Never too much pasta (or feeding body and soul)

Recipes: Spaghetti with clam sauce, Penne al' Alfredo, Tuffoli alla cacciatora

You can't have too much pasta - that's my opinion. Whenever I've traveled in Italy, north or south, pasta is always my favorite food in a land of food riches. There's something about a warm dish of noodles, wide, narrow, hollow, round, tubular, corkscrewy, even in the shape of ears, that warms my soul and makes me feel cared for. Maybe it's also the sauces, most often vegetables with a little cheese or a few savory breadcrumbs. But I really think it's the pasta itself.

There are so many easy, deliciously satisfying pasta dishes. At the end of a busy day, what can soothe your spirits better than a dish of pasta and, maybe, a glass of wine? Sigh. Home at last.

It was hard to decide which of my favorite pasta recipes to share with you. In the end, I opted for two long term last-minute-go-to dishes plus one more that was a recent discovery. None of these recipes takes longer than 45 minutes to make and one, the Penne al' Alfredo, takes more like 20 minutes - truly recipes for the days you arrive home on life support, needing good fast food and comfort. Yes!

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce for Two

I nearly always keep a can or two of chopped clams in the cupboard, just to make this dish. It takes about 30 minutes and is wonderful with a simple lettuce salad with vinaigrette, any steamed vegetable, or, best of all, a couple pieces of baguette smeared with a little sweet butter.

I use about 1/3 pound of spaghetti for two people, but on occasion (when I know we're both starving), I'll use 1/2 pound instead. Use your judgement. Everything else will stay the same, whether you're using 1/3 pound or 1/2 pound.

• 2 cans chopped or minced clams
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil plus extra
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced crosswise as thinly as possible
• 1/4 cup dry white wine, like a sauvignon blanc
• chopped fresh parsley
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1/3 pound spaghetti

In a medium saute pan, melt the butter and heat the olive oil. Empty the cans of clams, including their juices, in the pan. Add the garlic. Cook over medium low heat until quite a bit of the liquid cooks down.  (about 10 minutes).

Add the wine to the saute pan with the clams, and deglaze the pan over medium high heat. Turn the heat down a bit and simmer until much of the wine evaporates. Turn off heat and set aside until the pasta is cooked.

Meanwhile heat a large pot of water for the spaghetti. Pasta cooks best when it has a lot of room, so be generous. When the water is nearly boiling, add a heaping tablespoon of salt.

Add the spaghetti to the boiling water in the pot. Do not add oil. Lift the strands of spaghetti with a pair of tongs and let them fall back into the pot. Do this now and then - this helps the spaghetti cook evenly and keeps the strands from sticking together. After 9 minutes or so, test the pasta by pinching a small piece off and tasting it. It should be tender with just the tiniest bit of resistance in the center.

Ah, al dente.

Dip a measuring cup into the pasta pot to take out about 1/4 cup of the water. Then drain the pasta in a colander and return it to the pot. Add the clams to the pasta along with the 1/4 cup pasta water plus a good sprinkle of sea salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Drizzle a little olive oil over it all. Toss.

Divide the pasta between two warm dishes, making sure to put the pieces of clam from the bottom of the pot on top of each serving . Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Dig in!!

* * *

 

A couple of tips for all pasta recipes: Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water. The water should taste like salt and the pasta should have plenty of room to move around. Never put oil in the water - it coats the pasta and makes it impossible for the sauce you're making to also coat the pasta.

Save a half cup or so of the pasta water once it's cooked. The water is often used to help loosen up a sauce and it already has the taste of the pasta in it. Once it's drained, it's lost.

 



 

Penne al'Alfredo for Two

• 1/3 pound penne
• sea salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/3 cup heavy cream or half and half
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus a little for garnish
• Freshly ground black pepper

Put a large pot of water on to boil. When it is nearly boiling add a good tablespoon of salt. Add the penne and stir.

When the penne has cooked about 10 minutes, taste a piece of it. When it is soft, with just the hint of resistance (al dente), save 1/4 cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the pot and add the butter. Turn the heat on to low.

Stir the pasta and butter until the butter melts. Add the cream and stir until it thickens a bit. Then turn off the heat and add the cheese. If the sauce seems too thick, add a tiny bit of the pasta water and continue to stir to combine it.

Divide the pasta between two warm plates. Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan over the top and give it a good grind of black pepper. Buon appetito!

Variations: This pasta is great with green peas. Add 1/2 cup frozen green peas to the pasta just before it's done, so it cooks together with the pasta for a few minutes. Then drain as usual and return the pasta and peas to the pot to finish the dish.
This pasta is also a wonderful accompaniment to meats as a side dish. Simple and quick, it would take the place of potatoes or rice.

Tuffoli alla Cacciatora for Two

Adapted from a recipe by Marcella Hazan

And what, you may be asking, is tuffoli? Yet another shape of pasta, kind of like a larger penne with ridges. Here's what they look like.  Of course, you could also use penne, or another dried pasta. A pasta with a "cavity" goes well with this sauce. Also, the wide flat noodle called pappardelle is good with it.

The sauce is called alla cacciatora, which means "in the manner of the hunter". In an earlier post we cooked Chicken Cacciatora. What these two dishes have in common is the style of cooking - it's the same a hunter (or his wife) might use in preparing game - tomatoes, onions, wine, carrot.

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow or sweet onion
• 2 thick slices bacon, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons gin
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 can diced tomatoes with juice
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1/2 pound tuffoli, or other dried pasta

  Put the olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter, the chopped onion, and the chopped bacon in a Dutch oven or large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the onion becomes colored a light gold and the bacon is cooked.

Add the carrot, bay leaves, and gin. Cook for 4 or 5 minutes, stirring frequently, and then add the wine. Let the wine bubble away for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes, salt, and liberal grindings of black pepper. Turn the heat down to medium and cook at a gentle simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.

Cook and drain the pasta, reserving a small amount of the water, and toss the drained pasta immediately and thoroughly with the sauce and a little pasta water. Mix the remaining tablespoon of butter and the grated Parmesan into it. Serve right away.

This pasta is delicious with steamed green beans, or with roasted asparagus.