Cannoli Noodle Pie

Anybody who knows me, knows there are three things that I love in life: carbs, sugar, and Mountain Dew (wow, I lead a really unhealthy life!!). For a long time now, I thought about making a dessert that involved pasta. How could a dish that involved two of my favorite things (carbs and sugar) go wrong? Well, as I found out, it was really easy.

So what exactly is this disaster that I call Cannoli Noodle Pie? A filling of rotelle pasta mixed with ricotta, mascarpone, sugar, lemon and orange zest- served on a pretzel crust and topped with pecans and strawberries.

Based off of the picture below, I think the dessert looks pretty darn good!



As I was making this dish, I tasted each component. The pretzel crust tasted amazing-the perfect combination of sweet and salty. Although a little heavy, the mixture of pasta and pie filling was like eating a cannoli. At this point, I thought for sure that this dish was going to be a grand slam!!

So how did all these components taste good on their own, but not together? Well, I felt that all the flavor combinations did not work well together. Each bite had so many different contrasting flavors, that I wasn't sure how to process it all. Because of the lack of cohesiveness, I ended up deconstructing the dish, and eating each component separately.

What really threw my taste buds off was the pasta. It made the dessert extremely heavy, and the soft texture combined with the crunch of the pecans and pretzels didn't seem to work out to well.

Although I didn't get the result I wanted, it was still fun trying to come up with a crazy food combination. With some reworking, I still think that this dish could be the grand slam that I was envisioning.