Tag: Pasta

Spaghetti Carbonara

On By lukephillaryhIn Classico2 Comments
Spaghetti Carbonara guanciale cast iron
Mangia mangia!

Spaghetti Carbonara was one of the first meals I made where I diverged from my mother’s recipe. Growing up, my mom would make a delicious Spaghetti Carbonara full of crispy bacon bits and sautéed onions covered in a creamy sauce. It was not until college that I realized that though bacon is passable, an authentic Spaghetti Carbonara recipe never includes onions and the creaminess does not come from some generous pours of heavy cream.

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Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

On By lukephillaryhIn ClassicoLeave a comment
Marcella Hazan bolognese sauce
Classic goodness

Disappointingly, women today are still not respected, nonetheless celebrated. In this month of March when we celebrate Women’s History, it is important to pay tribute to the incredible women who shape and inspire us. Women who deserve recognition everyday, but some extra pomp and circumstance all March long. Marcella Hazan is one of those women. When reading about Marcella you come across many admiring quotes – famous chefs and food writers who credit Marcella for teaching them how to cook, care for, and love food. Interestingly, many of the chefs Marcella inspired were men. Marcella did begin cooking for traditional reasons – married in 1955 and living in New York she was first compelled to cook in order to”feed a young, hard-working husband.” Although her foray into cooking was more or less due to gender stereotypes, she quickly realized her skillfulness and wasted no time putting it to good work. Hazan went on to publish several cookbooks. Her first, The Classic Italian Cookbook, is legitimately the classic Italian cookbook. It is canonical. This March, Luke and I honored Marcella’s legacy by tackling her bolognese recipe.  We’d argue it’s the only bolognese recipe you’ll ever need. No need to cross reference with other cookbooks or websites, substitute one ingredient for another, or make many additions. Follow this recipe as is and you’ll have the perfect bolognese sauce.

Ingredients:

  • 1 TBS olive oil
  • 3 TBS butter + 1 TBS for tossing pasta
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2/3 cup chopped celery
  • 2/3 cup chopped carrot
  • 3/4 pound ground beef chuck (80% lean, 20% fat is best)
  • salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • a tiny grating (approx. 1/8 tsp) fresh nutmeg
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 1/2 cup canned whole tomatoes, cut up, with their juices (get good quality!)
  • 1 lb pasta (spaghetti or fettuccine)
  • freshly grated parm, for serving

Directions:

  1. Be prepared to spend the next 4 hours tending to your bolognese. Once it starts simmering it doesn’t take much work, but this sauce likes to be checked up on regularly.
  2. Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven and turn heat on medium. Cook until the onion has become translucent, about 5 minutes, and then add the carrots and celery.* Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
  3. Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Stir meat well, so that it crumbles, breaking up with a fork if necessary. Cook until the beef has lost its red color.
  4. Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until milk has bubbled away completely. Add the freshly grated nutmeg and stir.
  5. Add the wine, and as with the milk, let it simmer until it has evaporated completely. Add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all the ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble turn the heat all the way down. You want the sauce to cook at a very gentle simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 3 hours, stirring from time to time. During this cooking process, you will likely find that the sauce loses quite a bit of liquid.  Be wary of this! You don’t want the meat to stick to the bottom of your pot so add 1/2 cup water at a time when the liquid supply is looking low.* At the end of the 3 hours though no water should be left. Also check taste as you go, adding more salt as necessary.
  6. Add a tablespoon of butter to the cooked pasta, and toss with the sauce. Serve with plenty of freshly grated parm.

The recipe above is verbatim Marcella Hazan bolognese. We did not want to disrespect the queen of Italian cooking in this post. We did make the following 2 minor adjustments that you can consider making as well –

  1. With the celery and carrots, we also added a couple cloves of garlic, minced.
  2. We created a mixture of tomato paste and warm water (1 TBS tomato paste to 2 cups warm water), stirring the tomato paste into the water so that it would dissolve. We added this mixture to the sauce when it was drying out. We ended up using all 2 cups of this mixture during the 3 hour simmer.

Details: Serves 4-6.

Pasta alla Norma

On By lukephillaryhIn Veggie1 Comment
Pasta alla norma Mark Bittman recipe
Norma is not your normal pasta

We like heavy pastas in our household. Ragù. Spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta alla Gricia. We love the slow simmer, building of flavors, and richness of these dishes. And, yes, pasta is carbs. Carbs are comfort food. So why not, while you’re already eating something deemed “unhealthy,” pile on the prosciutto, guanciale, and sausage? But this vegetarian pasta, recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, holds its own against our meaty favorites. Staring eggplant, it makes for a delicious, refined, and relatively quick dinner. And with a grating of ricotta salata and a sprinkling of freshly chopped herbs, it has an unbeatable fresh flavor. Enjoy as you’re easing out of summer! Save those heavier pastas for the upcoming cold.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large eggplant, cut lengthwise into thin slices (bit thinner than 1/2 inch)
  • salt & pepper
  • lots of olive oil, up to 1/2 cup
  • 1 TBS chopped garlic
  • 2-3 tsp chili flakes (depending on spice preference)
  • 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 pound long pasta
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley or basil (or combo)
  • 1/2 cup ricotta salata (or, if you must, pecorino Romano)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Sprinkle eggplant slices with 1-2 tsp salt and let drain of excess moisture. We do this by layering the slices in a colander and then placing a small plate weighed down with a can or big glass of water on-top, pushing down on the eggplant. We’ll let this sit for 20 minutes, patting the eggplant with paper towels afterwards. There are some other methods! This will prevent your eggplant from being soggy and bitter.
  3. After drying slices, arrange on a large, well oiled baking sheet. Brush with more olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 20-25 minutes flipping at least once. You’ll went the eggplant slices to be nicely browned, soft, but with a good crisp.
  4. While eggplant is roasting, make the sauce and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a large, deep skillet heat 2-3 TBS olive oil over medium heat. Once shimmering, add garlic and chili flakes, cooking until garlic has browned a bit and is fragrant. Add the tomatoes and juice, squeezing the whole tomatoes with your hand to crush, and oregano. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer while eggplant and pasta finish cooking.
  5. Cook pasta until al dente. While cooking, cut the eggplant slices into strips. Transfer 1/4 of slices into simmering sauce. Set the rest aside.
  6. Add cooked pasta to tomato sauce.* Dress with remaining eggplant strips and a generous topping of freshly grated ricotta salata, basil, and/or parsley.

Details: Serves 4-6.

*Note: We like to keep the pasta and sauce separate and let people prep their own plates according to their sauce to pasta ratio preference. Not so traditional of us, but we are sauce-y people!

Pasta alla Gricia

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT2 Comments
Pasta alla gricia with guanciale
Guanciale, better than bacon

Like most, we are big fans of bacon and pasta, respectively and combined. Two of our favorite dishes come from Cal Peternell’s Twelve Recipes. His carbonara and amatriciana recipes are always smashing successes. Admittedly, we typically opt for regular old grocery store bacon instead of pancetta or the even more authentic option of guanciale. Feeling a bit adventurous, but also wanting to keep it simple for our Saturday night dinner, we decided to try Mark Bittman’s version of a Roman classic, pasta alla Gricia. Marky B stresses the importance of using guanciale, so we finally committed, trekking into Manhattan to buy a nice hunk of pig jowl at Eataly (we’ll visit our favorite butcher Los Paisano’s in Cobble Hill next time). The guanciale elevated this pasta from a simple weekday dinner to a delicious Saturday night feast. And now we feel like slightly more legit gourmands.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound guanciale (cured pig jowl), cut into 1/4 inch pieces*
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper + more to taste
  • 3/4 pound spaghetti or other long pasta
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan

Directions:

  1. Cook the guanciale in a large skillet over medium heat until deeply golden. You may need to adjust the heat to not cook too quickly. You want the fat to render without burning the meat. The meaty parts should be brown and the fatty parts should be cooked but still slightly transparent. This should take 10-15 minutes. When done, add the black pepper and turn off heat.
  2. While cooking the guanciale, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water reaches a boil, add the the pasta. Cook till al dente and drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta water.
  3. You want the pasta to still be wet and hot, so while it is cooking add 3/4 cup of the pasta water to the cooled guanciale. Turn heat to high and reduce liquid by half.
  4. Once reduced, transfer pasta to the skillet. Mix vigorously and stir in more pasta water if necessary to create a creamy sauce. Add the cheese and extra cracked pepper.

Garnish with additional cheese! Enjoy with a glass of red wine.

Details: Serves 4

*Note 1: If you can’t find gaunciale, pancetta or bacon will also work. But guanciale is a game changer in this recipe!!

 

Seriously Good Ragù

On By lukephillaryhIn Classico1 Comment
Ragu Sausage Winter New York
The  perfect pasta dinner

Two weeks ago, when Winter Storm Jonas wreaked snowy havoc on New York, Luke and I ventured into the frozen tundra. Trekking in our not so appropriate snow gear through the streets of Brooklyn, we worked up a serious appetite. Our chilled limbs craved a warm, comforting meal. Something that required simmering, included carbs, and plenty of cheese. Pasta was the obvious answer. But we wanted something special to mark this momentous weather occasion. This ragù, adapted from the always trustworthy NYT, perfectly fit our needs. It is the ultimate Saturday night let’s just chill inside and watch a movie meal. And though your plans may be low-key, prepare to be mind-blown by this ragù. That is not hyperbole!! It is ideal for dinner, lunch leftovers, or at around 3am, after you’ve had too much red wine and find yourself in a drunken, hungry stupor.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb spicy Italian sausage
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, minced
  • 2-3 medium sized carrots, peeled and minced
  • 3 celery stalks, minced
  • 1/3 cup parsley, minced + extra for garnish
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes (San Marzano are best!) + juice
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 3 TBS tomato paste + 1 cup hot water
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 lb tubular pasta – rigatoni, penne, cavatappi, etc.
  • plenty of fresh grated parm!

Directions:

  1. With the tip of your knife, slit open sausage casings. Crumble meat into a heavy pot or skillet (Dutch oven, cast iron pan both work very well) and set over medium-low heat. If the meat is not rendering enough fat to coat the bottom of the pan, add some olive oil. Saute, breaking up any large chunks, until the meat has turned opaque (not yet brown!).  Should take about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the onion, carrots, celery, parsley, and garlic and stir. Drizzle some more oil if the pan seems dry. Cook over very low heat, stirring often, until the vegetables have begun to caramelize in the fat and the meat is a nice deep brown. This could take up to 40 minutes! Just stir occasionally, make sure nothing is sticking to the pan, and let the flavors develop. You will taste the difference!
  3. Add tomatoes and their juices. Break up the tomatoes by squeezing them into the pan with your hands or crushing with a spoon. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, lower heat and add thyme and oregano. Simmer, uncovered, until thickened and pan is almost dry, about 20-25 minutes.
  4. About midway through this simmer, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for your pasta. Boil pasta until al dente.
  5. At the end of the simmering, mix tomato paste in 1 cup hot water. Add to pan and reduce heat to very low. Cook for about ten minutes more.
  6. Ideally, your pasta is finished right around the same time as your ragù! If sauce seems thick, you can add in a little pasta water. You can mix the hot pasta directly with the ragù or plate individually (we prefer the latter, allows everyone to decide on their pasta to ragù ratio). Serve with lots of freshly grated parm and some parsley!

Details: Serves about 4. You’re gonna want a big portion.

To print the recipe, click here: Sausage Ragù

~ Classico ~ Spaghetti + Meatballs

On By lukephillaryhIn Classico2 Comments
Spaghetti Meatballs homemade
The Meatballs

Hillary says, “if you’re not using at least two kinds of meats in your balls, your balls aren’t the best they can be!”

Ingredients – meatballs:

  • 1 1/2-2 lbs ground meat > recommended: 1 lb pork, 1/2 lb beef, 1/4 lb ground lamb or veal
  • 1/4 cup lard
  • 1 cup white bread crumbs
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped and cooked 10-15 minutes (semi caramelized)
  • Approximately 1/3 cup grated parmesan
  • 3 TBS finely chopped parsley
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 tsp toasted fennel seeds, ground
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 eggs, beaten

Ingredients – sauce:

  • olive oil – to coat pan
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/3 cup red wine
  • 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • spices: salt, pepper, 1 1/2 tsp

Directions:

  1. Meatballs: Mix all the ingredients, except the eggs, which should be beaten separately. Then add to mixture and combine.  Cover and let sit for at least 30 minutes while working on sauce.  Can also chill up to 2 days in the fridge.
  2.  Sauce: Heat a cast iron skillet, dutch oven, etc. over medium heat and add olive oil and then onions.  Stirring often, cook 4-5 minutes.  Then add red pepper flakes and garlic, cooking 1-2 minutes more.  Add wine and reduce to a glaze, 2-4 minutes more.  Add water and tomatoes, season, bring to a boil and then lower or turn off heat.  Keep warm and return to meatballs.
  3. Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or use nonstick sheets).  Make balls, aiming for golf ball size, and place on baking sheets.  Bake in oven till brown, 10-12 minutes, flipping the meatballs halfway through cooking.
  4. Transfer meatballs to sauce and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes.  Prepare spaghetti while meatballs and sauce are simmering.

Serve with lots of parm!! (Hillary’s suggestion)

Details: Makes 20-25 meatballs (approx. 3 days worth of leftovers)

To print the recipe, click here: ~ Classico ~ Spaghetti + Meatballs