Dish of Pasta with Labneh & Za'atar
(click to enlarge)

Pasta with Labneh & Za'atar


New York
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 4
***
40 min
No		 A fine, simple to make Pasta dish. It's made with Levantine ingredients, but I consider it American, see Comments. The Za'atar is very important for this dish so make sure you have it.

12
ar
1/3
6
1
-----
ar
ar
oz

c
cl
c
---


Pasta, long (1)  
Salt (2)
Olive Oil ExtV
Garlic
Lebneh (3)
-- Garnish
Olive Oil
Za'atar (4)
Prep   -   (20 min)
  1. Crush GARLIC and chop fine.
Run   -   (20 min)
  1. Prepare your salted water (see Salt). Bring to a boil over high heat and stir in PASTA. Boil until Pasta is still not quite cooked. It should still be a bit stiff in the center Drain reserving the cooking water. Sir in a dash of Olive Oil to keep the pasta from sticking together.
  2. Dry the Pasta Cooking Pot. Stir in 1/3 cup Olive Oil and the Garlic. Fry stirring until Garlic is golden brown.
  3. Return Pasta to the pot. Stir in 1 cup of the Pasta Water. Hold at a high simmer, stirring often, until the Pasta Water and Olive Oil form a lightly thickened emulsion.
  4. Turn the heat to low. Stir in Labneh and cook stirring vigorously until a smooth sauce has formed and coated the Pasta. Hold the temperature below boiling or the emulsion may break (see Repair).
  5. Divide the Pasta into bowls and drizzle each with Olive Oil and sprinkle liberally with Za'atar. Serve hot.
NOTES:

  1. Pasta:

      While the pattern recipe calls for "Spaghetti", I used Linguini, my preference. Of course, other forms of Pasta could also be used, including those that are not "long".

  2. Salt:

      The amount of salt is fairly critical in this recipe because part of the cooking water is used in the recipe. Basically, it should be about 1 teaspoon per quart of water.

  3. Labneh:

      [Labne and other spellings]   This is a drained Yogurt, drained more firmly than what is called "Greek Yogurt" in North America. It is extremely common here in Southern California, but may be more scarce in regions without a significant Levantine population. For details see our Yogurt entry.

  4. Za'atar:

      This is an extremely important herbal mix in the Levant and surrounding regions. It is used as both an ingredient and as a condiment. Widely available commercially in North America, it can also be easily made by our recipe Za'atar.

  5. Repair:

      Should the emulsion break, add splashes Pasta Water and stir over low heat until the emulsion is reformed.

  6. Comments:

      While this dish is based on Levantine ingredients, I have listed it under North America. While both suspects in creation of the pattern recipe, Sohla & Ham El-Waylly, were foreign born, they are not of Leventine extraction - and their whole culinary education and job history has been within the US. They are based largely in New York.
  7. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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