Growing up in the economically challenging '60s and '70's saw us eating "macaroni" often. From American Chop Suey, which could stretch a half a pound of ground beef, assorted vegetables, canned tomatoes and 8 ounces of dry elbow macaroni to feed a family of 6 with a few neighborhood friends tossed in for good measure, to my personal favorite of yesteryear, Spaghetti and Meatballs...we ate macaroni perhaps two or three nights a week...and my mother was Irish! She was a whiz at mixing ground meat or chicken, some frozen vegetables, Campbell's cream of something and macaroni in a casserole, popped it in an oven and voila...dinner...it was edible, inexpensive and mostly forgettable! Sorry Mom.
In 1969, Prince Pasta introduced Anthony, running through the streets of Boston's North End and creating in my life, MY first food tradition...Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day...and to this day, I'd say probably 3 out of 4 Wednesdays each month, I am serving some sort of pasta to my family. It just seems so right. As a kid, I poured over the recipes on the back of Prince Pasta boxes. I still use the Italian Wedding Soup recipe...modified a bit, from the back of the Pastina box. Speaking of Pastina...it will show up in our little family's food history later on! I will never, ever forget that mother hanging out the window yelling, "Anthony!!"
In 1978, I started dating a nice Italian boy (and 33 years later, 28 of them married, we are still together). His mother introduced me to 'pah-stah'. Once married to her son, she taught me the secret family recipe for sauce...not gravy...and although I have tweaked the recipe a bit over the years...it is a staple in our home. I knew I had become a good cook when my dear (departed) father-in-law proclaimed that my sauce was better than his Louise's! By the way, as it was explained to me, the debate over sauce versus gravy has two arguments. The first is sauce is tomato based with "whole meats" like meatballs, sausage, sliced pork added to it and gravy is a tomato or brown sauce thas has ground meat cooked into it, like a bolognese. The other argument is that if you live in the north of Italy, you use gravy on your food, if you hail from southern Italy and Sicily, it is sauce. I dunno...I make several types of sauces and gravies for all sorts of things!
Over the course of our lives, pasta has been a constant. Barbo family recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. When the clan gets together, we serve pasta...everyone likes it and it makes a ton! As a Barbo "outlaw" with a creative culinary streak, (I am not Italian...I think my husband's family is over that fact now...I am Irish with a smidge of Alsace, as well as half Dutch), I am pleased to say that I have added a few pasta recipes and modified some classics for our families.
The first time I ever had my mother-in-law's Pasta Fagioli (prounced bastah fa-jool), macaroni transformed evermore into PASTA. Who knew pasta and beans could be soooo wonderfully delicious. The first "real" food our children ate after rice cereal and baby food out of a jar was Prince Pastina... cooked tiny grains of pasta, lightly sauced with the Barbo family tomato sauce recipe...my children refused baby food from a jar after that and so I made their food from scratch with thanks to a trusty food mill!
When my children are sick, they don't want chicken soup, they want Eggy Noodle Soup...a homemade concoction that soothes a sore throat and surprisingly settles stomachs. Using homemade chicken broth, I'd cook some sort of small shaped pasta like Pastina, Stars or Alphabets, or Angel Hair pasta, broken into small pieces. I'd add a teaspoon of butter to the broth, some chopped parsley and 2 minutes before the pasta was "done" I would drizzle a beaten egg into the boiling broth, creating fine ribbons of egg in the soup. If I were feeding a cold, I'd add some freshly cracked black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese to the soup...if I were treating someone with a "bug", then I would add an ice cube to cool it down some and the added water diluted the soup just enough to make it easier to eat. To this day, my adult children and husband ask for it when something ails them!
Having had the blessings and luxury of traveling at home and internationally over the past ten years, I have been on the lookout for new and interesting pasta dishes. Like I said earlier, pasta is one of those key elements to our family food history, and much like bread, almost every culture has their own pasta. I have enjoyed couscous prepared in a tajine in the south of France, spaetzle in Austria, gnocchi (both potato and cheese) in Italy, perogies, stuffed pastas, kugel and so much more from all my travels.
Most chefs will tell you that they won't eat pasta out in restaurants...it is "cheap" to make, keeps well and is the money maker for many a restaurant...if they are going to take time to eat out and spend $$$, they would rather eat something they are not apt to make themselves. I think they are missing the bigger picture. Yeah, paying more than $5 for a bowl of spaghetti is counter-intuitive for someone in the food industry, but some of the best and most comforting food I have eaten is pasta. I make a Truffled Lobster Macaroni and Cheese (3 cheeses)...that deserves a $25 price tag! It is labor intensive and certainly a labor of love. It is our Christmas Eve dinner, and the stuff of memories.
For most Americans, pasta/macaroni is a vehicle to transport some sort of sauce...but I hope to challenge that notion, in that a pasta dish done well is a fine marriage of starch to sauce or other accompaniment...a balance. The shape of pasta matters too...cut shapes, tubes, strands, large, medium or small, thick or thin...layered, stuffed or slathered, each type of pasta brings a special something to the plate.
My personal preference is the smaller or thinner the pasta, the lighter and fresher the sauce/accompaniment should be...denser, thicker or wide pasta can handle heartier sauces. For example, I love Angel Hair pasta, but the fine strands are lost in my traditional tomato sauce, so I make a fresh cherry tomato sauce with herbs and grilled shrimp for this light and tasty pasta.
Fresh Cherry Tomato Pan Sauce (serves 4)
1 quart of Cherry tomatoes halved, set aside a cup of fresh tomatoes for garnish
1 cup dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup reserved pasta water (if needed)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves, torn
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves torn, 2 tbsp reserved for garnish
2 tbsp fresh parsley, rough chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
Hot pepper flakes to taste
8 ounces Angel Hair pasta, cooked in boiling salted water for 3 minutes, drained
*reserve 1/2 cup pasta water for sauce if needed
Garnish with shredded Parmesan cheese, basil and reserved halved cherry tomatoes
Method:
In a large saute pan, add oil and butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add minced garlic, shallot and tomatoes, sauteeing until the tomatoes soften, about 4 -5 minutes; stir often to prevent garlic from burning. Add spinach and herbs to pan, cooking until just wilted. Add wine and broth to pan and bring to a gently simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add cooked Angel Hair pasta to the pan, mixing thoroughly. Add up to 1/2 cup of the pasta water if the pasta and sauce seem "dry". Season with salt, pepper and pepper flakes. Serve immediately.
Garnish with fresh basil, cheese and fresh cherry tomato halves.
Serve with skewers of grilled shrimp.
There are so many varieties of pasta out there, that I think it quite possible that one could probably eat a different pasta dish every day for at least a month without eating the same shape twice! In recent months, I have gravitated toward couscous as an alternative to potatoes and rice. My favorite is Israeli couscous, large pearls of semolina pasta that are perfect in soups, salads and as a side, dressed with herbs and flavored oils. Orchiette, a dense pasta from the Puglia region of Italy is another of my new favorites. The robust, ear-shaped pasta is the prefect foil for cheese and broccoli or broccoli rabi.
For our family and friends holiday party, I prepare a white wine and sun-dried tomato sauce with assorted seafood to pour over a long, wide and flat noodle called Mother-in-Law's Tongue. The multi-colored pasta with the serrated edges are supposed to be reminiscent of mother-in-law's sharp yet colorful and witty tongue!
From whole wheat to whole grains, pasta is no longer a forbidden carbohydrate. Flavored pastas, colored pastas and "pasta" made from fresh veggies...all add variety and possibilities for even the most health conscious among us. I have made ribbons from zucchini and summer squash. blanched and topped them with a fresh tomato salsa...no starchy carbs there. I love spaghetti squash...the first time I served it to my family, I mixed the squash in with spaghetti...and my kids didn't notice! I got a new veggie into their diets...woohoo! Still, it is wise to check the pasta packaging for serving size...most American restaurants serve mass quantities of pasta...it is that value thing...but pasta/macaroni/noodles/sketti...when done right satisfies on so many levels!
Here's to Wednesday...Pasta Day..."ANTHONY!"...a tavolo my friends!
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