Bear Cuisine

A Working Girl's Pasta

Tomato season will soon be upon us. Then it will be time to make this beautiful pasta dish.

Puttanesca Pugliese

PUTTANESCA PUGLIESE

(serves 4 to 6)

 

1. About 4 cups ice cubes
2. 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
3. 3 tablespoons tightly packed basil leaves
4. 1 teaspoon each tightly packed fresh marjoram and Italian parsley
5. 1 clove garlic
6. Generous pinch of hot red pepper flakes
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 2 oil-packed anchovy filets, rinsed
9. 1/3 cup brine-cured olives such as Kalamata pitted and coarsely chopped
10. 3 pounds richly flavored tomatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice
11. 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
12. 1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese
13. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
14. 1 tablespoon tomato paste
15. Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. 1 pound spaghetti
2. Abundant boiling salted water
3. 1/3 cup tightly packed arugula, coarsely chopped

 

Put half the ice cubes in a medium bowl,add the onion and top with the rest of the cubes. Cover with cold water. Refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.Drain. (Chilling the onion in ice water makes it crisp and mild.)

Mince together the herbs, garlic, and hot pepper with the salt. Turn into a big serving bowl.Add the anchovies, olives, tomatoes, vinegar, cheese and oil and blend in the tomato paste. Taste for seasoning, add a little freshly ground black pepper if needed.

Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling salted water, stirring often, until it is "al dente" (barely tender but firm to the bite). Drain in a colander.

Put the pasta pot back over medium-high heat. Spoon most of the sauce's liquid that has formed into the pot. Stir in the drained pasta and cook a few minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. Turn the pasta into bowl with the sauce and add the drained onion and fresh arugula.

Taste for seasoning, toss and serve.

Source: Christine Hickman

 

A Forager's Supper

No, I haven't taken to the woods or high desert in search of supper ingredients. This version of foraging involves standing in front of the refrigerator and the pantry shelves to see what is available. This perusal offered spaghetti, heavy cream,a really good hunk of Parmigiana-Reggiano,ham and frozen peas. The dish came together so easily it hardly merits a recipe.

Spaghetti with Ham and Peas

 

Spaghetti with Ham and Peas.

(serves 2)

1. 5 ounces cooked peas.
2. 1 cup chopped ham
3. 8 ounces spaghetti
4. 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
5. 1-1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan
6. Parsley, chopped roughly (optional)

 

Cook the peas quickly in boiling salted water. Drain and set aside.

Chop the ham and set aside.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water.

While the spaghetti is cooking, heat the cream in a large saute pan and reduce to about 1 cup. Stir in the grated cheese. When the spaghetti is finished cooking, drain it and stir into the cream and cheese mixture. Stir in the ham and peas. Stir until the spaghetti is throughly coated withe sauce and the ham and peas are evenly distributed. If needed add a bit of the pasta cooking water to make the sauce creamier.

Put the pasta into serving bowls and top with chopped parsley if desired.

I have to say that this was incredibly quick to make and incredibly delicious to eat.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I hadn't thought about this dish for years. It was a staple of my graduate student and young teacher days--tasty ,inexpensive and filling. In those days, I considered it a dinner party dish. I was reminded of it while I was looking through my cookbooks the other day. I found two that have been with me ever since the early 70's and one of them contained my first recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara.

The Food Stamp Gourmet by William Brown has recipes that still sound good and I just love his drawings. They are reminiscent of R.Crumb's work which illustrates Eat It by Dana Crumb. I consider them companion volumes and mementos of a simpler time. At least, in my memory it was less complex. But when my vision isn't fogged by nostalgia, I know that every time is complicated. No Edens in our human history. But I digress.... Back to the dish at hand.

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

(serves 4)

• 5 ounces pancetta or bacon
  
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
  
• 1 pound spaghetti
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  

Dice pancetta and cook in a heavy skillet until fat begins to render. Add onion and cook until onion is golden. Add wine and boil until reduced by half.

Cook spaghetti in a 6 quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente.

As pasta is cooking, stir together eggs. cheese. salt and pepper in a bowl.

Drain pasta and add to pancetta-onion mixture. Stir until pasta is coated. Remove from heat and add egg-cheese mixture, stirring to combine.  Top with chopped scallions or parsley. Serve immediately.

As I think about it this could still be a casual dinner party dish--especially in these lean times.

Spaghetti Nicoise

This is quick, easy and quite delicious. The key to this dish is excellent tuna;so get the very best you find. It will be well worth it.

SPAGHETTI NICOISE

(serves 4)

• 8 ounces bucatini or spaghetti
• 3 large garlic cloves minced
• 2 (6-oz) cans tuna in olive oil, drained, 2 tablespoons oil reserved
• 6 rolled anchovies with capers, 2 tablespoons oil reserved*
• 2 (14.5-ounces) cans diced tomatoes with green pepper and onions
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup sliced pitted Nicoise or Kalamata olives
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
2. Meanwhile, cook garlic in reserved oil from tuna and anchovies in large skillet over medium=low heat 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add anchovies; cook 1 minute, mashing with back of spoon. Stir in tomatoes and wine, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
3. Uncover;simmer gently 5 minutes. Stir in tuna, olives and 2 tablespoons of the parsley. Simmer 1 to 2 minutes or until tuna is hot, stirring gently to just break up tuna into chunks.
4. Toss pasta with sauce and remaining 2 tablespoons parsley.

* You can, of course, use anchovies and capers which have been bottled separately.  

(from Cooking Pleasures. October/November 2008) 

Tomatoes Galore

This is the time I wait for all year. (There are many such times. You might think my life is a perpetual Advent.) This particular long-awaited season is when tomatoes ripen in profusion. There is simply no comparison with the pale almost-square objects which pass for tomatoes during the winter.

Some friends were going out of town and gave us these beauties. Time to make one of our favorite tomato sauces.

TOMATO SAUCE II

(for six servings)

• 2 pounds fresh, ripe plum tomatoes (can use other than plum tomatoes)
  
• 2/3 cup chopped carrot
  
• 2/3 cup chopped celery
  
• 2/3 cup chopped onion
  
• Salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
  
• 1/2 cup olive oil
  

1. Wash the tomatoes in cold water. Cut them in half, lengthwise. cook in a covered stockpot or saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes.

2. Add the carrot, celery, onion, 2 teaspoons salt, and sugar and cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

3. Pour everything through a food mill, return to the pan, add the olive oil, and cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. Taste and correct for salt.

If using canned tomatoes: Use 2 cups tomatoes and their juice. Start the recipe at Step 2, cooking the tomatoes withe vegetables as directed.

(Marcella Hazan. The Classic Italian Cookbook.)

This freezes well. It's so wonderful to make this in the late summer and early fall and then pull the sun-ripened goodness out of your freezer in the winter when nothing is growing except your restlessness and desire for spring.