Two Pesto Pasta

This is a re-post of a recipe that I cook often. It's one of my all time favorites. Why? Let me count the ways: it's easy, it's healthy, it's made in the time that it takes the pasta to cook, and it uses ingredients I always have on hand. I first posted it when my blog was brand new. Almost nobody saw it. I decided to re-post it so that you could all see it. You're welcome!

Olive Pesto

This month’s issue of La Cucina Italiana has an article on pesto, and recipes for lots of different kinds. When we think of pesto, we normally think of basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and parmesan. Those are the ingredients for the classic pesto, Pesto alla Genovese. But pesto can be made with any number of ingredients. The name ‘pesto’ comes from the tool traditionally used to make it: a pestle (and mortar too). In Italian, the word ‘pesto’ means ‘to pound’, which is what you do with a mortar and pestle.

1-2-3 Pasta

Sometimes you just want something quick. Something filling. Something comforting. At our house, that usually means pasta. The other day it was (still) snowing out, and I wanted something warm and comforting. Something a little spicy. Something that would make me think of warm climates while it fended off the cold snowy weather. Which is still here, by the way.

I had some merguez sausage and that seemed to be the perfect thing. Before we moved here, I didn’t know this spicy lamb sausage from Morocco. I was really missing something special! They’re used a lot here in Belgium, and we love them. They’re a traditional accompaniment to couscous and often grilled as a part of a mixed grill.

So, lemesee, it was snowing, which meant I had to use what was in the house, 'cause I don't drive in snow. I had merguez. I had some winter tomatoes (I know, but what can you do?), I had some onions. Pasta. Rice. And I had a bunch of fresh tarragon, which was making my kitchen smell like a corner of heaven.

So I used one one onion, two tomatoes and the three merguez to make a sauce--1-2-3 sauce! I wanted something else to add to it, and I didn’t know what I had. I was having a hard time thinking, because the tarragon smelled so good. What could I add--rosemary? No, not right with the merguez spices. Waht else did I have--basil? No, not in the hot sauce. Cilantro? Ew. And all the time I was smelling this lovely, elegant tarragon. Hmmm...

I had grave doubts about adding tarragon to merguez. Merguez has a gutsy, in-your-face spicy flavor, and tarragon always seems to me to be restrained, elegant, in-the-background. But I kept smelling it, and it seemed as if it might work. So I did what I always do when I’m not sure about adding a fresh herb to a sauce. I bit off a tiny bit of the herb and took a good whiff of the sauce at the same time.

You know what? Tarragon, that delicate ladylike perfume in sauce béarnaise, is a pretty gutsy flavor when it’s fresh. It has a strong, licorice flavor that goes PERFECTLY with merguez. I think I may have discovered a new culinary marriage-made-in-heaven, to rank up there with basil and tomato. Or chocolate and raspberry. Tarragon and merguez. It’s amazing. One day I'll be famous. I'll still be me, though. You know, humble. Yeah, that's it.

Did I mention that this is another pasta sauce that can be made in the time that it takes the pasta to cook? My favorite kind of meal! I should also tell you that these photos are of Dan’s plate. I ate mine over rice. As I was writing about the hummus flower and the days when I couldn’t eat wheat, I started to remember how I felt before I stopped eating wheat--tired, achey, bloated, headachey, insomniac, fuzzy-headed, and other-things-you-don’t-really-want-to-know-about. And I realized that I’ve been feeling that way again. So I’ve started avoiding wheat for a while to see if I might feel better. It’s early days yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

123 Pasta

3 merguez sausages

1 medium onion

2 large tomatoes

1 handful fresh tarragon

1/2 pound pasta, cooked

Fresh grated parmesan for serving

• Put a large pan full of water on high heat for the pasta.
• Cut the merguez into pieces about 2 cm / 1 inch long. In a pan large enough to hold both the sauce and the pasta, cook the merguez over medium high heat until it begins to brown. The casing will shrink, releasing some of the chopped meat. This is a good thing--don’t worry.
• Cut the onion into large-ish chunks. Once the merguez has started to release some of its fat, add the onion and saute along with the sausage. The sausage will release an alarming amount of fat. Don’t worry--we’ll take it out later.
• By now the water should be boiling. Add salt and the pasta. You know how to do this.
• Using a spoon or a turkey baster or whatever tool you have, drain as much of the fat as you can from the sausage and onion mixture. I probably got half a cup from three merguez. Fat little guys.
• Chop the tomato into large chunks and add it to the onion / merguez mixture. Stir to let the tomatoes melt into the sauce.
• Chop the tarragon roughly and add it to the sauce. Stir some more.
• Let the sauce cook till it’s almost dry--too dry, really. Then add a ladle or two or the pasta water, which at this point should have some of the pasta starch in it. This is a secret I learned in Italy--there’s a little bit of magic that happens when the starchy water meets a tomato sauce. Try it. Trust me.
• Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sauce.
• Top with fresh grated parmesan.

Serves 3 if they like it and 8 if they don’t.

Notes:

• I used penne for this because it was what I had. This would be better, I think with a wide noodle like pappardelle. But I’m not a purist.
• You could use canned tomatoes in this, but then it wouldn’t be 1-2-3 pasta. It would be something like 1-(half)-3. Ew.
• If you can’t find merguez, you could probably make this with a nice spicy Italian sausage.

TAGLIATELLI AL SALMONE

We love pasta. We eat a lot of it. Almost all of the sauces that I use for pasta are made in the time that it takes the water to boil and the pasta to cook. ‘Cause I don’t like to wait.

This recipe was inspired by a pasta dish I had in Venice. It was tagliatelli with salmon in a cream sauce (see the inspiration?). It lacked something. The salmon didn’t have much flavor, and the sauce was pretty bland, without even the usual Italian suspects: garlic, onion, celery, tomato. I asked the waitress for some parmesan, and she looked at me, shocked: “Il pesce non si mangia con il formaggio!” Ok, I KNOW fish isn’t eaten with cheese, but let’s be frank here, there wasn’t much fish in there. And it needed SOMETHING.

This recipe uses smoked salmon. We cook it. I know, I know, heresy. I really like smoked salmon, but sometimes I find it too smoky. Too salty. Too strong. Cooking it makes it softer and less smoky. And it’s wonderful cooked like this, with the added punch that comes from cardamom and pink peppercorns.

Double heresy: cheese with fish. I know. But it works here. Especially if you have a bit of peccorino with truffles in it lying around. Wowiezowie, is that wonderful. But just parmesan will do. I don’t know about you, but whenever I have cream and pasta I just HAVE to have parmesan. Or peccorino. With or without truffles.

Go ahead. Live dangerously. Try it--cooked smoked salmon, cream, cheese, all of it. You know you want to.

Ingredients

1 pound / 500 g tagliatelli

1 shallot, chopped fine

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

1 tsp olive oil (I use oil infused with hot peppers)

4 pods cardomam

2 Tbsp pink peppercorns, plus more to sprinkle on top

1 tsp chopped fennel leaves (or 1/4 tsp crushed fennel seeds) - optional

1 cup / 50 cl light cream or half-and-half

1/2 lb / 250 g smoked salmon, chopped

1/4 cup grated parmesan or peccorino, plus more to sprinkle on top

• While the water boils for the pasta, saute the shallot and garlic in the olive oil in a pan large enough to hold the pasta (I use a wok).
• When the water is boiling, add some salt and the pasta.
• Open the cardomam pods and crush the tiny black seeds and the pink peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. If you’re using fennel seeds, add them too. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use the flat bottom of a glass to crush the spices on a cutting board.
• Add the crushed spices to the garlic and shallot, toss to coat with the oil, and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the cream and the fennel leaves (if you’re using them). Stir to blend.
• Add the chopped salmon, toss to coat with the cream, and cook on low heat till the salmon is cooked, then add the parmesan or peccorino.
• When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce. Stir to coat the pasta.
• Serve with additional grated cheese, pink peppercorns and some fresh-grated black pepper.

Serves 4 if the like it and 10 if they don’t.

Note: I know this has cream in it. But in the end it’s not that much per serving. I’ve tried this with low fat creams and cream substitutes, and it just doesn’t work--it curdles when you add the salmon. Ew.

´Nother Note: We´re still on holiday, and internet access is spotty. If you leave a comment, I promise-cross-my-heart to get back to you when I get home. Thanks!

TWO PESTO PASTA

This is my favorite, easy pasta recipe. This is the recipe I make when I don’t feel like cooking, or whenever we have unexpected company and I want something different but easy to feed them--I always have the ingredients on hand.

For these photos I used cappellacci, which are cute little hat-shaped pasta, but you can use any pasta that will hold a thicker sauce: rigatoni, penne, farfalle, tortilloni, spirelli, even tagliatelli. Basically, whatever you have on hand, but probably not spaghetti or cappelini. This sauce needs something to grab on to. It’s good with plain or flavored or whole-wheat pasta.

The sauce is based on plain yogurt, and I try to use a tangy one. I usually use low-fat yogurt, because that’s what I always have on hand. You could use greek or bulgarian yogurt as well. A word to the wise, though: be SURE the yogurt’s plain. When we lived in DC, Dan’s cousin Dick came to town for a business meeting. I naturally assumed that Dick would have dinner in a fancy restaurant with his colleagues, but he said he’d rather take pot luck with us. I didn’t have much in the house, so I made this pasta for him. I (luckily) had one carton of yogurt left in the fridge, and when I opened it I crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t be cherry or chocolate. Nope, it was white. So I made the dish, and served it proudly. When I took the first bite, I gagged. Really. I actually gagged. The yogurt wasn’t chocolate, it was vanilla. Eewwww. I jumped up and reached for Dick’s plate, explaining red-facedly that it wasn’t supposed to taste like that. But he held on to his plate for dear life (probably afraid of what might replace it!) “No!” Dick said, “I LIKE it”. And he ate it. Every bite. I loved him for that. So when you make this, please double check the yogurt. It should be PLAIN.

Ingredients

1 cup/250 ml plain yogurt

3-4 Tablespoons basil pesto

3-4 Tablespoons red pesto

a generous handful of parmesan, plus more for garnish

1 pound / 500 g pasta

salt

1. Fill a large pot with plenty of cold water, and bring it to a boil. Add a good handful of salt. When it’s at a rolling boil, add the pasta and stir from time to time while it’s cooking.
2. Meanwhile, take a pan large enough to hold the pasta easily (I use a wok) and in it put the yogurt and the pestos and the parmesan. Stir to mix and heat gently. You don’t want this to cook, you only want to knock the cold off it. When it’s barely warm, turn the heat off and wait till the pasta is done.
3. When the pasta is done as you like it, drain it well and dump it all into the sauce. Stir well to mix. Serve sprinkled with more freshly grated parmesan.

Note that because you’re mixing complementary colors (red and green), the color of this will be sort of, well, brown. You can modify the brown-ness by changing the proportions of the two pestos. I sometimes make it redder or greener. In any case, it’s still brown...

Variations--basically you can add whatever you have around that will go with these flavors. Some examples:

• A handful of chopped dried or semi-dried tomatoes.
• Chicken
• Toasted pine nuts
• You can also use pesto made with rocket instead of basil. It’s a different flavor, but it also goes with the tomatoes.

Serves 4 if they like it and 10 if they don’t