Sunday, June 22, 2008

Fettuccine in yogurt garlic sauce

As the weather's been getting better, I have been getting back into bicycling. Obsessed, actually. That means carbo-loading the night before a ride and re-loading when I get home. Since it's hot, and I'm tired, I want things that are low-cook or no-cook.

This quickie that I invented last year is one of my favorites for that. It's served cold, so it's particularly refreshing. A word of warning: raw, fully crushed garlic will cause people to avoid talking to you. (Chewing on a cardamom pod helps, if you can stand it.)

INGREDIENTS:
  • 8 oz. (1/2 package) dry whole-wheat fettuccine
  • 1 cup fat-free yogurt
  • 4 medium cloves of garlic, crushed (see previous post)
  • 3 tbsp. ground parmesan cheese
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. fresh dill, minced (optional)
  • 1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
DIRECTIONS:
  1. Cook the fettuccine to taste. Allow to dry thoroughly in a colander or the sauce will not stick.
  2. Combine all other ingredients in medium mixing bowl. Let rest for five minutes to allow flavors to develop.
  3. Toss pasta with sauce; serve chilled.

4 comments:

Jed Sorokin-Altmann said...

Hi Dave-glad to see you returned to blogging! :-) I have a question for you-what is the reason for carb loading when biking? I've heard others talk about it, and I'm curious...

David Borenstein said...

When you do endurance sports, your body finds itself tapping every available energy source, starting with the easiest ones. As energy gets harder to dig up, your energy level comes crashing down. (Long distance runners call this 'hitting the wall,' and bicyclists call it 'bonking.') By eating carbs the night before an endurance event, you top off your body's readily available energy reserves (stored as glycogen) and postpone that crash for as long as possible, and makes you slightly more likely to be able to stay ahead of it by eating on the go.

No matter how good your were the night before, you'll come home from a long ride completely drained, and you'll want to provide your body with a quick energy boost to facilitate recovery. So you eat some more carbs when you get back.

At 180 lbs, I burn more than 1,000 calories an hour at full speed (I average 17.5 mph on varied terrain, and 23mph on flat ground.) So that wall comes crashing down quickly. And eating foods high in protein or fat will only make you feel queasy. So you eat sugars and salt and water, and you hope for the best. :-)

Who is this, by the way?

Jed Sorokin-Altmann said...

Oh-sorry.... It's Jed. :)

I'm working on losing weight, so, I probably don't want to load too much, if at all, but I appreciate the info and the quick response!

David Borenstein said...

Heh, I thought so, but I wasn't positive.

One thing about cycling is that you not only can eat as much as you want, you pretty much have to. That's one of my favorite things about it.