Everyday Pasta (2 page)

The origins of pasta are widely disputed, despite the many attempts by food historians to assign it a definitive birthplace.

We now know that pasta did not arrive in Italy courtesy of Marco Polo, who was said to have first encountered it in China; the ancient Romans prepared a dough of water and flour called
lagane
that later came to be referred to as
lasagna
, and many others have laid claim to the invention of pasta. But I’ve decided to leave the history to scholars and instead focus on pasta as a staple of Italian cultureand in my kitchen.

Pasta has always played a central role in my family, starting in the late 1800s with my great-grandfather Rosario Pasquale Aurelio De Laurentiis, who was a pasta maker in Naples, Italy.

In the early 1900s he enlisted his children, one of them being my grandfather Dino De Laurentiis, to sell the pasta door-to-door as a means of supporting the family. Dino left home when he was seventeen to make movies, but he continued to express his love of pasta and Italian cuisine when he launched the restaurant/marketplace concept called DDL Foodshow, which opened in both New York City and Beverly Hills in the 1980s. When I wasn’t happily feasting on the quick pasta dishes my mother was whipping up, I was hanging out at the restaurant with my grandfather and his amazing Italian chefs, watching closely as they made fresh spaghetti and raviolis. These early experiences in the kitchens of DDL Foodshow and helping my mother prepare our family meals are what encouraged me to pursue a culinary career, and continue the traditions of my grandfather.

I have always considered pasta one of the great pleasures of the table; it’s healthy and delicious; it can be light and delicate or incredibly hearty; it’s readily available; and it’s generally very easy to prepare—everything you want in a meal! So when the low-carb craze hit the American food culture with a vengeance, it was disheartening to see pasta singled out as one of the ultimate dietary evils. The truth is, pasta itself contains virtually no fat, and, eaten in moderation, it is quite low in calories. The real culprit is the supersized portions we’ve all come to regard as normal. Any food consumed in large quantities is unhealthy, regardless of its carbohydrate content. A slice of bread with butter won’t make you fat; half a loaf will.

Luckily, America has recognized that a carb-free diet is unrealistic in so many ways and that a healthy portion of pasta—about two to four ounces—can be tasty
and
filling. Since most of our schedules give us little free time to do much of
anything,
much less cook, pasta offers an easy solution when we need a quick meal that is also good for us and, most importantly, tastes amazing.

Pasta (which means “paste” in Italian) is simply semolina (durum wheat flour) combined with water or milk to create a dough that can be transformed into literally hundreds of sizes, shapes, colors, and flavors.

I grew up eating penne, spaghetti, rigatoni, pastina, and orecchiette, and over the years I have expanded the list of favorites to include fettuccine, fusilli, farfalle, orzo, and wheat pasta, among others.

In fresh pasta, the liquid is replaced by eggs for a richer, more delicate flavor that is a real treat, especially with cream-based sauces like a béchamel. I have provided a
very easy recipe
for those who would like to try their hands at making fresh pasta, something I urge you to do if you have some time (and a pasta rolling machine!). However, even if you don’t make your own, it is now easy to find fresh pasta at gourmet specialty stores and even the supermarket, so do add it to your repertoire.

With so many varieties of pasta cuts and flavors available, it isn’t difficult to be creative when deciding upon a dish. Pasta provides a perfect neutral canvas on which to combine flavors and ingredients. It can be warming and comforting when the days are cool, and light and fresh tasting when the temperatures rise. It’s a perfect showcase for fresh seasonal vegetables, and an inexpensive way to stretch a little bit of a costly ingredient like seafood or exotic mushrooms to feed a group. Many pasta dishes are all-in-one meals that, at most, need a quick, easy vegetable side dish or perhaps a simple appetizer to round them out (see
Pasta Go-Withs
for some of my favorite sides, salads, and bread accompaniments for pasta meals). Best of all, nearly all the recipes in this book can be assembled in the time it takes to bring water to a boil and cook the pasta, and many of those that are a bit more involved
can be made ahead and reheated or served at room temperature. When you have a well-stocked pantry of ingredients such as olive oil, tomato paste, whole canned tomatoes, anchovies, parsley, basil, garlic, lemons, and olives, you’re already halfway to a great pasta meal.

The other half has to do with preparing your pasta properly and maximizing its full texture and flavor. I always tell people that there’s nothing to be afraid of when cooking pasta. It’s practically failsafe if you follow a few simple rules. First and foremost, pasta should always be cooked in a large pot with plenty of generously salted, boiling water to allow the noodles to swim freely, releasing their starches and cooking evenly. Your pasta should be al dente or “to the tooth,” which means that when you take a bite of your cooked pasta, it should still offer slight resistance. Remember: residual heat will continue to cook the pasta even after it’s drained, whether it is transferred into a hot sauce or left to cool at room temperature. Don’t ever rinse your pasta unless you’re making a pasta salad; the starches add flavor and help the sauce adhere to the noodles. And finally, always reserve a half cup or so of the cooking water before you drain the pasta to add to the sauce. The starch in the water will add flavor and help the sauce stick to the noodles. It’s my secret to any good pasta sauce.

I wanted to write this book as a way of sharing with you the central role pasta has played in my family—as it has in the lives of most Italian families. When we gather around the table, there is always a pasta dish in the center.

When I open my pantry, there’s always pasta, and when I think about Italian food, I see pasta. If you already love pasta, I hope these recipes will make you love it more; and if you’re just embarking on the pasta journey, I think you’ll quickly see what all the fuss is about.

1.
Always cook pasta in a big-enough pot; one that is tall and deep rather than wide and shallow is best for long strands.

2.
Use a generous amount of water; the pasta should be able to swim freely in the pot.

3.
Salt the water with a good handful of kosher or sea salt; this is really your only chance to season the pasta itself (and not just the sauce), and salt brings out the flavor of any pasta.

4.
Never rinse cooked pasta; the starch on the surface contributes flavor and helps the sauce adhere. The only exception to this rule is pasta for cold salads, which will be too sticky and gummy when the noodles cool unless some of the surface starch is rinsed off.

5.
Always reserve a quarter cup or so of the pasta cooking water to add to the sauce. This both loosens the sauce so it can coat the pasta and contributes starch that helps it cling better.

6.
Don’t add olive oil to the pasta cooking water. It is an old wives’ tale that this will keep it from sticking as it cooks; pasta clumps together when it is not cooked in sufficient water. Save your olive oil for salad dressing.

7.
Don’t coat drained pasta with olive oil to keep it from sticking; this will prevent the sauce from clinging to the pasta, causing it to end up in a pool at the bottom of your serving dish.

8.
Cook the pasta just to al dente and no longer; start testing it a minute or two before the time indicated on the package to make sure it doesn’t overcook. The pasta should still offer definite resistance when you bite it but not be pasty white or hard inside.

9.
Remember that your pasta will continue to cook when you add it to the hot sauce and toss them together, so don’t leave it in the pan any longer than necessary to marry the sauce and pasta together and warm them both through.

10.
Lastly, keep portion sizes reasonable! A cup of cooked pasta is plenty for a first course or appetizer serving.

Although the flavor of pasta doesn’t vary much, whether it’s a short cut like
farfalle or a long strand like
linguine, the way these shapes interact with sauce makes a big difference in the finished dish. Here’s an overview of several popular shapes and which sauces they are best suited to.

Capellini and angel-hair pasta:
Because the noodles are long and thin, these pastas go best with a light sauce that won’t weigh down the pasta. Try it with olive oil, garlic, and lemon, or a simple tomato-basil sauce.

Spaghetti:
The most famous cut of pasta, it pairs nicely with simple sauces like tomato, arrabbiata, or puttanesca or with seafood and herbs.

Linguine:
These long, flat pasta strands stand up to sturdier sauces. Typical matches would be a pesto, tomato, or mushroom sauce, or one with flavorful ingredients like shellfish.

Fettuccine:
Literally these are “little ribbons,” similar to linguine but thicker and wider. It is a suitable match for many sauces, including those that are cream-based or made with meat.

Farfalle:
These pretty butterfly shapes taste best with simple olive oil- or tomato-based sauces that may incorporate ingredients such as peppers, chicken, or arugula. They are also great for a pasta salad because the shape is fun and bite-sized.

Rotelle:
Shaped like wagon wheels, rotelle are popular with kids. I serve them with an artichoke pesto, but they can also be dressed with bolognese or a hearty tomato sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and capers.