Pasta Modern (5 page)

It’s amazing how cooked pasta tossed with a little oil and then baked turns into perfect golden crisps with a pretty bubbly surface that look just like pretzel sticks. (See
photo
.) They’re great served plain, with just a sprinkle of salt, or you can jazz them up with dry spices like ground garlic, cayenne, or smoked paprika. I like to arrange these eye-catching nibbles poking out of a wine glass and serve them with assorted cheeses, salami, and olives. Keep a box of pasta on hand and you’ll never need to buy pretzels or crackers again!

Olive oil or butter

4 ounces (115 g)
perciatelli
or other long pasta, preferably Garofalo brand

Salt

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Boil the pasta in salted water until it is tender, 1 minute longer than al dente. Drain and toss with 2 tablespoons oil or butter. Lay the pasta strands onto the prepared sheet in straight lines, with a bit of space between them. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden and crisp, about 8 minutes.

BEHIND THE SHAPE

Perciatelli
and
bucatini
are both thick, hollow pasta primarily associated with Naples and Sicily. The name
perciatelli
dates to the 1800s, when there were many French chefs in Naples and Sicily, and probably comes from the French
percer
, to pierce.

{
Mezzi rigatoni ripieni
}

SERVES
6
|
REGION:
Piedmont

Cute chubby pasta tubes, called
mezzi rigatoni
, are now my go-to appetizers. There are so many ways to fill them! The basic idea is to stuff them with creamy ricotta—seasoned with minced herbs, saffron, orange zest, anything—then garnish with simple-to-make Parmesan crisps for crunch. They’re impressive, but not fussy or hard to make.

Here they’re seasoned with aromatic, decadent white truffles, scarily expensive, but a few grams of these precious nuggets go a long way here! A more economical but still highly flavorful substitute is dried porcini mushrooms.

Grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup (245 g) ricotta, preferably sheep’s milk

Salt and white pepper

¼ ounce white truffle or 1 tablespoon ground dried porcini mushrooms

8 ounces (225 g)
mezzi rigatoni
or other short tube pasta

Olive oil

Make the Parmesan crisps:
Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Put a heaping tablespoon of Parmesan in 4 separate spots in the pan, creating 4 thin circles. Cook until the edges are light golden, about 2 minutes, but do not turn them over. With a spatula, carefully slide the Parmesan rounds out of the pan and onto a plate. They will be soft but will harden on the plate as they cool.

Put the ricotta into a bowl and season it with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon grated truffle or ground porcini. Put the mixture into a pastry bag or into a plastic sandwich bag with the corner snipped off.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until it is al dente. Drain, toss with 1 tablespoon oil, and let cool slightly.

Fill each tube with the ricotta mixture and set the tubes upright onto serving plates. Garnish each with crumbled bits of the Parmesan crisps, a few drops of oil, and additional thin slices of shaved truffle or the remaining ground porcini. Serve immediately.

NOTE:
Parmesan crisps make a wonderful appetizer all by themselves. You can season them as they cook with a myriad of ingredients: a pinch of red pepper flakes, dried rosemary, or even cocoa nibs
.

{
Frittatine di maccheroni
}

MAKES
about
12
fritters
|
REGION:
Campania, especially Naples

Macaroni fritters are a typical Neapolitan street food, found in every
rosticceria
shop throughout town, made with any shape pasta in any sort of sauce. This more refined version, made with cauliflower and béchamel, won Neapolitan blogger Lydia Capasso first place in a contest sponsored by the Garofalo Pasta Company. Crispy outside and creamy-cheesy inside, these are a great make-ahead dish, as you can assemble all the ingredients a day or two before and just fry them when you’re ready to serve.

FOR THE BÉCHAMEL:

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¾ cup (180 ml) milk, warmed

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and white pepper

Make the béchamel:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then, off the heat, use a fork to stir in the flour until smooth. Return to the heat and cook for about 1 minute, until golden, then slowly add the milk, stirring for a few minutes, until thick. Stir in the nutmeg and season with salt and white pepper. Set aside.

FOR THE FRITTERS:

1 pound (455 g) cauliflower florets

Grated Parmesan cheese

3 ounces (90 g) sharp provolone or
scamorza
cheese, chopped

8 ounces (225 g)
bucatini
or other long thick pasta, preferably Garofalo brand

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ cup (28 g) homemade breadcrumbs, toasted

Vegetable oil, for frying

Begin the fritters:
Boil the cauliflower in a pot of salted water until very soft, about 10 minutes, drain and put into a food processor. Puree the cauliflower with the béchamel, ⅓ cup (40 g) of Parmesan, and provolone until it resembles cooked oatmeal.

Meanwhile, break the pasta in half and boil it in salted water for 3 minutes less than the package directs. Drain and stir in the cauliflower mixture. Taste and add more cheese or other seasonings, if needed.

Lightly butter an 8-inch round high-sided pan and spread the pasta mixture into it, packing it down firmly. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours or overnight.

Finish the fritters
: In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons flour with 4 tablespoons water to form a smooth slurry. Spread the breadcrumbs onto a plate. Using a 2-inch (5-cm) cookie cutter, cut out rounds from the cold pasta. Gather up any odd bits of pasta and form them into another round.

Dip each round into the flour-water mixture, then into the breadcrumbs, coating all sides.

In a small skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. Add the rounds and fry until dark golden on both sides. Drain on a paper towel–lined plate. Serve at room temperature.

{
Gamberi in crosta di pasta
}

SERVES
as many as you’d like
|
REGION:
Northern and central Italy

This is as simple as a strand of pasta wrapped around a shrimp, then pan-fried to a crisp delight. It’s crunchy outside, with a moist and tender shrimp inside—so pretty and very easy to make. The only trick is that you must use fresh, not dried, pasta. You can use this technique to wrap fresh pasta around all sorts of nibbles: mushrooms, baby peppers, even little meatballs.

Top the shrimp with Parmesan cheese, garlic, red pepper flakes, or minced herbs, or serve with an assortment of toppings. They are also a terrific showcase for gourmet salts like flaked or smoked salt. The perfect finger food!

2 to 3 raw shrimp per person

Fresh tagliatelle or other long fresh egg noodles (1 strand per shrimp)

Olive oil

Salt

Lemon zest

Peel and devein the shrimp, but leave the tails on. Boil them in a pot of salted water until firm, about 1 minute, then remove them using a slotted spoon.

Bring the water back to a boil, then add the pasta; cook until it is al dente. Drain the pasta and put it into a bowl of cold water to keep it from sticking. Wrap a strand of pasta around each shrimp.

In a frying pan, heat ¼ inch (6 mm) of oil over high heat. Add the shrimp and fry until the pasta is golden, then turn and fry them on the other side. Drain off excess oil on a paper towel. Serve garnished with salt and lemon zest.

{
Capellini in timballo
}

SERVES
6
;
makes
24
pieces
|
REGION:
Campania and southern Italy

What a brilliant concept! Little nests of Pecorino-flecked angel hair pasta, baked to form perfect one-bite nibbles. Though they are excellent plain, there are endless ways to fill these chewy, crunchy morsels: with prosciutto, pesto, tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, mozzarella, salami, caponata, or garlicky broccoli rabe—whatever your heart desires.

FOR THE PASTA CUPS:

Olive oil

1 large egg

Grated pecorino or other aged cheese

1 tablespoon butter

4 ounces (115 g)
capelli d’angelo
or other long, thin pasta, preferably Benedetto Cavalieri brand

Salt

FOR THE FILLING:

About 4 tablespoons minced salami or
’nduja
, pesto, anchovy, prosciutto, cheese,
etc.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly oil twenty-four mini muffin cups (or use disposable mini cups and set them on a baking pan; do not use regular-sized muffin cups).

In a bowl, combine the egg, 1 tablespoon of cheese, and butter.

Boil the pasta in salted water until it is al dente and drain. Toss with the egg mixture until well combined and almost all absorbed. Using a fork, twirl a few strands into a nest shape and press them firmly into a prepared muffin cup. Repeat to fill all the muffin cups. Drizzle any remaining egg mixture on top of the nests.