. I love Kaoru's idea of having a roast chicken with it, I think that would go together superbly. I had some roast chicken leftovers in the fridge, and was really tempted to shred that into the pasta, and I think the peas would have been a great addition, but I decided to be true to the recipe for the first go around-- next time I'm experimenting!