Spanish Fideos with Chickpeas, Kale, and Aïoli

This recipe for Spanish Fideos, a toasted pasta dish, comes from the new cookbook by the Editors at America’s Test Kitchen, Just Add Sauce. 

I mentioned that inspiration has been a little low in the kitchen lately. I don’t think I’m alone, if I can believe what my social media feeds are telling me. Everyone seems to be in a bit of a creativity drought. 

To help solve it, I’ve been turning to my cookbook shelf. It’s not quite as heavy as it once was. I am a lot better at keeping around only the ones that inspire me and that I at least plan to cook from in the very near future. 

While I’m a little more selective these days, if a book offers me something that I’m not yet familar with or a special look at food that can change the way I cook, I’ll dig in. 

This time around, that something was sauces.

A little while ago, I was offered a review copy of Just Add Sauce: A Revolutionary Guide to Boosting the Flavor of Everything You Cook by the Editors at America’s Test Kitchen. Sauces are not my specialty and seeing that the book is focused on making meals more exciting with sauces, I was sold. 

Excitement is exactly what I’ve been needing. 

I was expecting a cookbook of sauces. I mean, the title is pretty self-explanatory. 

To my pleasant surprise, it ended up being much more than that. 

This book offers savory and sweet sauces, dressings, salsas, marinades, pestos, and wine reductions, yes. But it also offers recipes for delicious meals that use those sauces. The meals are also inspired by special dishes around the world. I was pretty well sold at first flip-through. 

I didn’t get too far into it before I had already bookmarked exactly what I wanted to make. A vegetarian meal that was a twist on something that was new to me, the Spanish dish, Fideos, a toasted pasta. It was paired with the aioli from the book which is a variation of a mayonnaise base. 

I used whole wheat pasta because I was in a whole grain mood. It worked nicely with the hearty veggies and rich tomato. The crunchy edges to the pasta, due to toasting it and then broiling the whole dish before serving, gives it just enough of a twist that it feels like you are adding something new and different to your menu. And the creamy aioli adds the best touch. 

There are so many other sauces and meals I want to try from this book from salads, to pastas, to glazes for grilled meats and vegetables. The book is much more diverse than I was expecting. It will be making my cookbook shelf a little heavier in a very good way. I’ll be keeping this one around for sure.