Tuesday, October 12, 2010

great issue


As a peruser of a lot of food magazines, often inundated with recipe after recipe, it is possible to feel bloated in a figurative sense. So when an issue comes along with a creative approach that rings bells and has a lot of "wows", it is a special delight. The October Food and Wine is one of those.

Loving all things Roman, I was entranced with the article "Eat & drink Like a Roman", which provided new insights into the Lazio region. Our love of the food of Rome is well documented -- see www.classicpasta.com, on the home page, for a view of the Piazza Rotunda and links to recipes for the big three of Roman pasta classics: Amatriciana, cacio e pep, and carbonnara. This magazine has its versions of Amatriciana (by the Queen of Amatriciana they claim) and cacio e pepe. We are now trying these versions. And an interesting riff on Lazio's wines -- remember Frascati?

"Ravioli should be tender, not wimpy" says Domenica Marchetti in the magazine, in an excellent article on making ravioli -- plus suggestions for three fillings. No matter how good one thinks one is in creating home-made ravioli, new insights and tips, as here, are always appreciated.


The ubiquitous Mario has yet another meat ragu, what he calls a Butcher's ragu, which he serves in his newest restaurant "Eataly". At the pasta section in this complex, he offers three different pasta shapes and five sauces: customers mix and match as they please. Mario uses fusilli with this ragu.

One of the favorites of mine when I ate at the classic Little Italy trattorias in lower Manhattan in the sixties and seventies, was chicken scarpariello. I haven't had it for years. But Grace Parisi has the recipe for it in this issue, so the missing link has been solved!

And finally a quote we love, as it is really the theme of the recipes in classicpasta.com: from the aforementioned Anna Dente, the Queen of Amatriciana: "Like the best songs, the best recipes have few ingredients."