Måned: februar 2015

Gnoccchi: are they pasta or dumplings?

I say they are both, whitch allows me to include my favourite gnocchi recipes in this book. These beautiful potato (or not) cushions are another masterpiece of la cucina italiana. They should be soft and light enough that you can squash them against your palate with your tongue to get instant flavour.

Gnocchi are so nourishing and comforting that in Italy, when you are sad or something has gone wrong, we say : «Vai a casa che la mamma ha ta fa i gnocchi» (Go home so mammy can make you some gnocchi)

There are many types of gnocchi, with different sizes, shape and of cource, sauces, and we discuss many of them in this chapter – including some made without potatos, these potato-less gnocchi have different names in different in different parts of Italy but all are from poor and peasant origins. Have seen some being prepeared by my mother or my Aunty  Anna; others i have only been told by members of the family Some are the same size as regular gnocchi , while others are much bigger Most of the time they are cooked water and and then tossed in the sauce, but occationally they are cooked directly in the sauce. the one thing they all have in common is that they are deliziosi

In Italy baked pasta (pasta al forno) does not mean only lasagne or cannelloni. There are many dishes, made with dried or fresh pasta that can be finished in the oven, and every region has its specialities.

In fact, backed pasta seems to have been the first kind of pasta made in Italy. The Romans (rich once, at least) liked to roll out sheets of dough, cut them into wide strips, then  them with meat sauce and cheese, and bake them in the oven. they called these dishes lagana and we can see little the word – and the recepie – has changed over time.

Nowadays baked pastas are usally made on festive days or special occations such as weddings. They range from a very simple pasta gratinata where pasta is tossed, placed in a baking dish with or without bechamel, sprinkled with parmesan and placed under the grill. then there is the timballo, where pasta and sauces are layered in an oven dish, each layer being finished with cheese (parmesan or mozzarella), and then baked. But the ultimate baked pasta dish would have to be timpano, where a large baking dish is firstlayered with pastery or grilled eggplant, then filled with pasta and very substantial sauces containing meatballs, sausages, salami and cheeses, whitch are then covered with more layers of pastry or eggplants and baked. the result is a wonderfull cake-style layered dish, which is carefully sliced and eaten with as mutch passion as it takes to make it.

the shape of your pasta parcels realy comes down to your own personal preference: they can be square, round rectangulare, cresent, oval, triangular, diamond-shaped or even shaped like hats, rings or monybags. Their name vary according to the type of filling, their region of orgion and their size. such that it would be almost impossible to classify all the filled pastas avalible around Italy. Sometimes it seems to me that some of the shapes where invented by mothers-in-law purly to make life difficult for for the wives of their sons!

When making any filled pasta the dough must must be as thin and elastic as possible. Roll out the pasta dough into very thin sheets, then place the filling on the pasta in evenly spaced mounds. Brush the exposed edges of the pasta with a little water or beaten egg to help it stick together. Use your your fingers to gently push out any air around the filling (air bubbles will expand during cooking and can cause the pasta parcels to explode) then seal all the edges securely, lay the filled pasta on floured tea towels making sure they do not touch each other, and sprinkle lightly with more flour.

The most important thing in ravioli is the filling, which must not be too soft or too wet. below are some ideas of for ideas for a few basic fillings: I leave the shape of ravioli and the choise of sauce to your creativity, But if you run out of ideas or time one day, just remember that in my regionof Liguria, where simplicity is a virtue, we say «Ravioli are very good, but with olive oil and parmesan they are even better»

Ravioli orginated as a way to use chopped-up leftovers to feed workers quickly. The earliest form of raviolo was a kind of miniature pie that was boiled instead of baked, but it has since evolved into the jewel of Italian cooking. Over the centuries, it has grown more refined with the pasta being stretched so thinly that it becomes translutians, letting you glimpse the colours inside.

Regional variations on ravioli (the generic name i use for all parts of filled pasta parcels) have since multiplied all over Italy, but it is in the northwest , particulary Liguria and Pidemont, that they have reached their peak – made in dazzling variety for all sorts of spesial occations.

as a child i remember that whenever there was an birthday in our family, my mother would say «Ti faccio i ravioli» (i will make ravioli for you) She’d chop the ingredients for the filling, put on the ragu for the sauce sprinkle the board with flour and start rolling out the two layers of pasta dough. We always knew that these parcels would be much better than any presset, because she was making something with her own hands for us.

Fresh pasta (pasta fresca) hails mainly from the north and centre of Italy, where the sun does not shine as strongly as it does in the south, so pasta is made to be eaten straight away rather than being slowly dried.

There are many regional variations when it comes to making pasta dough. In Emilia Romagna, particulary in Bologna, they like to use a lot of eggs, which  results in a very yellow , rich pasta. Ligurians use fewer eggs – sometimes only one to each half a kilo of flour – to produce a lighter pasta in terms of both colour and density sometimes an almost white pasta is made without any eggs at all,

Once you have mastered the art of making fresh pasta – and this might take a few attempts – i hope you will enjoy making it and find it a very satisfying experience. but but of course if time is an issue and you can find some good-quality fresh pasta from the shop by all means buy it!

as for choise of sauce fettuccine, tagliatelle, pappardelle, lasagnette and maltagliati all go well with rich sauces – particuarly ragus , thick tomato sauces, and thick cream sauces, such as tomato sauces, light cream sauces and those based on butter and oil

pasta with salsa a crudo (uncooked sauce) is hot pasta tossed quickly with a cold, uncooked sauce and served immediately, while still warm.

Most dressings of this kind cannot be prepeared and used stright away, but rather need to rest for fifteen minutes to an hour, to allow all the ingredients to macerate and infuse their flavours. those that are used straight away will bennefit from a squeeze of lemon juice.

These preparation must not be confused with cold pasta salads. When you make a pasta salad, the pasta is cooked al dente, then drained and refreshed under cold water to stop the cooking process. the pasta is dressed when it is cold. Personally i am not a fan of pasta salads – I see no point in running a beatiful salad with cold pasta

But when you make pasta with salsa a crudo it is only the sauce that is cold the pasta must be hot and cooked al dente, for these sauces i surgest you to use Ligurain olive oil for its beatifully delicate, fruity flavour.

A crudo sauces are excellent for hot summer days and nights – for full enjoyment, i urge you to act quickly and eat the pasta immediately, while it is still warm.

Dried pasta (pasta secca) is the most-eaten pasta in Italy and all over the world. Light and comfortable to digest, it is easier to handle than fresh pasta and can be stored for longer, so you can keep a wide selection of shapes in the pantry tosuit different moods and sauces.

Don’t scrimp when it comes to buying dried pasta. go for quality rather than price, and be sure the pasta is made with proper durum wheat (which allows the pasta to be cooked al dente).

With cheaper pasta, the quality will likely be compromised by the use of inferior wheat and to rapid drying process Your safest option is to buy Italian. the south of italy is where the drum wheat grown and where, over centruries, the art of slow-drying has been perfected.

There is nothing more horrible than overcooked pasta – mushy pasta can spoil the best souces. I beg you to cook dried pasta only until it is al dente , which means «to the tooth» or giving a slight resistance to the bite.

I surgest  boiling the pasta for one or two minute less than the time recommended on the packet, but you should learn your own preffered al dente point by pulling out strands of pasta during the last three or four minutes of the cooking and biting on them to test their readiness.

Always reserve a little of the cooking water before you drain the pasta. You can use it to loosen the souce if it has become too thick and its strarch content will also help the souce cling to the pasta.

Of cource when it comes to combining dried pasta with sauces, the posibilities are almost ifinite, but to get you started here are some of the most populare shapes of dried pasta and their  «perfect match» sauces:

• Ribbon pasta such as spagetti, vermicelli, linguine and bavette goes with light  tomato souces, seafood, butter and oil based souces, pesto and light cream souces.
• Shaped pasta , such as cavatelli, conchiglie, farfalle, fusilli, gemmelli, lumache, and orecchiette, goes well with tomato sauces, meat sauces pesto, chunky sauces and cheese sauces.
• tublar pasta such as rigatoni, tortiglioni, ziti, pacchieri, penne, manicotti, macchereroni and garganelli, goes with thick tomato salsas rich ragus and thick dream sauces

As a footnote, i would surgest that you never serve dried cappelli d’angelo (angel hair) with a souce that strands are much too thin to hold a sauce and are better eaten in a broth.

Present in all regions of Italy, ragus are are interperented in different ways from the north to the south. The word comes from the French ragout, which is a meat stew cooked slowly over low heat; it might contain veal, beef, lamb, goat, rabbit, hare or other meats.

In Italy, there are also differences in the herbs and spices used, the type of wine and the base (soffritto) of the sauce in which the meat cooks. Some ragus are served as a two-cource meal. The sauce is used to dress pasta, which is eaten first, then the meat, sometimes with vegetables, becomes a secondo. Sometimes the meat is minced and used to dress pasta. but it still makes for a substantial meal.

For Italians, all the ragus have two important things in common: sundays and family memories. They are usally made on a sunday, because that is when there is more time to spend on cooking. Every Italian recalls a mother or grandmother stirring a big pot of ragu as it bubbles away in the kitchen – and the distinctive scent it gives off, from the strong and sharp smell of the onions in the soffritto to the more reassuring aroma that indicates the meat is almost ready. Ragu is the sense memory of conviviality!

I hope you can build up memories for your family and friends with one of the following ragus. Just remember that the most important ingredient for making any ragu is time

In addition to the recipes for classic Bolognese and Ligurain given here, i’ve also included recipes for some of my other favourite ragu-style pasta sauces :

• Neapolitan ragu
• Neapolitan meat sauce – Le Genovese
• Sicilian meat sauce
• Lasagnette with a tomato ragu
• Lasagnette with rabbit sauce
• Capsicum pappardelle with oxtail
• Chocolate tagliatelle with wild boar

In people’s mind, tomato sauce is so linked with Italy that many are suprised to learn that until 1700, no tomatoes where used in Italian food. For that was when the new «Golden Apple» from america was finally accepted by Europeans. The southern Italian and the Spanish where the first to embrace it, while the English continued to belive it was poisonous for another 100 years.

Of cource, there are many kinds of tomatoes, and at least as many ways of making a tomato sauce. The soffritto or base for the sauce is very important, as it determens the ultimate flavour, and it will ofen be matched to the type of pasta, occation or mood.  Some cooks use only onion in the soffritto, while some add finely chopped garlic. Other slice the garlic for a stronger taste, or infuse the oil with a whole garlic clove for a more subtile flavour. Sone add celery and carrot, then pass the sauce through a mouli for a smooth velvety and quit elegant sauce; other prefer to melt  an anchovy into the oil and include chilli and capers. for extra pungency, or add chopped pancetta or lardo to give the sauce a rich savoury note. And then there are herbs to consider: parsley, basil or thyme, added at the beginning or at the end of the cooking time. Some finish the sauce with a drop of olive oil. others with a knob of butter. Some use parmesan; others don’t. Then there are the cooking time: short for a fresher, more acidic taste; or longer, for a more traditional, redused sauce.

her i show you some of my favourite tomato sauces, but i want you to feel free to improvise – just as they would in Italy – to make them your favourites.

• Pasta al pomodoro – pasta (usally spaghetti) with tomato sauce – is probably the most eaten dish in the whole of IOtaly, from the small islands south of Sicily to the montain villages perched in the Alps Wonderfully simple and very tasty, it couuldn’t be easier Make the sauce while the pasta is cooking. When the pasta is al dente. drain it and, while it is still steaming, thoss it with the tomato sauce, and there you have it. You will soon understand why are addicted to pasta al pomodoro

it’s a debate like the chicken and the egg, what’s more important: the pasta or the sauce?

Is pasta just the logical base for a great stew, or is the sauce just an aftertought that might enhage a beautifully worked sculpture in dough?

In this chapter we come down on the side of the sauce (having taken the other side elseware on this web). We discuss some classic accompaniments, dressings and condiments that can be made separatly, kept and used whenever a dish needs elevation.

You’ll encounter words such as sugo, salsa and ragu here, used to indicate variations in a way Italians describe sauces: a ragu (or tocco in Ligurian dialect) is usually a meat sauce; a sugo is a thin sauce, often tomato; and a salsa is a thicker vegetable sauce containg pieces of vegetable, not pureed.

We begin, naturally, with the king of sauces – pesto, which is the pride of Liguria.

For centuries, homes in the Italian contryside have been scented by the pot of soup that hangs permanently over the coals in the fireplace, welcomming the farmer home from the fields and hunter home from the forest. Soaps are among the most ancient staples of Italian cuisine. Very much of plesant origin, they are the ultimate comfort food: economical to prepare, yet tasty and nourishing. Mainly made of vegetables and legumes, they are often flavoured with a soffritto of olive oil, onion and pancetta, and bulked up with a handful of pastina (tiny pasta shapes) or fragments shaken from the bottom of the container where the dryed pasta can ge stored. Eaten with bread, and topped with some olive oil or pesto, the soup becomes a meal in itself.

Then there are the lighter soup , made with a clear broth (brodo) to which pasta has been added, and designed to be eaten as an appetiser. In taly, broths are very populare in the months from autumn to spring. Many houses have pots of broth simmering on the stove, in preparation for tortellini in brodo, passatelli in brodo, or simply to be striped as a consomme before the hot entree at an elegant dinner party, served in those beautifully delicate cups with two handles.

in this chapter we discuss types of pasta in brodo, and tell you how to make some great basic stocks. Stocks will keep in the fridge for tree days, or in the freezer for up to six mounths. You can freeze it in ice-cube trys, then pop the cubes out of the trays and store them in a ziplock freezer bag.