fregula

There is nothing like a new pasta discovery for a dedicated pasta lover. I saw the package below in one of my Italian delis; knew nothing about it; and knew it was discovery time. Bought it. Googled it.

The pasta is fregula sarda, a tiny round pasta that resembles large grain couscous. It is made with hard durum wheat, and, as the name implies. is native to Sardinia. The pasta is primarily used in soups, but we found a recipe on the "TasteFood" blog, for fregula with asparagus and lemon. We made it -- delicious and different. Worth a deviation!

For the recipe, go to: 

www.classicpasta.com/special_shapes_additional.htm 

and find "Other Shapes" and click on "fregula with asparagus and lemon".

Enjoy!

pasta as therapy

After five weeks, I completed an intense series of radiation for a lymphoma  tumor build-up. Thankfully, it all worked. Tumor gone. During the treatment, I did various things as therapy, and one of the most rewarding was making fresh pasta. One session I got in to making garganelli and it was simply just great fun. And when those lovely little tubes were ready to cook, sauce and eat, it was double rewarding.

The results are shown above. Pictured is my garganelli board, which I bought from Terri Mirri on his site: www.artisinalpastatools.comwww.artisanalpastatools.com. Making the garganelli is really easy to do. It does not take long to get the hang of wrapping the two-inch pasta sheets around the dowel and running it over the comb. Go to my basic web site: www.classicpasta.com and click on "pasta" On the "pasta" page, on the right, go down to fresh pasta and click on "garganelli". There you will find complete how-to, with pictures. (By clicking on "ingredients" on the left side, you can link to a section "where to buy" which will guide you to artisinaltools,

We sauced the garganelli with some of our home made tomato sauce we had made last year, when tomatoes were at their best and then froze. This really works!  We have several fresh tomato sauce recipes under "sauces" on the classic pasta web site.

it's the pasta!

In a lovely article in the New York Times on March 1, David Tanis writes about the glory and joy of making fresh pasta by hand, and then serving it with little (if any) sauce. The article is called "Noodles with No Need to Dress Up", and is illustrated with photos as above, showing the hand cutting of the pasta -- in the photo it looks like pappardelle.  He describes creating the deep well in the large pile of flour, adding the eggs, stirring, mixing and kneading -- all the actions that we who also make our own fresh pasta know and love.

As David says: it isn't something you master in one go, but it is not rocket science either. "There's a learning curve," he says, and only experience tells you how the dough should feel and how thin to roll it. We would add that the most important "feel" is for the moisture. Each batch one makes varies in how moist it is and it does take experience to get the feel of it -- and either adding flour or gently adding moisture to get it right.

Unlike the wonderful wizards of the rolling pin, those lovely Italian ladies who are absolute magicians in rolling out the pasta, turning it, and rolling it to perfection, we do use the pasta machine to stretch it out to the proper thickness. Then one also can cut the sheets into the strand widths one wants with the machine, but doing it by hand, as shown above, gives the result a special look and feel.

The most important point -- and the one requiring repeating -- is that the pasta is best served (no pun intended) with little sauce. As all the great Italian cooks tell us: it is about the pasta, not the sauce. A little butter and cream (alfedo); cheese and pepper (cacio e pepe) or just some pancetta and herbs, and one has a perfect pasta dish. That's all it needs.

For a more complete step-by-step demonstration of making fresh pasta oneself, go to the "pasta" section at www.classicpasta.com. And thanks David: keep it simple!

spaghetti carbonara

 

In the New York Times Food Section of November 21, famed writer and foody Calvin Trillin reported that he has no use for turkey for Thanksgiving. His choice: spaghetti carbonara. We can understand the selection. We rate the dish as one of our top five all-time comfort food dishes, so why not go for comfort on Thanksgiving. (the photo above is from that edition of the NYT: photo by Daniel Krieger at the Locande Verde restaurant).

 

Calvin's recipe is a little different from most, but according to writer Ian Fisher, that is not surprising. He reports that an Italian food historian claims there are over 400 versions, "from the most classic Roman to variations that are delicious but drive traditionalsts mad." Calvin uses pancetta, fontina and prosciutto.

 

This superb article gives a lot of fascinating detail about carbonara, it's history (after 1944) and the arguments over ingredients. One of the major arguments is about cream: In Rome Never!! The proper Roman version, according to the article, has only five ingredients: pasta, guanciale, egg yolk, pecorino Romano and black pepper.

 

David Downie in Cooking the Roman Way allows for pancetta or bacon instead of the classic gianciale. He also uses a combination of pecorino and parmigiano, and he also agrees that the variations in carbonara are endless.

 

Our classic version (see www.classicpasta.com) does use a little garlic, goes with any of the three meat options, and does use a little white wine. Some hints from the Times article: make in small batches (one pound of pasta maximum at a time); do not let the meat get too crispy, follow directions on mixing the pasta with the egg mixture to avoid scrambing the eggs, by all means reserve some of the pasta water to add to the pasta if necessary, and do not skimp on the pepper.

 

Here is the "official" verson from the NYT. (we like our variation a little better - be sure to look it up).

 

salt

2 large eggs and 2 large yolks

1 ounce packed Pecorino Romano plus additional for serving

1 ounce grated Parmesan

ground pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 pound (4 oz) of guanciale, pancetta, or bacon, sliced into pieces about 1/4 inch

thick by 1/3 inch square

12 ounces spaghetti

 

In a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, yolks and cheese, with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper

Get a big pot of water boiling.

In a saute pan heat the oil and saute the pork of choice until the fat comes out and just before it gets crisp. Set aside.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente (test by tasting). Reserve a cup of the liquid and drain.

 

Reheat, for a moment, the pork, if necessary. Add the pasta to the pork and stir. In a heated bowl, put in the pasta/meat mixture. Stir in the cheese/egg mixture. Add reserved liquid as necessary to keep it somewhat creamy, and not dry. Serve immediately  (very important), with extra cheese and pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

california olive ranch

Here is one of the most informative and fun email-ers in our "Eating Italian" landscape. In addition to lots of information on olive oil generally -- it is not all commercial -- there are great recipes and a host of other assorted facts and figures.

Go to their web site: www.californiaoliveranch.com and sign up for the enewsletter. The emails are frequent but, in this camp anyway, always anticipated with much pleasure.

If you sign up right away (this is November 1) you will get the email with a great interview with the Canal House publishers. These are the same wonderful women you met on this blog -- just scroll back -- with their background, interests, and some terrific recipes, which they present in absolutely beautiful books.

penne with peppers and bacon

We believe that Marcella's Italian Kitchen is the most under-appreciated of all her wonderful cook books. The wonderful pasta recipes are worth more than the price of admission. Here is an incredible taste treat we have adapted from one of the recipes in this book. Simple, fabulous and you will love it.

for the sauce:

• four tablespoons of butter
• three tablespoons olive oil
• two good-sized red bell peppers
• one half cup onion, chopped
• one clove garlic, peeled and minced
• six ounces bacon, sliced and chopped into quarter inch pieces
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• one quarter cup freshly grated pecorino (or parmesan)
• two tablespoons chopped parsely

for the pasta:

• one pound of penne or similar tubed pasta

Cut open the peppers and seed them and get rid of the core. Then slice and chop the peppers into quarter inch squares.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and saute the bacon until it is starting to brown but not yet crisp. Remove from the skillet and set aside on paper towels. Use a tablespoon of the fat as below (optional).

In another saute pan put in the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter, over a medium high heat. (If, like us, you like that flavor of fat, also add the reserved tablespoon of fat from the bacon). Add the garlic and onion and cook until the onion starts to turn  soft. Add the peppers and cook for ten minutes or so until the peppers are soft but not mushy. Add the bacon back into the pan and salt and some freshly ground pepper. Stir and saute another minute.

Meanwhile bring 4-5 quarts of water to a boil. Add two tablespoons of salt. Drop in the pasta and stir. Continue cooking until al dente. Save a cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Drain.

Add the pasta to the reheated sauce and stir. Add the tablespoon of butter and the parmesan and stir. Add from the reserved pasta water as necessary to keep the sauce moist. Cover and turn the heat to high and steam for one minute to get the pasta very hot.

Put the finished pasta in warm serving bowls, top with parsley, and serve immediately.

Then get Marcella's Italian Kitchen  and check out all the other great pasta recipes for yourself!

Canal House Cooking . . . 

Thanks to my friend Nach Waxman and his great book store: Kitchen Arts & Letters, I found this book, one of a series, called Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7. This is their Italian volume.


"They" are two talented ladies, Christopher and Melissa, who have a studio, workshop, and atelier devoted to "good ideas and good work relating to the world of food", in a red brick warehouse alongside a canal in Lambertville, New Jersey.

This Italian book is a result of staying several months in a remote farmhouse in Tuscany and also traveling throughout the country they love. When they returned home, Volume 7 (shown above) was the result. The book, not large but carefully selected, is as useful and intriguing as it is beautiful.

The book opens with a terrific essay on Italian sparklers -- spumante, prosecco, and many others, and goes on from there. 

Here is one of the opening recipes, which we did immediately: 


prosciutto and arugula tramezzini

Beat eight tablespoons room temp unsalted butter in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about one to two minutes. Set aside. Makes about 8-12 half sandwiches.

Use plain white sandwich bread. Trim the crusts off three slices. Spread some whipped butter on each of the three. Put one thin slice of prosciutto on each of two slices. Top them with small arugula leaves. Stack them on top of each other, arugula side up.Top this stack with the third slice of bread, butter side down. Cut the sandwich in half on a diagonal. Presto: two half sandwiches.

Their web site is "thecanalhouse.com".   You can order the book from Kitchen Arts & Letters, 1435 Lexington, NY NY 10128 (kitchenartsandletters.com).