Pasta Modern (15 page)

½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream

4 ounces (115 g) burrata or fresh mozzarella cheese

1 pound (455 g) licorice-flavored tagliatelle, or any pasta plus Caffo’s Liquorice liqueur or a few sugarless licorice hard candies (see
Sources
)

1 garlic clove, minced

Olive oil

4 ounces (115 g) smoked trout

¼ cup (60 ml) white wine

½ cup (60 g) fresh shelled fava beans

Combine the cream and cheese in the top of a double boiler or a buttered heatproof dish set over a pot of gently simmering water. Simmer on low, stirring every so often, for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender. Keep warm.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until it is al dente.

In a nonstick frying pan large enough to hold the pasta, heat the garlic in 2 to 3 tablespoons oil until light golden, about 1 minute. Finely flake the trout and discard any skin and bones. Add the trout and wine to the pan, and simmer until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

Cook the beans in boiling salted water for about 2 minutes, until they float to the surface and are tender. Peel the beans and add them to the trout sauce and stir until well combined. Toss the pasta into the sauce, adding a bit of cooking liquid if it is too dry.

Divide the warm burrata cream among the serving plates. Top with the pasta. If not using licorice pasta, sprinkle the top with finely crushed licorice candy or a drizzle of licorice liqueur.

{
Vasocottura
}

SERVES
2
or
4
appetizer portions
|
REGION:
Throughout Italy

When Italians eat out of a jar, you can bet whatever’s in there is homemade!

This is a great trick—cooking raw pasta in a Mason jar. It keeps all the aroma and flavors from escaping and makes for an adorable presentation. It’s a modern technique, but based on the Italian tradition of oven-baked pasta.

Olive oil

1 large white onion, thinly sliced

1 small fresh red chile pepper, thinly sliced

1 small raw lobster tail, finely chopped

3 tablespoons wild fennel liqueur, or 3 tablespoons dry white wine plus ½ teaspoon crushed fennel seeds

1 (14-ounce/400-g) can diced tomatoes

1 ½ cups (360 ml) very hot vegetable broth

¾ cup (180 ml) very hot fish broth

8 ounces (225 g)
lumache
or other short pasta

2 garlic cloves, minced

12 large fresh basil leaves

Salt

Boiling water

Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large pan, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat and add the onion and chile pepper to taste; cook until the onion is golden, about 8 minutes. Stir the lobster meat into the onions. Pour in the liqueur and bring everything to a low boil. Stir in the tomatoes, both broths, the pasta, garlic, basil leaves, and salt to taste.

Divide the mixture between pint-or quart-sized Mason jars, depending on how big a portion you’d like to serve, filling the jars no more than three fourths full to allow for the pasta to expand. Seal the jars closed. (Don’t worry, they won’t explode—Mason jars are thick and intended to be heated.) Stand the jars in a deep baking pan and add boiling water to the pan to reach halfway up the jars. Bake for about 25 minutes, then open one of the jars to test if the pasta is al dente. If not, return to the oven for another few minutes. Set the jars onto serving plates and serve them with grated cheese on the side.

{
Carbonara di mare
}

SERVES
4
|
REGION:
Throughout coastal Italy

There is perhaps no Italian dish more famous than carbonara: hot pasta tossed with raw egg yolks to create its own creamy sauce. This Italian beach favorite uses fish in place of the guanciale in traditional Roman carbonara. Here it’s made with swordfish, but the silky lemony sauce makes a great base for virtually anything from the sea—grilled salmon, canned tuna, smoked trout, and even small raw clams.

8 ounces (225 g) swordfish fillet

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

1 pound (455 g) linguine or other long pasta

4 large egg yolks

Grated pecorino cheese

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Fresh parsley

Season the swordfish with salt and pepper. Put 1 tablespoon oil into a small sauté pan over high heat and sear the fish on both sides. Lower the heat and cook to the desired doneness, from rare to well done. Flake the fish into small pieces and set them aside.

Boil the pasta in salted water until it is al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large serving bowl, beat together the yolks, pepper, ¼ cup (25 g) of cheese, garlic, lemon juice, and half of the zest. Drain the pasta and toss into the bowl, stirring vigorously to heat the yolks to a creamy consistency. Stir in minced parsley to taste, a drizzle of oil, and the swordfish; season with salt and serve topped with the remaining zest.

STONE SOUP PASTA

The charming Massimo Riccioli, chef and owner of Rome’s renowned seafood restaurant La Rosetta, told me about a dish he loved as a little boy:
pesce fuggito
, escaped fish. Pasta was boiled with sea stones as a stand-in for fish, especially during the poor years of the early 1950s. It was very popular along the coasts of Italy, especially in his region of Lazio.

“I was only a very little boy,” recalls Massimo, “but I still remember how delicious, how fragrant that dish was—the stones from the sea added all the flavor that was needed and the sea water all the salt necessary to cook the pasta.”

SPAGHETTI WITH SMOKY CLAM SAUCE & ROASTED TOMATOES

{
Spaghetti affumicati, vongole, e pendolini grigliati
}

SERVES
4
|
REGION:
le Marche

Two–Michelin star chef Mauro Uliassi’s updated version of Italy’s iconic coastal dish—spaghetti with clam sauce—is a must-try. It’s so good in fact that it was recently voted best dish of the year by
L’Espresso
, the prestigious guidebook to Italy’s best restaurants!

Instead of cooking the clams in tomato sauce, the tomatoes are slow roasted to candylike sweetness and served on top. The pasta cooks only partway in boiling water, then finishes cooking in the smoked fish and clam sauce, to create a dish deeply infused with flavor.

Olive oil

12 baby Roma, grape, or other small tomatoes

Salt

2 tablespoons fresh marjoram leaves

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

1 ½ cups (360 ml) fish broth

8 ounces (225 g) smoked eel or trout

4 pounds (1.8 kg) very small clams, scrubbed

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1 pound (455 g) spaghetti or any long pasta

Fresh parsley

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°F (90°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil it.

Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange them, cut side up, on the prepared pan. Sprinkle them lightly with salt and the marjoram and thyme. Bake for 1 ½ hours, until they are shriveled and blackened at the edges. Set aside.

Simmer the broth and eel in a small saucepan for about 20 minutes to infuse the broth with smoky flavor. Strain the sauce and discard the eel. Set aside.

In another pot, bring 2 cups (480 ml) water to a boil. Add the clams, cover, and cook for about 10 seconds, until the shells open. Reserving the cooking liquid, remove the clams from their shells; set aside the meat and discard the shells.

In a large skillet, heat the garlic in 3 to 4 tablespoons oil until the garlic is golden. Add ½ cup (120 ml) of the eel broth and ½ cup (120 ml) of the clam cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta in lightly salted water for just 3 minutes. Drain the pasta and finish cooking it in the garlic-broth mixture over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, adding more broth until the pasta is al dente. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the clams.

Serve the pasta topped with the roasted tomatoes, minced and whole parsley leaves, and pepper.

{
Fregula con arselle
}

SERVES
4
|
REGION:
Sardinia

Fregula
, tiny toasted pasta nuggets from Sardinia, are like Israeli couscous but firmer, with a more toothsome bite. This is one of the classic
fregula
recipes. The sweet briny clams really show off the pasta’s superb nutty flavor and extraordinary texture.

2 pounds (910 g) very small clams, scrubbed

Olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup (120 ml) dry white wine

12 ounces (340 g)
fregula
, preferably Rustichella d’Abruzzo brand

5 oil-packed sundried tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 fresh red chile pepper, thinly sliced

Salt

Minced fresh parsley

In a large saucepan, bring 1 quart (960 ml) water to boil. Add the clams, cover, and steam until they open, about 10 seconds. Remove almost all the clams from their shells, reserving a few in the shells for garnish. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve covered in cheesecloth to remove any sand, and reserve the liquid.