Pasta, being one of the easiest things to cook, is simply not a go to dish for me. I’d sooner make rice or potatoes or legumes than anything pasta related.
But my wife has several pasta dishes that she keeps on rotation which, while seemingly simple, require that special touch that I simply don’t have the patience to develop. She, on the other hand, has mastered the following, in no particular order of preference:
Aglio e Olio (had it last night)
Cacio e Pepe (sublime)
Carbonara (rich and comforting)
Creamy Mushroom pasta
Orecchiette with sausage
Classic Marinara
Bolognese (traditional slow cooked)
With fall and winter on the doorstep, I’m looking forward to a couple of these suppers a week.
What are some styles of pasta and recipes you particularly enjoy this time of year?
I’m a big pasta fan. I have 3 main pasta sauces I generally rotate through, making a big batch of each, enough to usually last me through 2 weeks:
[ol]
[li]A fairly classic bolognese “spaghetti sauce,” with ground beef (or veal) and little bits of cheap bacon, in a base of canned tomato sauce.[/li][li]Chunks of chicken breast meat, also in canned tomato sauce.[/li][li]My “stewed beef” sauce, which has pieces of browned stewing beef (and occasionally some bacon) in a broth of V8 vegetable juice, simmered all day until the meat is falling apart, and with canned beef gravy added at the end. This is really my favorite.[/li][/ol]
I invented a pasta dish that has become one of my favorites, but it is not recommended for the faint of heart or those with an allergy to hot peppers.
I chop up one of each of the chili peppers I have handy (thai, habanero, serrano, jalapeno), plus some garlic and less-hot peppers like green, red, orange bells. Putting those aside, I chop up a chicken breast and cook in olive oil, then add the peppers and some chicken broth for sauce. Don’t overcook. Thicken if you prefer, then top whatever pasta you like.
Pepper lovers, unite! You have nothing to lose but your palette!
The kids used to love my Sunday Gravy (our version had Italian pork sausage, beef meatballs, and chicken thighs), but the Ukulele Lady won’t countenance anything with that much fat.
For Wednesday night dinner, she requested Pasta alla Norma, a Sicilian dish.
Slice a big eggplant and grill it for about ten minutes a side until it’s soft and browned and pretty. (In Sicily, they fry it in olive oil. See fat note, above)
Saute a few cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil with some crushed red pepper flakes. Add 28 oz of diced tomatoes. Let it simmer to a good consistency, then cut the eggplant in strips and let it reheat in the sauce. Prepare your pasta – I’ve seen this with penne or ziti or plain ol’ spaghetti – and toss it together with the sauce in a big serving bowl. Serve with ricotta salata. Which you stir into your portion at table.
My personal favorite is penne with a sauce composed of one small can of tomato paste and one small can of tomato sauce, sliced pre-cooked hot Italian sausage, diced onion and garlic, and some sliced black olives.
I like to make spaghetti alla puttanesca. I’m a big fan of anchovies and olives in any case, but there’s something about a meal I can throw together in minutes from store cupboard ingredients that really appeals to me. I like a good, slow-cooked bolognese, too, and periodically cook up a large batch and freeze it in portion-size bags for a quick supper, or whatever (I usually use white wine, but I recently tried it with a dry white vermouth, which gave it a little something extra).
One thing I like to do is use up any leftovers in a Frittata di Spaghetti – but we so seldom have leftovers that it’s a while since I’ve had the opportunity.
Your wife is a gem. I could live on just those dishes.
I love to make Sunday gravy, but don’t get to do it very often, and it’s time consuming so it’s not for the impatient.
Another favorite is a simple dish that contains tomato, onions and bacon, then is garnished with pepper and fresh basil.
One I haven’t made in a long time (for some stupid reason) has smoked salmon in a creamy, buttery sauce that is lightly spiced with some ground nutmeg and perhaps some thyme or dill. Can’t remember offhand.
I guess Sunday gravy is a traditional but highly varied sort of dish. My in-laws (American Italians) serve it with meatballs, sweet and hot sausage and braciole. We have to travel to Philadelphia on Thanksgiving to have it but it’s worth the effort.
I’ve heard other variations include pork chops, chicken, veal, etc…
I’m a carnivore by nature so to me it sounded like the best of all worlds when it comes to long cooking sauces. I don’t even understand why pasta is necessary when it comes to Sunday gravy. Just serve me a big steaming bowl of the sauce and meat.
You will make this for the week; you will enjoy it Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, and you will use whatever pasta you prefer.
You will have good bread and, if you’re on your game, at least one variety of fried hot peppers. Fry some chili flakes in olive oil, or fry up some long hots.
You will need to have crabs and spaghetti (in red sauce/gravy) at some point, or you’ve not lived (Blue crabs that is).
(Philadelphia Italian-American, and I enjoy this weekly.)
Ciao
(Found in Southern Italy, too, although a dying tradition. The Sunday dinner above is more common in the NE USA)
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It can pretty much contain whatever you have in the freezer, but the meatballs are a must, along with some sort of pork and beef: short ribs, chops, Italian sausage. I usually have the leftover sauce as a soup, adding some white beans to the mix.
