Pasta

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Pasta Primavera, and My Life

I work all the time. And so I have time to cook but not to write about it–except for the article I wrote for the April Oakhurst Leaflet. The advance copy is published below for your reading pleasure.

I never understood why T.S. Eliot said that April was the cruellest month until I lived in the Midwest. Expecting the warm spring temperatures of my native South, I was stunned when the end of the month found me in sweaters and the same awful boots I’d been forced to wear almost daily since October.

But luckily we don’t live in the Midwest. We live in a beautiful,warm, sunny climate, where peas and carrots and other delicious things are growing themselves for our tables. There’s no better way to celebrate than to throw these vegetables that are happily sunning themselves in the garden, or snuggling together in the bins at the grocery store as they enjoy the occasional water spritz, into a nice pasta primavera.

Pasta primavera means simply “spring pasta” in Italian. There are zillions of recipes for this dish, but a recipe to my mind destroys the stunning, simple, brilliant concept: Take vegetables you like, cook them a little, and serve them over pasta with oil or in a cream sauce. You can also make it as heavy or light as you like, depending on your current feelings about appearing in public without a sweater.

Instead of a recipe, then, I offer these pasta primavera guidelines.

Ingredients

1 lb. sturdy, thick pasta: (farfalle, penne, rigatoni, spaghetti, linguini, or fettuccine. I don’t suggest cappellini (angel hair) because it easily overcooks.
1 – 2 large onions (chopped) and 2 – 4 cloves garlic (minced).
Butter or olive oil for sauteeing
3 – 4 cups vegetables: carrots, celery, peas, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus, and peppers are excellent choices. Cherry or grape tomatoes are nice too, but don’t cook them–add at the end. Cut the vegetables to suit the texture of the pasta: sliced or chopped for short pastas, julienned or finely chopped for long.
Salt and pepper
Basil, thyme or oregano. If fresh, use 6 – 8 stems of each; if dried, 1 – 2 tsp.
Up to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Up to 1 cup cream or half and half (optional)

Preparation

Cut vegetables and grate cheese. Put salted water on to boil and cook pasta as you prepare ingredients. Saute onions in butter or oil on medium heat in large skillet. Add garlic and stir. Add vegetables and stir. Add herbs. Cover and cook until just tender. Add cooked pasta. Garnish with cheese.

Swimsuit version: Use olive oil to saute. Add herbs to onion and garlic after sauteeing. Steam vegetables. Pour over cooked pasta; add cheese and olive oil to taste.

Shorts version: Use butter to saute. After vegetables have cooked, add up to ½ cup half and half. Cook on medium heat, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes, until sauce has thickened. Add additional half and half or butter to coat pasta, if needed. Garnish with Parmesan.

Sweater version: After vegetables have cooked, add 1 cup heavy cream and cook on medium heat, uncovered, 3-5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and gradually add 1 cup Parmesan; stir until melted. Garnish with additional Parmesan.

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Ragu a la Claudia

Ragu, as you know, is NOT the jarred spaghetti sauce you got in your school cafeteria in the 1970s, or that your mother–and now maybe even you, if you have children–opened up to pour on spaghetti a la East Tennessee (i.e., cooked to mush).

But what IS it? There are about as many recipes for ragu as there are internet sites. In short, though, ragu is a meat sauce with tomatoes and finely chopped vegetables served over pasta. I’ve seen recipes with lamb and pork and sausage as well as beef. Too many recipes claim to be authentic even to list here, but I’m proud to say that this one is fairly close to the one from the Italian Culinary Institute (or so the web site claims) and that of the great Mario Batali.

I guess this one has some authenticity because it comes from Claudia Mantovani, an Italian friend from Milan.

Fred would eat this every day if I were willing to cook it.

1 lb. ground beef
Olive oil and/or butter for sauteeing
1 minced onion
2 – 3 minced carrots
2 stalks minced celery
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. “magic cube” (Claudia’s word for “beef bouillon”–I use Better than Bouillon, which does not come in cube form)
2 bay leaves
1 can tomatoes (Debate rages over whether or not to use whole or crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce or paste. I’ve tried it all, and except for the paste, it works. And Mario likes the paste, so that probably works too.)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. cream (half and half will do)
Grated fresh Parmesan

Saute onion, carrots, and celery in olive oil and/or butter. Cook about 10 minutes over medium heat, or until soft. Add beef, breaking it up as you cook it, and cook until just brown. Add tomatoes, vinegar, bouillon, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Cook, half covered, for about half an hour. Add cream. Cook another half hour or more. Serve over spaghetti or linguini. Top with Parmesan.

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Evil, Evil, Evil Technology, and Penne all’Amatriciana Atlantana

Not only do I have too much to do, but Internet Explorer ATE an earlier version of this post–probably because the recipe below was so delicious. It’s kind of like the better-known pasta all’Amatriciana, only not. (For a more glam version, check out the Amateur Gourmet’s Buccatini all’Amatriciana. Be careful, though–I think my computer ate my post because it wanted to eat that post even more.)

Penne with Bacon and Tomato Sauce

Put enough salted water for 1/2 pound penne on to boil.

Cut 6 slices bacon into 5-6 pieces each. Begin frying in medium skillet over medium heat.

Chop 1 large onion. Mince 4 large cloves garlic and 1 cherry pepper (or other hot pepper to taste).

Once bacon is cooked but not crisp, add onion and saute until translucent. DON’T drain the fat. Turn heat to low and add garlic and pepper. Saute a few seconds. Add 1 16 oz. can Muir Glen Organic No Salt Tomato Sauce. (They are not paying me–I just happen to love this stuff.) Add about 1 tbsp. olive oil unless you are feeling very virtuous. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook pasta until al dente and drain. Add sauce and grated Parmesan cheese if you are not continuously gaining weight, as I am. Throw evil glances at your husband as he globs cheese on his portion–but not quite as evil as those you reserve for your computer.

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Orzo Chicken, Featuring the Cuisinart

Orzo with Chicken (serves 2 if one of you is Fred, who had 3 large bowls)

2 roasted chicken breasts, skins removed while still crisp and eaten with bare fingers, grease licked directly off fingers before of course washing them as a truly good person does, at least most of the time, or at least when she is cooking for others not in her immediate family. Chop them (chicken breasts, not fingers) into bite sized-pieces.

2 medium onions, finely chopped but not utterly pureed in a food processor like some others you may have done in the past for certain salmon recipes, especially if you are lucky enough to have a beautiful, sleek, 11-cup Cuisinart that your mother bought you as perhaps the best wedding present EVER

Several baby carrots (7? 8?), also finely chopped in beloved Cuisinart

3-4 large sticks of celery, again, finely chopped in that most lovely and perfect of kitchen appliances

3-4 large cloves of minced garlic (guess what can also mince!)

Several pieces of pickled okra, not for the recipe but for you because the cook always needs sustenance. (Wine would be a good option if you did not have three glasses the night before because it was Valentine’s Day and now you are feeling a little icky. Probably the glass of Basil Hayden whisky on top of that didn’t help.)

Lots of olive oil (1/4 -1/2 c)

Sage, preferably fresh and (yay!) chopped, or fresh sage you dried yourself, or just plain old dried sage if that’s all you got

Salt n pepper, of course

Grated Parmesan cheese

A pound of orzo (or whatever the size of a normal package is)

Put salted water on to boil for the orzo. Saute onions in olive oil on medium heat for about 5 minutes or till translucent. Add celery and carrot and saute about 10 minutes until tender. Add garlic and stir. Add chicken, sage, salt, and pepper. Turn heat down to low and keep there until orzo is done cooking. Put orzo in big bowl, add chicken mix, and stir. Add more olive oil if needed. Serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese.