One of my culinary guilty pleasures is pasta. I remember hearing someone say that Julia Child claimed Italian cuisine isn’t “cooking”—I suppose because, unlike her complex French recipes, yummy Italian food does not require the mastery of age-old techniques. It is the “folk art” of cuisine; a novice (or even a klutz) can pull together a satisfying Italian meal with a few fresh ingredients. Add a glass of wine and a loaf of bread and you can turn a simple meal into an occasion.
There is a sensibility necessary to produce quality Italian food, however. This becomes clear to me when we choose the wrong restaurant in Boston’s North End. I hope I have eaten my last meal from the “red gravy” set. You know the place? They serve overcooked noodles floating in water covered with a ladle of sauce. It is indistinguishable from a college student’s dinner of spaghetti and Ragu. For my birthday, and that of my one-day-older cousin Jane, this year we ate at Scarpetta, Scott Conant’s Italian paradise in New York’s meatpacking district. My bowl of spaghetti tossed and spun in tomato basil sauce was as close to the perfect bite as I have eaten. Perfectly al dente, the starch helped the sauce cling jealously to each strand of pasta, and the dish was fragrant with herbs without seeing their heat-discolored remains.
One of my personal favorite dishes is pasta in vodka sauce. It is basically a red sauce amped up with cream, so it must be eaten judiciously. Traditionally, most people use penne rigate for this dish, noodles that are ridged to provide extra surface area for the sauce. I like bucatini, a fat form of hollow spaghetti that provides a decadent, chewy canvas for the rich sauce. Bucatini is hard to find commercially so when I come across it I buy several packages and squirrel it away. Even more amazing is buying it fresh from Mercado Monica, at the corner of Prince and Parmenter in the North End. When it is cooked, it resembles the width of Kraft Mac N’Cheese noodles only left uncut to about two feet in length. Yum.
I have spent several years researching and perfecting the best vodka sauce recipe. This is my version—the result of much trial and error. I share it here to celebrate two thousand hits on my blog:
Best Vodka Sauce
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped very fine
3 cloves of garlic, chopped very fine
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
½ Tablespoon crushed red pepper
½ cup Vodka
2 cans (28 oz. each) whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 cup fresh oregano, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, plus more for the table
1 lb. pasta—penne rigate or bucatini, cooked al dente
1 small onion, chopped very fine
3 cloves of garlic, chopped very fine
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
½ Tablespoon crushed red pepper
½ cup Vodka
2 cans (28 oz. each) whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 cup fresh oregano, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, plus more for the table
1 lb. pasta—penne rigate or bucatini, cooked al dente
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large ovenproof sauté pan with a lid, heat olive oil. Saute onions about 4 minutes until softened; add garlic and continue to soften for another minute. Add dried oregano and crushed peppers to pan. Continue to sweat to infuse the flavors. Add the vodka, simmering until it is reduced. Add the San Marzano tomatoes, crushing each one in your hand before adding to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cover. Place the entire covered pan in the oven to roast for 1 ½ hours. Cool. (This entire mixture can be frozen at this stage and then thawed out later to resume recipe.)
Place cooled vegetables in a blender. Puree until smooth and velvety. (May also be done in the pan with an immersion blender, but make sure to take your time to achieve the desired smooth texture.) Return the mixture to the sauté pan. Add the fresh oregano. Stir in the heavy cream and bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to incorporate. The sauce will be a deep pink color.
During this last stage of cooking, bring water to a boil in a large stockpot and cook the pasta until al dente. With tongs or a handled strainer, lift the pasta from the cooking water and add to the simmering sauce, tossing it to coat. Add a ladle of pasta water if necessary to thin out the sauce. Add the grated parmigiano reggiano while continuing to toss the pasta until well distributed.
Serve in pasta bowls and sprinkle with more fresh grated cheese as desired.
Tomorrow's blog: That Was The Lunch That Was
Tomorrow's blog: That Was The Lunch That Was
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