Two pastas walk into a bar . . .

June 11 – June 17, 2023

Sunday:                     Spaghetti with Pancetta, Onion and Marinara Sauce

Monday:                   Graduation Party for Jimmy and Liam at PFC

Tuesday:                   Avocado Chicken Salad with Jicama and Banana Peppers

Wednesday:            Sweet and Spicy Grilled Vegetables with Burrata

Thursday:                 Sweet and Spicy Pork Chops, Green Bean, Almond and Feta Salad, Fried potatoes

Friday:                       Driftwood Oven Pizza from Local Provisions

Saturday:              Zucchini Pasta Carbonara

Jimmy and Liam, a prologue:  On Monday we attended a graduation party for Jimmy and Liam and had a chance to talk with them and other bright and beautiful young people and came home reassured about the future, convinced that the world is no longer going to hell in a handbasket and ready to risk some more money in the stock market.  There was simply no place for this comment in the blog – nor is it, strictly speaking a prologue – but we wanted to tell you about a fine night spent with some fine young people.

Two pastas walk into a bar . . .

There are so many jokes I want to share with you, but I understand that the young and the tender-hearted sometimes see this blog, despite the best efforts of their parents and so, reluctantly, I will require a face-to-face meeting before I share the joke about the slip of the tongue, the one about the priest, the rabbi and the minister and the fine tale about the Irish cleric hearing his first confession.  If you’re coming over to hear them, please bring some whiskey.

We cooked a lot of good stuff last week, including on Saturday and Sunday when brother-in-law Bill and his lovely, lively friend Gail were visiting.  But we’ve already shared the gazpacho and the frittata and chops (Gail is a non-scolding, easy to get along with vegetarian) with you on previous posts.  And the chicken salad, while worthy, would have been our third vegetarian post in a row, decimating my readership among the cowboys of the mountain states and the biker gangs in our own area.  And you, dear reader, would have gotten entirely the wrong idea about our personal tastes and prejudices.  But ask me about that chicken salad any time you see me – and maybe I’ll share one of those jokes as well.

We’re going to clue you in on two pastas we cooked – one made up on the fly and one from the pages of Milk Street Magazine.  But now that I think about it, with the exception of pancetta, and in spite of my carnivorous predilections , we are staying in the vegetable arena – normal pasta*, after all, is made from wheat, and zucchini is big in the vegetarian food space.  [I never encountered a zucchini in my childhood – roughly 1949 – 1963.  How odd that they are now ubiquitous in American cuisine – or perhaps American cuisine before the last several decades was a bit odd.]

*I have heard about pasta made from cauliflower, millet, lentils and other substances.  These are, of course, like Frankenstein’s monster, sins against God and nature.  By the way, there is a theologian who holds that cauliflower and brussels sprouts were created by God to introduce some adversity into the lives of happy children so that adulthood would not come as a complete shock.

 

Pantry Pasta with Pancetta

Timing:                                         20 minutes

Ingredients:

Actually, you can use anything you like.  We were a bit fatigued last Sunday and couldn’t face the prospect of another trip to the market.  So what we used was:

Spaghetti

Pancetta (about 2/3 of one of those pre-diced packages available in most markets)

½ red onion, chopped

A shake or two of garlic salt

½ teaspoon dried oregano

A jar of Trader Joe’s Marinara Sauce

Red pepper flakes

Basil leaves and grated pecorino for serving

Obviously, you can use any ingredients you like.  If you don’t have the pancetta, cook down a few anchovy fillets in hot olive oil and add some chopped up ham.  Or use chopped broccoli.

To Cook and Serve:

You know how to cook spaghetti – be sure you reserve some of the pasta water before you drain the spaghetti.  And before you even cook the spaghetti, cook the sauce:

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium and, when shimmering, add the pancetta with a dusting of garlic salt or just plain kosher salt.  Cook until the pancetta is golden and not quite crisp.  Now add the onion and the oregano and cook until softened.  Add the marinara sauce and bring to a simmer for a few minutes to marry all the flavors.  Taste and add salt and pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.

Now cook the spaghetti and, during the last three minutes of cooking it, reheat the sauce.  Reserve a few ladles of pasta cooking water and drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce and toss to coat (this will take some time with the tongs).  Add the pasta water to achieve the consistency you want.

Serve with basil leaves and grated cheese.

ROMAN ZUCCHINI CARBONARA

(adapted from Milk Street Magazine, July-Aug, 2023) 

Timing:                                 40 minutes – 1 hour

Ingredients: 

1 ½ pounds small to medium zucchini, sliced into ¼-inch rounds

1 pound rigatoni, mezzi rigatoni or ziti (we used mezzi rigatoni – the perfect size for this dish)

2 large eggs

NOTE:  The recipe calls for 1 ounce each of finely grated Parmigiano and finely grated pecorino.  We don’t think you need that much cheese – we used ½ cup or maybe a bit more of the pecorino alone.

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil – divided

2 large garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Red pepper flakes

Prep:

Slice the zucchini

Grate the cheese

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, cheese or cheeses, lemon zest, 1 teaspoon black pepper and set aside.

Fill a Dutch oven with cold water and put it on a back burner to get to a boil.

Cook:

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, pour in 1 ½ tablespoons of the oil and the garlic and heat over medium until lightly browned – stir occasionally.  This should take 3 – 5 minutes.  Remove and discard the garlic.

Now add half the zucchini in a single layer and sprinkle with salt.  Cook, without stirring, until golden brown on the bottoms – 3-5 minutes.  Now flip the zucchini and redistribute in a single layer and cook until golden brown on the second sides and transfer to a plate.

Add the other 1 ½ tablespoons of oil to the skillet and cook the remaining zucchini – off the heat, add the first batch of zucchini and any juices and the red pepper flakes to the skillet and set aside.

Bring that pot of water to a boil, add a good amount of salt and stir in the pasta – stirring, occasionally, to make sure that it doesn’t clump.  When al dente, reserve two ladles of pasta cooking water and drain and return the pasta to the pot.

Now add the zucchini and a ladleful of the pasta water and cook over medium-high, stirring, until heated through – 1 or 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat, then add the egg mixture and stir until the sauce thickens a bit and clings to the pasta and the zucchini – 2 minutes or a bit more.  Add more pasta water if you like, to get the consistency you prefer.

Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Serve, sprinkled with more black pepper and grated cheese.