1 cup (packed) crumbled Mexican cheese (such as queso fresco or Cotija); or grated Cheddar, jack, or a combination of the two
6 ounces tortilla chips (any flavor or color you like), broken into bite-sized pieces
1 medium-sized perfectly ripe tomato, sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
1. To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, garlic, cumin, salt, sugar, and cilantro in a smallish bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined, then continue whisking as you drizzle in the olive oil. When all the olive oil is incorporated, set the dressing aside. (Or you can put all the ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid and just shake it emphatically.)
2. Set a colander in the sink and pour in the beans. Give them a quick rinse and allow them to drain.
3. Separate the romaine leaves, and then wash them in very cold water and spin them very dry. (If you have purchased hearts of romaine in a sealed pack, you can skip the washing; just cut off the stems and separate the leaves.) Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
4. Combine the lettuce, bell pepper, and onion in a large bowl, and toss to mix well, sprinkling in the beans and cheese as you go.
5. Just before serving, toss in the tortilla chips. Whisk the dressing—or shake it, if it’s in a jar—to recombine, and add about half of it to the salad. Toss to coat, and give it a taste. You might want to add the rest of the dressing right now, or bring it to the table (along with the pepper mill) for people to add more to their own portions. Top with the tomato slices and a few grinds of black pepper, and serve immediately.
* * *
GET CREATIVE
Top with shredded leftover Grandma Betty’s Brisket (Chapter 6: Chicken, Fish, and Meat), sliced Pan-Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts (Chapter 6: Chicken, Fish, and Meat), or strips of Steak Fajitas (Chapter 6: Chicken, Fish, and Meat)—warm or at room temperature.
Brown ½ pound ground beef or soy crumbles in a skillet with ¼ cup finely minced onion, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, and ½ teaspoon chili powder. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, and divide evenly over the salads.
Top each serving with a few avocado slices or a spoonful of guacamole (store-bought or homemade—see Chapter 8: Party Snacks).
Garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream.
Top each serving with a spoonful or two of your favorite salsa.
For a spicy kick, add a pinch of red pepper flakes, a few dashes of hot sauce, or 1 to 2 teaspoons thin jalapeño slices to the dressing. (If using jalapeños, wash the knife, cutting board, and your hands with warm water and soap after handling.)
Serve in store-bought crisp tortilla bowls.
Toss a handful of strips of peeled jicama (see below) into the vegetables.
Garnish with a generous sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds or Peppy Pepitas (Chapter 8: Party Snacks).
Make this vegan by omitting the cheese.
* * *
JICAMA
Jicama (HEE-ka-ma), that large, brown potato-like thing you may have pondered in the produce section, is a great addition to pretty much any salad. It has the crunchy texture of a radish with the mild, somewhat sweet, starchy flavor of a water chestnut. Look for one on the small side, which will have more flavor. Use a sharp paring knife to cut off a chunk as large as you think you’ll need, and then peel that piece with the knife. Discard the peel, and cut the flesh into slices or sticks for snacking on, dipping into guacamole or salsa, and tossing into salads. Or serve jicama sticks as a party nibble, drizzled with lime juice and dusted with chili powder.
pastas.
HOMEMADE ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE
SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS
QUICK AND EASY SPINACH LASAGNA
GENUINE HOMEMADE MAC & CHEESE
LINGUINE WITH CLAM SAUCE
SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA
RIGATONI AL FORNO WITH ROASTED ASPARAGUS AND ONIONS
LINGUINE WITH SPINACH AND PEAS
PENNE WITH BROCCOLI AND PESTO
PASTA SHELLS WITH CHICKPEAS AND ARUGULA
FARFALLE WITH ROASTED GARLIC, NUTS, AND RAISINS
PASTA WITH TUNA, WHITE BEANS, AND ARTICHOKE HEARTS
CHINESE-STYLE PEANUT NOODLES
Pasta: Limitless Possibilities
In terms of dinnertime readiness, pasta is your culinary insurance policy. Keep a few kinds in the cupboard, and you’re always pretty much covered. In this chapter, you’ll find a number of good, dependable pasta dishes to look forward to eating at the end of a full day. Most of them can be ready in the time it takes the water to boil and the pasta to cook. But there’s an even simpler recipe you can always follow: Just about any pasta, plus just about any ingredients, plus olive oil, garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and Parmesan cheese, and you’ve got yourself a meal.
Often, a pasta meal can be accomplished simply by combining a few flavorful things (like some leftover chicken or vegetables) in a bowl with a little olive oil, then tossing in some hot pasta and letting the pasta warm everything upon contact. You can save a bit of the pasta cooking water before you drain the pasta and stir a few tablespoons into the dish. In addition to helping to heat the ingredients and moisten things up, the pasta cooking water has a bit of salt and starch in it that will help bring the flavors together.
Or put some olive oil in a skillet that has been warmed over medium heat, add whatever ingredients you think might work—mushrooms, that same leftover chicken, that one last zucchini (sliced) and Roma tomato (diced)—along with a bit of minced garlic. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and toss it into the skillet, adding a bit more olive oil and some pasta water till it all looks saucy.
A “designer” sausage or two (like chicken-apple or basil–dried tomato) will go a long way toward turning a little pasta and a handful of leftovers into a tasty, substantial dinner. Brown the sausages in a little oil in a skillet, then slice them and toss them with the pasta.
Then there are the endless possibilities of pasta and red sauce. I’ve provided a basic recipe for making it from scratch—either vegetarian (marinara) or with ground meat (Bolognese). If you’d prefer to just use some out of a jar, that’s fine (and there are some really good ones available). Find brands of marinara or other tomato-based pasta sauces you like. The variety and quality is improving all the time, so explore and expand your horizons. Heat and toss with cooked pasta, or doctor with anything from vegetables to canned tuna or leftover cooked chicken, meat, or fish.
And finally, you can take Italian-style pasta in an Asian direction just by adding a few well-chosen ingredients, like soy sauce, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic, scallions, and cilantro. Or, even easier, buy a prepared Asian sauce (such as curry or sweet and sour), or use the super-versatile peanut sauce on Chapter 3: Pastas as a base to create your own homemade Asian-style noodle bowls.
Finally, when you haven’t shopped in a week and there appears to be nothing edible anywhere in your kitchen, toss any kind of pasta with a little butter or olive oil and some Parmesan. For more flavor, add parsley, garlic, Roasted Garlic Paste (Chapter 1: Soups), and/or red pepper flakes. It’s comforting, warm, cheap, fast, and tasty. Think of it as moving beyond ramen noodles.
And those are the basics of your pasta insurance policy. Keep a bunch of packages around. They’ll last for a year or more, and they’ll always be there when you need them.
PASTA SHAPES
Pasta shapes are endless, and in cultures where pasta rules (like Italy and much of Asia), there are all kinds of sacred creeds about which shape best holds and complements which sauce. That’s all good, but in your kitchen, here’s a rule you can use: Any pasta will really go with any sauce (just don’t repeat this to an Italian). Tradition pairs pesto with a long pasta like linguine, chunky meat sauces with tubular pastas like rigatoni, and so on. If you’d like to learn more about this, by all means buy a good Italian cookbook. But guess what: Rigatoni with pesto and linguine with meat sauce are fabulous, too, so stock up on the shapes and types you like,
and experiment. If you cook any kind of pasta well and add the right amount of something tasty to it, you can’t go wrong.
QUANTITIES
Four ounces (¼ pound) of dry pasta per person is a basic formula to remember, and the recipes in this chapter are based on that amount. If you and whomever you’re cooking for have smallish appetites—or if you’re making a dish with a lot of other ingredients—you may find that those 4 ounces are more than you need per person. But with pasta, it’s better to err on the side of too much, rather than too little—you won’t add much expense, and you’ll end up with tasty leftovers. You don’t need to actually weigh the pasta; just eyeball based on the weight of the full package. For spaghetti, a bundle about the size of a quarter (as in the coin) is about 4 ounces.
When it comes to quantities of sauce and other ingredients, remember, pasta is forgiving. A little more, a little less…it all tends to work out in the end. In other words, if a recipe calls for a 24-ounce jar of sauce and you’ve got a 26-ounce jar, go ahead and use it all.
OLIVE OIL
Buy two kinds: one that’s relatively inexpensive, which you can use for sautéing things and for dressing pasta in general, and one high-quality extra-virgin oil that has a lot of flavor (and usually a higher price tag), which you can use in combination with the cheaper oil. Here’s the rub: The less you cook the oil, the more you’ll be able to tell the difference a good extra-virgin will make. So use it sparingly, in pastas (and other dishes) in which it’s added toward the end of cooking, or drizzled on as a garnish.
GET THIS PASTA SHAPES
Familiar favorites
Spaghetti
Linguine
Fettuccine
Rigatoni
Macaroni
Penne
Angel hair
Lasagna noodles
And a few less common ones to check out
Orecchiette (“little ears”—great with chunky sauces)
Gemelli (“twins”—double-helix spirals with great texture)
Orzo (looks like grains of rice; add to soups or toss with feta)
Campanelle (aka trombette: ruffle-edged trumpets—fun shape, lots of texture, great with roasted vegetables)
GET THIS PASTA STAPLES TO STOCK
Jarred tomato sauce (marinara, roasted vegetable, mushroom, etc.)
Canned tomatoes (sauté with garlic and onion to make a quick sauce)
Tomato paste in a tube (stores almost indefinitely in the refrigerator; unlike a can, the tube lets you use as much as you like and reseal the rest)
Parmesan cheese (buy a chunk and grate as needed for best flavor)
Really good olive oil (extra-virgin is usually the best bet), for drizzling as a finishing touch
Capers (toss into all kinds of pastas for a salty, tangy hit of flavor)
Olives (buy pitted ones, or smash them with the heel of your hand to extract the pit; use as you would capers)
Anchovies or anchovy paste. (Don’t be squeamish—a hint adds lots of flavor and most people who “hate anchovies” turn out not to when they don’t know they’re there. Case in point: Caesar salad. And, of course, strict vegetarians can just read on.)
Red pepper flakes (use both in cooking and for sprinkling at the table)
Garlic (if you’re not into mincing, invest in a garlic press)
Frozen peas (surprisingly good in all kinds of pastas)
TIMING AND COOKING
If you’re planning to have pasta for dinner, it’s usually a good idea to put the pot of water on the stove to heat before you do anything else, because it takes a while to come to a boil. And since a watched pot never boils, once it’s on the stove, you can get busy preparing the sauce or ingredients you’ll be using to dress the pasta.
Traditional methods call for using plenty of water—a few quarts for a half-pound of pasta to allow the noodles to swim around freely. (Current discussion in the food world, based on experiments by noted food expert Harold McGee, notes that there are benefits to cooking pasta in a much smaller quantity of water. However, that requires more monitoring by the cook, and I want to keep this as easy for you as possible. So, let’s stay traditional for now.) Add a tablespoon of salt to the pasta water. The pasta will absorb some of it and take on more flavor. There’s no need to add olive oil (or any kind of oil) to pasta water.
When it’s time to add the pasta, toss it into the water and give it a good stir so the pieces don’t settle and stick together. Once the water returns to a full, rolling boil, there’s no need to keep stirring it as long as you have plenty of water in the pot.
When is pasta ready? The best advice for determining this is “read the package.” Virtually all packaged pastas give suggested cooking times. The second-best advice is “don’t believe everything you read.” No two stoves or pots or quantities of cooking water are alike, so use the suggested cooking time as a guide, but start pulling pieces of pasta from the boiling water and tasting them a few minutes before that time is up, until you like the texture. It should be firm, not mushy. Some people call that al dente. You’ll know it when you taste it.
GO FOR A GARNISH
A garnish is more than just a fancy finishing touch for restaurant food. Especially if you’re cooking for friends, adding a little something to the presentation can make a big difference in the overall effect and the flavor. What makes a good garnish? One handy rule of thumb is to use an ingredient that went into the making of the dish. If you use a fresh herb, for example, save a few sprigs to top each finished serving. Most pastas made with oil benefit from the addition of a final drizzle of a flavorful olive oil. Breadcrumbs, toasted in a skillet with a small amount of olive oil, add an appealingly crunchy finish. You can always throw on a perfect leaf of Italian parsley, or chop a few sprigs roughly and scatter them over the pasta.
GO-WITHS ROUNDING OUT A PASTA MEAL
SALAD Think green with red, red with green: a green salad with a red-sauced pasta, a tomato salad with pesto. (The salad chapter, beginning on Chapter 2: Salads, offers many options and ideas.)
Good crusty bread, warmed in the oven
That same bread, toasted, rubbed with garlic, and sprinkled with olive oil, salt, and pepper (congratulations, you just made bruschetta). (By the way, pronounce it “brus-ketta.”)
Breadsticks from a package or a bakery
A plate of Italian sliced meats, like prosciutto, mortadella, and salami, and an assortment of olives
Marinated vegetables from a jar (roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, eggplant relishes, etc.)
An assortment of tasty cheeses with some sliced apples or pears
LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
The next time you cook pasta, make extra on purpose. Most pasta dishes reheat well and last a few days in the refrigerator, sealed in an airtight container. Take them to lunch, or reheat them for dinner, warming them in the microwave or on the stovetop (gently, so you don’t actually cook them more). Most pastas also taste great at room temperature—a great way to re-enjoy last night’s pasta as tonight’s side dish or pasta salad.
Those quarter-full boxes and bags that pile up in the cupboard are good for all kinds of things. Throw the pasta into a soup or stew to thicken it and give it more substance. Combine a few types of similar sizes and shapes to make a pasta salad. Break up spaghetti, brown it in a little oil in a skillet, and add it to raw rice before you cook it. Or cook orzo, macaroni, or other small pasta and stir it into tuna salad or cooked vegetables like spinach or broccoli.
But enough from the General Pasta Information Desk. Let’s start using those noodles.
homemade italian tomato sauce
Makes 3 to 4 cups
There are many very good commercially prepared tomato sauces available, and it’s fine to use them (especially if you have found one or two that you really like). But there’s nothing like simmering a batch of your own. It isn’t difficult, and it will make you feel as though you’ve been temporarily transported to an Italian hillside, even if just for th
e day. Canned crushed tomatoes work best, but canned diced ones will work, too; they just make a chunkier sauce. This will keep, in a tightly covered jar or container in the refrigerator, for a week. It can also be frozen—just be sure to leave space in the jar or container, as the sauce will expand a bit as it freezes.
This recipe is followed by two variations; one adding vegetables, the other adding meat. For each of these, the yield will be increased to about 6 servings.
This recipe is vegan.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced (about 1 cup)
1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced
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