From Culinary Class Wars · 2024-2024 · Reconstructed
Grandmother's Gegukji Pasta
Serve when
Serve the moment the noodles are tossed through the aged-kimchi sauce and the pan is still steaming.
In the series
Season 1
- S1E9 · ~00:24:00 Black Spoon "Napoli Matfia" wins the "Cook Your Life" semifinal mission with a pasta built around his grandmother's gegukji (old-style aged kimchi), scoring highest of the round
In the series
The "Cook Your Life" mission asks each contestant to cook the dish that shaped them, and this pasta answers that directly — an Italian-trained chef building his highest-scoring dish of the whole season around his own grandmother's kimchi rather than around anything he learned in a professional kitchen.
Ingredients
Method
- Cook the pasta in well-salted water until just shy of al dente, reserving a cup of the starchy water.
- Render the guanciale or pancetta in the olive oil until crisp, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Add the chopped kimchi and a splash of its brine, and cook down for a few minutes until the sharp edges mellow slightly.
- Toss the pasta into the pan with a ladle of pasta water, and cook together, tossing constantly, until the sauce clings and emulsifies.
- Finish with Parmesan and parsley and serve immediately.
Substitutions
- Gegukji: an old-style, very well-fermented kimchi typically made by an older generation and aged much longer than store-bought kimchi — the closest substitute is any kimchi left, unopened, in the back of the fridge for several extra weeks.