Read The Minimalist Cooks Dinner Online
Authors: Mark Bittman
The Minimalist Cooks Dinner (7 page)
| WINE | Anything from strong, sturdy, high-class red, like super-Tuscan, good Bordeaux, or California Meritage, to Beaujolais, Chianti, or Côtes du Rhône wine |
| SERVE WITH | Made with asparagus, Glazed Carrots . Made with carrots, Steamed Broccoli (or Other Vegetable) . Simple Green Salad goes well with both versions. (This pasta can also serve as a side dish if you like, and would be perfect next to a breaded sautéed chicken cutlet, for example.) |
YOU MUST USE
cut pasta here, because long pasta is far too unwieldy for this treatment.
IF YOU’RE USING
canned stock and have a little time, heat it with an onion, a carrot, and a garlic clove before beginning to add it to the pasta. And don’t salt the dish until you’re done cooking; canned stock can be overly salty.
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Substitute peeled carrots, cut into small chunks, for the asparagus; they add vivid color and a marked sweetness. Or experiment with other vegetables.
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Any sharp grated cheese will fill in well for the Parmigiano-Reggiano, especially Pecorino Romano.
Gricia
TIME:
30 minutes
MAKES:
3 main-course to 6 first-course servings
There is an important and splendid group of pasta recipes that is associated with Rome and the area around it; all the variations begin with bits of cured meat cooked until crisp. Around these delightfully crispy bits—and, of course, their rendered fat—are built a number of difference sauces of increasing complexity. The first contains no more than meat and grated cheese 3 and is called pasta alla gricia; the second, in which eggs are added, is the well-known pasta (usually spaghetti) carbonara, one of the first authentic nontomato pasta dishes to become popular in the United States, about thirty years ago; and the third is pasta all’Amatriciana, which adds the sweetness of cooked onions and the acidity of tomatoes.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup minced guanciale, pancetta, or bacon (about ¼ pound)
Salt
1 pound linguine or another long pasta
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano, or more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Begin heating water for the pasta. In a small saucepan, combine the oil and meat and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is nicely browned, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Salt the boiling pasta water and cook the pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Before draining the pasta, remove about a cup of the cooking water and reserve it.
Toss the drained pasta with the meat and its juices; stir in the cheese. If the mixture is dry, add a little of the pasta cooking water (or a little olive oil). Toss in lots of black pepper and serve.
| WINE | Crisp white, like Pinot Grigio or even Frascati, with the Pasta alla Gricia and Spaghetti Carbonara; Chianti or another light red with Pasta all’ Amatriciana |
| SERVE WITH | 60-Minute Bread or good store-bought bread; Simple Green Salad |
COOKBOOKS AND ARTICLES
about Italian cooking insist that the “genuine” meat for these recipes is pancetta—salted, cured, and rolled pork belly. Pancetta is available in almost any decent Italian deli and in many specialty stores, but for those of us who cannot obtain pancetta, bacon—which is also pork belly, but cured and smoked—is an adequate substitute. (In fact, the first choice for these dishes is guanciale, salted and cured pig jowl; but that’s hard to find.)
SIMILARLY
, Pecorino Romano is “essential” to pasta alla gricia, Parmigiano-Reggiano is the most commonly used cheese in carbonara, and the Amatriciana-style sauce is at home with either. But, again, you can choose whatever you like—no one is looking.
Spaghetti
Carbonara: Steps 1 and 2 are the
same. While the pasta is cooking, warm a large bowl and beat 3 eggs in it. Stir in about ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and the pancetta and its juices. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss with the egg mixture. If the mixture is dry (unlikely), add a little reserved cooking water. Add plenty of black pepper and some more cheese and serve.
Pasta all’Amatriciana:
Step 1 is the same. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and, in the juices left behind, sauté a sliced, medium onion over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until well softened, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool a bit. Stir in 2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; drain them first) and turn the heat back to medium. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, while you cook the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss it with the tomato sauce, the reserved pancetta, and at least ½ cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
Anchovies and
Arugula
TIME:
30 minutes
MAKES:
3 main-course to 6 first-course servings
A quick way to add great flavor to many simple dinner dishes is already sitting in your pantry or cupboard: It’s a can of anchovies. Anchovies are among the original convenience foods and contribute an intense shot of complex brininess that is more like Parmigiano-Reggiano than like canned tuna. Use them, along with garlic, as the base for a bold tomato sauce, or combine them, as I do here, with greens, garlic, oil, and chiles for a white sauce that packs a punch.
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and slivered
8 anchovy fillets, or more to taste, with some of their oil
2 cups trimmed arugula, washed, dried, and chopped
Salt
1 pound linguine or other long pasta
Freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon or more crushed red pepper flakes
Begin heating water for the pasta. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a deep skillet, turn the heat to medium, and heat for a minute. Add the garlic and anchovies. When the garlic sizzles and the anchovies break up, turn the heat to the minimum.
Salt the boiling pasta water and cook the pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and drain. Add the pasta and the arugula to the skillet, along with enough of the reserved cooking water to make a sauce; turn the heat to medium and stir for a minute. Add salt and pepper to taste, plus a pinch or more of the red pepper flakes.
Turn into a bowl, toss with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, and serve.
| WINE | White and very crisp, like Muscadet or Pinot Grigio; inexpensive Chardonnay would also be good |
| SERVE WITH | Roasted Peppers; 60-Minute Bread or good store-bought bread |
ANCHOVIES
come in three forms: canned, paste, and salted. Canned are most familiar, and they are a nearly ideal convenience food. It’s worth pointing out that you want to buy those packed in olive oil, never soy or cottonseed oil; the ingredients should read “anchovies, olive oil, salt”—no more. Anchovy paste is marginally more convenient. But it’s more than twice as expensive by weight as canned anchovies and it often contains cream, butter, preservatives, and other unnecessary ingredients. Salted anchovies, which are sold in bulk in Italian markets from a large can or bucket, are delicious, but a hassle: Before using them, you must rinse them and peel each fillet off the skeleton.
Greens with Anchovies, Pine Nuts, and Raisins:
To make this into a nonpasta vegetable dish, follow step 1 as described, then stir in ½ cup each of raisins and pine nuts. Cook for a minute, then add 4 cups of any washed and chopped bitter greens—spinach, arugula, or kale, for example—with about ½ cup water. Cover and cook until the greens are tender, from 5 minutes for spinach or arugula to as long as 20 for kale. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Cauliflower
TIME:
40 minutes
MAKES:
3 main-course to 6 first-course servings
Pasta with stewed vegetables—I most often choose cauliflower, but there are many other options—is the one-pot meal I turn to most often when I’m desperate to get something quick, healthy, and filling on the table. It begins with poaching cauliflower, then uses the same water to cook the pasta. The cauliflower and pasta ultimately finish cooking in a mix of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs, and some of the reserved cooking water. The fundamental procedures are easy, and build a wonderfully flavorful dish with just a few ingredients.
1 head cauliflower (about 1 pound)
Salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup coarse bread crumbs
1 pound penne, ziti, or other cut pasta
Freshly ground black pepper
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Trim the cauliflower and divide it into florets. Salt the water, add the cauliflower, and cook until the cauliflower is tender but not mushy. Remove the cauliflower and set it aside; when it is cool enough to handle, chop it roughly into small pieces.
Combine the oil and garlic in a large, deep skillet over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally until the garlic is golden, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the same water that you used for the cauliflower.
When the garlic is golden, add the cauliflower and bread crumbs to the skillet and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally. When the pasta is just about done—it should be 2 or 3 minutes shy of being the way you like it—drain it, reserving about a cup of the cooking liquid.
Add the pasta to the skillet with the cauliflower and toss with a large spoon until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with some of the pasta water to keep the mixture from drying out. When the mixture is hot and the pasta tender and nicely glazed, serve.
| WINE | Chianti, Beaujolais, or another light red |
| SERVE WITH | Simple Green Salad |
BE CAREFUL
with the garlic—it should not brown in the oil but just begin to color.
MAKE SURE YOU
drain the pasta well short of the done-ness stage, because you want to spend 3 to 4 minutes tossing it in the olive oil along with some of the cooking water, without it becoming too soft.