27 August 2024

I am curious about the evolution of pasta cookery on this planet in the last quarter century. As a youth, I spent many a many a rainy Saturday afternoon watching cooking shows on PBS, many of which you probably know. Julia of course, and a little Graham Kerr. But, also Justin “tell ya what i’m gonna did” Wilson of Creole cookin fame. Mary Ann Esposito, about whom I’ve written in the past. The ever puzzling Jeff Smith-the Frugal Gourmet, and countless others. Invariably, pasta was cooked on all these programs, and you could see a sort of evolution in the best practice of pasta cooking from that time to this.

The so-called traditional method of cooking pasta goes as follows. Factory pasta is boiled in massive quantities of heavily salted boiling water until desired al dente (I guess it depends on the tooth), then drain thoroughly, and toss with sauce. Sound familiar? Big deal, right? But wait, do you all remember the short time in the late 80s when it became OK to toss the noodles in oil or butter before saucing? Well, I do, and none other Lidia Bastianich led the charge against that nonsense. Never, never, never, never, never add oil to the cooked pasta, she’d say.

But the bigger change regards pasta water. Suddenly, I hear chefs and TV cooks calling it liquid gold which must never be thrown out, but actually used to enrich and thicken the pasta sauce. Well, what do you know about that? What happened to vigorously shaking the pasta dry so there is not a drop of liquid on it? So, we went through a phase of slurping the sopping wet pasta into the overly thick sauce to loosen and bind it altogether. In fact, we’re still there.

Then, Martha Stewart did something remarkable. Now, maybe someone else did this before but I saw her do it first, so she is my Thomas Edison, and I have been curious ever since. It is a one-dish wonder. All the sauce ingredients are put into a cold saucepan. Then, a cup or two of water are added. Then, the raw pasta is added. Then, the whole thing is either cooked on the stovetop or in the oven for 45 minutes. It is so easy and the pasta texture is perfect. So, we’ve come full circle as it were. We went from cooking the noodles in tons of water to cooking it in almost no water at all.

Anyway, it’s a great dish and so easy to do on a week night or whatever who cares I don’t have kids.

What time is it in your heart? Is it always a Friday, early afternoon with winter twilight peaking through the curtains, a house so silent we hear the clock ticking downstairs, the fridge humming, the sudden gust of wind through the birch trees? Is it the quiet moment before anything happens? Is that the most precious time of all, the wonder moment right before? Above, gently seasoned and grilled chicken breast, peach chutney atop, and cilantro atop atop. Mashed potato and boiled green beans. Dinner rolls too, from scratch. The only thing we should ever worry about is if we’ve eked every drop of joy and good fun out of the moments we’ve been together. Isn’t it sad that anyone would have to worry about anything else?

Do we eat enough mashed potatoes? Are there not a million variations, all of them magic? I’ve done butter-choked, cream-swaddled, half-and-half-logged, plain, garlic, parmesan, rosemary, thyme, and sour cream. This one is made with heaping tablespoons of creme fraiche. I’m eating mashed potatoes in August, and I think, we don’t we eat these a little more often?

Dessert- a raspberry, fig tart. I didn’t have as many raspberries or figs as I thought, so the presentation is a little motley, but there it is. The custard is a simple mix of egg yolks, creme fraiche, sugar. The crust is a Pate Sucree, the simplest of all pie crusts. I wish I knew how to add the various accents used frequently in other languages, but I haven’t figured it out in WordPress. I bet it’s easier than pie, and the writing looks better, it makes people think I’m smarter, and it’s technically correct.

I have made this type of tart several times, it’s really wonderful. The consistency is very much like Chinese Egg Custard Tarts, they almost shatter in your hand they are so delicate. Light, gently quivering custard, tangy too, not sweet, except for the crust which is basically a sugar cookie pressed into a pie tin. Two more shots: