Request: Paper Mario - Koopasta

I got a request through to make some Koopasta and was rather envious that I hadn’t thought of this sooner - after all spaghetti is Mario and Luigi’s favourite food. Koopasta (I guess Koopaghetti didn‘t have the same ring to it) can be made by cooking a ‘Koopa Leaf’ with some ‘Dried Pasta’ in the original Paper Mario or with ‘Fresh Pasta’/’Spaghetti’ and a ‘Turtley Leaf’ in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I had never played Paper Mario until I got Super Paper Mario for the Wii and I thought it was pretty damn awesome; though I think I became too obsessed with trying to collect things from some guy who, from what I can recall, would appear in some sewer system and try to sell me things that would only spawn on certain dates and times ultimately reminding me why this aspect of Japanese gaming is detrimental to my health. Anyway, there’s two versions of the dish that look rather different and since the requester never specified which Paper Mario I’ve gone with the one that looks slightly more iconic or at least more interesting to make. 

Click ‘Read More’ for the full recipe!

This recipe serves 2-4.

What you will need: A large pot, frying pan, a bowl and a food blender or mortar and pestle.

Ingredients:

250g / 4 Cups Fresh Spaghetti/Tagliatelle Verdi

1 Baby Gem Lettuce Leaf

1 Clove Garlic

80g / 1 Cup Fresh Basil

20g / ⅛ Cup Pine Nuts

5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Parmesan Cheese

Salt

Pepper

Preparing the Pesto:

1. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry pan and set aside.
2. Put the garlic, basil and a pinch of salt into a food blender and pulse.
3. Add the pine nuts and blend again.
4. Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the parmesan and olive oil and stir.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add more parmesan if you want.

Making the Koopasta:

1. With the pesto prepared, boil some water in a deep pot then add the spaghetti verdi and cook as per the instructions on your pack.
2. Once cooked, strain the spaghetti, return it to the pot (not on the heat) and slowly add pesto to the spaghetti until there’s just enough to coat the spaghetti in the sauce.
3. Serve and garnish with a baby gem lettuce leaf.

I hate pesto. When I decided to make this my taste tester remarked “but we hate pesto, why would we eat this?”, then he realised that a few weeks ago he did eat a sandwich filled with turkey, jam and Cookie Crisp cereal so maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Whenever I think about pesto I just think of that episode of Seinfeld (The Busboy) where George says “Why do I get pesto? Why do I think I’ll like it? I keep trying to like it, like I have to like it. Everybody likes pesto. You walk into a restaurant, that’s all you hear - pesto, pesto, pesto.” But now I love pesto. As long as it’s my pesto and not some swamp juice from a jar.

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