Thai Style Stir Fry Ground Pork with Spaghetti and Lots of Pecorino Romano

What's the difference between pecorino and Parmesan cheese?

These two are in fact pretty similar in taste and texture. However, these cheeses are in fact coming from two different sources. Pecorino is made from ewe's milk and Parmesan on the other hand is made from cow's milk. With that in mind, if you can't find pecorino for this recipe, Parmesan will do a fantastic job too!

Thai style stir fry ground pork with spaghetti and pecorino romano -

Ingredients (3 to 4 portion)?

1.5 lbs ground pork
1 cup of small tomatoes (grape tomatoes preferred)
1 cup of oriental basil
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
6 garlic cloves
6 small chili peppers
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of chili sauce
Some spaghetti (for 3 to 4 people)
Some olive oil
Some sea salt
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some shaved pecorino romano

How?

It's hard for me to find grape tomatoes in Taiwan so I used another breed of small tomatoes instead -

Still looking beautiful.

If you can't find tomatoes like this, you can simply use the ones that are more sourish in taste. Personally speaking, I think this recipe works better with sourish tomatoes instead of sweet types.

Prepare the ingredients,
Cut the tomatoes in half or perhaps quartered if needed. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the stems and finely chop the chilies. Also finely chop the oriental basil. Again, if you can't find oriental basil, which has stronger aroma compared to regular basil, just use more regular basil to compensate that lost kick.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in some salt,
Add in the spaghetti and cook till al dente in texture, remove from liquid and set aside for later use. Do not discard the pasta water because we might need it to dilute the sauce later on.

Have a big pan ready for our Thai style stir fry ground pork,
Drizzle enough olive oil till evenly coat the bottom of the pan. Turn to medium heat then toss in chopped garlic and chilies along with some sea salt and black pepper. Cook for about 1 minutes till that garlicky scent comes out, make sure to keep the fire low enough so the garlic won't get burned.

Add in the ground pork and turn up the heat a little bit. Give it a quick stir, about 30 seconds. Add in the soy sauce, fish sauce, chili sauce, and sugar. Mix well and cook till the juice has been reduced  by half. Toss in chopped tomatoes. Continue to cook till the sauce has been fully absorbed then sprinkle in chopped oriental basil -

This is actually one recipe here already. You can serve it over rice and sunny side up egg. Instead of western spaghetti, you can also mix it with Asian noodles with additional soy sauce and sesame oil.

But we are going to continue on with our fusion style recipe here,
After scooping the ground pork to another container, just take the same pan and add in the butter and heavy whipping cream. Use low heat to warm up the butter and cream. Add generous amount of stir fry ground pork along with cooked spaghetti. Give it a few tosses and see if more heavy cream or pasta water are needed to dilute the sauce.

Remember to taste the pasta and see if more seasoning is needed. Once done, transfer onto a plate and serve with shaved pecorino romano, lots of it. Garnish with freshly ground black pepper along the rim of the plate.

I love adding lots of heat to my plate so even though 6 chilies were already used for this recipe, I still poured a good amount of Tabasco while digging in this fusion meal. Supposedly the heavy whipping cream should balance out the spiciness right?