Simple Pasta - Recipes, Pictures

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I'll kick it off.

Pasta w/Poached egg, pecorino and truffle salt



- Boil Pasta in salted water, I used bucatini, drain, toss in a knob of good butter, cover.
- Gently poach egg in lightly vinegared water
- Grate pecorino

- Plate pasta, light, and I do mean light, dusting of truffle salt.
- Sprinkle fresh grated pecorino
- Top with poached egg
- Fresh ground pepper

Enjoy,
Gary

Wonderful! Did you get the truffle salt from Riviera? It's great stuff, but the fantabulous truffle aroma dissipates quite quickly; seal it up tight, put it in a plastic bag, toss in a few eggs or some rice, toss it in the fridge and think about the next few dishes you'll cook...

Marc

I don't have a picture or the exact recipe but here is a favorite pasta dish:

Toast some pine nuts
Saute some finely chopped onion in olive oil
Add a good spritz of lemon juice - to your taste
Add about 1/4-1/2 tsp. or so ground cinnamon
Cook pasta - I like orzo for this.
Add olive oil mixture and pine nuts to pasta, sprinkle with some fresh mint and cilantro and toss.

I love simple pasta recipes. Here are a few of my favorites, no photos, unfortunately:

- Fry bacon with a lot of garlic and red pepper flakes. Add cherry tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are soft. Toss with whatever noodles I have. Sprinkle with pecorino. (inspired by this Bon Appétit recipe)
- Melt a chunk of butter in a skillet, add some pre-cooked shrimp and red pepper flakes. Toss with whatever noodles I have.
- Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas from Gourmet
- Ramps cooked in olive oil and butter, tossed with red pepper flakes and any kind of pasta (recipe from The Splendid Table)

Here are some of my favorites, by season.

Winter: Fettuccine with gorgonzola cream sauce and tart apples.
Dice apples and sautee with butter. Make a roux with equal parts flour and butter, then add hot milk a bit a time and cook for 8 minutes while stirring. Off the heat, melt in some crumbled gorgonzola, and stir in fresh grated nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook the pasta, then toss with the sauce and the apples.

Spring: Spaghetti with pea sauce, pancetta and egg
Cook the pancetta and remove from the pot, draining a little of the fat off before adding peas to the same pot. Add chicken stock to just barely cover the peas, and cook until the peas are soft. Puree peas with a touch of cream, then toss cooked pasta with the pea puree and reserved pancetta. Top with grated cheese and a fresh, raw egg yolk, if desired. (note, I use this same technique - pureeing veg with stock and cream, and using the puree as a pasta sauce - with sorrel, carrots, or whatever veg looks good)

Summer: Pasta with cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, and good olive oil.
Cut cherry tomatoes in half and sautee with garlic over low heat in good olive oil. Or - even better - roast the cherry tomatoes and garlic with good oil in a very low oven for a long time. Toss tomatoes and oil with pasta, red pepper flakes, fresh julienned basil, and grated cheese.

Fall: Pasta with butternut squash and sage browned butter.
Peel and cut squash into cubes, then toss with olive oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and roast at 375 degrees until soft. Melt some butter and salt over very low heat with chopped sage, and cook until browned. Toss cooked pasta with browned butter and squash. Top with grated cheese.

Preserved lemon, toasted almonds, roasted garlic (or raw minced garlic), bread crumbs, olive oil (+/- olives, mint or parsley depending on what's in the fridge) pulsed in the food processor, tossed with linguini, topped with a little parmigiano reggiano.

I've posted got a Spaghetti Bolognese recipeover on my website.

wakeless wrote:I've posted got a Spaghetti Bolognese recipeover on my website.

How about posting it here and contributing to the discussion?

Dmnkly wrote:

wakeless wrote:I've posted got a Spaghetti Bolognese recipeover on my website.

How about posting it here and contributing to the discussion?

Yes, right, LTHForum is a discussion site, not a link to my blog site.

Thanks in advance to wakeless for posting the recipe.

Sure, sorry bout that guys.

Fry 1 brown onion until clear, add a lot of garlic (3-5 cloves) and fry for another minute. Brown 500g of mince, add 2 tins of tomato, 200ml of stock, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and a heap of italian herbs. Let this simmer for about 10 minutes before adding your favourite veges, carrot, capsicum, mushrooms. Cook some pasta and when al dente, add it to the sauce. Cook the pasta and the sauce for about 5-10 minutes before serving with heaps of cracked pepper and parmesan.

thaiobsessed wrote:Preserved lemon, toasted almonds, roasted garlic (or raw minced garlic), bread crumbs, olive oil (+/- olives, mint or parsley depending on what's in the fridge) pulsed in the food processor, tossed with linguini, topped with a little parmigiano reggiano.

Looks yummy....

G Wiv wrote:.
I'll kick it off.

Pasta w/Poached egg, pecorino and truffle salt



- Boil Pasta in salted water, I used bucatini, drain, toss in a knob of good butter, cover.
- Gently poach egg in lightly vinegared water
- Grate pecorino

- Plate pasta, light, and I do mean light, dusting of truffle salt.
- Sprinkle fresh grated pecorino
- Top with poached egg
- Fresh ground pepper

Enjoy,
Gary

That looks good too....

My favorite is very simple, maybe too simple for this site but here it is:

I put some linguini or fettuccini in boiling salted water. In small one-quart pot I grate two or three cloves of garlic with my microplane into two to three tablespoons of olive oil and put that on very low heat for a few minutes. Just enough heat to infuse the oil, not cook the garlic (yuck). In a small dry pan I put about a tablespoon of pine nuts to put a nice toast on them. Then when the pasta is done I mix it all together and grate some fresh parmesan cheese over the top. It’s a great, simple meal on a cold winters night.

I suppose I've never considered my gnocchi sauce to be simple, because it invariably follows an evening of frustration with the pasta itself, but I suppose the walnut/lemon saucewould qualify for this thread.

Sadly I have no photo, but:
Bowties with Salmon, Mint, Peas and Lemon (adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food)
*Boil a pound of bowties; drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid.
*Add pasta water to large skillet, add zest and juice of one lemon. Poach 1-1/2 pounds of salmon in covered skillet. When opaque, add 10 oz. frozen peas, cook another 3 minutes or so til peas are done.
*Drain skillet. Flake salmon. Toss with peas, pasta, and 1/4 cup chopped mint.
I prefer this dish at room temperature. This makes about 4 dinner and 2 lunch servings and takes about 15 minutes total.

My gf learned this one from her friend's Italian husband. No idea if it's a traditional preparation, but it's pretty good and really easy:

Boil pasta for a few minutes.

Add broccoli florets to the pot and cook, stirring regularly, until pasta is done and broccoli is soft/disintegrating.

Drain (trying not to lose much of the broccoli).

Top/mix with a healthy amount of olive oil and grated cheese.

Toast pine nuts and chopped garlic in olive oil, add broccoli and raisins, sautee till broccoli is bright green, toss with orecchetti, crushed red pepper and parmesan. Basically adapted from a pasta recipe from Bite. Is there a name for the pine nuts/garlic/raisin trifecta? I could eat that combination forever.. sometimes I make this dish without the pasta and call it "fancy broccoli". I suppose it would also be great with any green, like escarole.

mchodera wrote:Wonderful! Did you get the truffle salt from Riviera?

Marc,

A year or so, maybe more, Sam's on Marcy St closed out a number of gourmet items, truffle salt included. I picked up a couple of smallish glass containers for a large discount. It's good quality truffle salt, though I've found truffle salt more about the aroma than taste.

Enjoy,
Gary

I rarely make a pasta sauce that isn't "simple" by any standard I can think of. There are 2 basic categories: things sauteed in oil/butter without tomato, and things simmered in tomato. Equally simple.
Most either are, or are based on, the basic sauces that Marcella laid out in her first 2 books. I have a slight preference for the second, "More Classic Italian Cooking."

I don't have the books in front of my at present but my "go to" ones are:
* Tomato anchovy sauce: some good anchovies dissolved in hot oil, then a can of good tomatoes, a bit of salt and garlic, simmer till cooked down a bit 15-20 min. Fresh chopped parsely. Done. Really bold flavor. No work.
* (For summer) Fresh summer garden herbs + some garlic chopped fine (the mix can vary; whatever seems complementary). Olive oil heated nearly to smoking and then poured on the dry ingredients. There's a very satisfying Chinese restaurant sizzle, releasing the oils in the herbs and a cloud of wonderful aroma. The herbs wilt, the garlic is barely cooked. Then just toss with the noodles and some s&p.
* Cauliflower sauce: a head of cauliflower cooked to mash-ability, mix with 1/3 cup or so of olive oil in which anchovy has been cooked to dissolution, s&p and some red pepper flakes. Parsely. Again---bold flavor, almost no work.

I have been on a bit of a Carbonara kick lately. I've probably made it twice a week for the last couple months working on my recipie. Being from the "line cook" school of cooking I'm not great with writing per-serving portions for single entree style plates (pasta, meats, etc.) and really only do so for large scale portions and casserole/baked dishes. As I'm sure many of you know line cooking in a restaurant is all about consistency of the final product but to achieve this one must be improvisational with each dish as you adjust for water content, seasoning, caramelization, burner temperature, etc.

Pasta Carbonara highlights this type of cooking and is one of the best dishes I know of to practice the skills and touch needed to cook in this style. I stay very close to the traditional Carbonara that is thickened with egg only, no cream. The following is less of a recipie and more of a thought process to how I make this dish. If you follow the general ideas on how to form this sauce, you can make it to your taste and still have a consistent result.

*I prefer a dried, thick spaghetti noodle for this sauce cooked in a large quantity (for the amount of pasta compared to, say, macaroni) of heavily salted water. When the pasta reaches the al dente point I strain it and save the pasta water and keep it warm but not boiling. The salted and starched water is essential for adjusting consistency in the sauce. Let the pasta cool to just above room temp (this is important!)



*Obviously guanciale is the preferred meat for this dish but bacon does just fine. Cut the meat into lardon and render.



*Reserve some of the clarified grease/fat from the meat to start the sauce.

* Begin the sauce by mixing 1 part or the clarified grease to 2 parts olive oil. Add a few cloves of whole peeled garlic and cook on low heat until the garlic just begins to brown. Add some medium dice onion to soften (but not brown[actually you can skip the onion but I like the flavor and texture of the softened onion]).



Pasta water after pasta is strained:



* When the onion is nearly soft add enough chicken stock (home made or store bought.. no broth) so the onion and garlic float in the pan. Add a good pinch of fresh thyme (use about 2/3 the amount if dried) and a few twists of a pepper mill. Turn the mixture down and reduce the liquid by half.



* Separate egg yolks and lightly beat. I use about 1 large yolk per serving... i.e. 2 servings is 2 yolks.



* I use a good amount of parm/reg grated cheese. Again I don't measure but I figure I use between a half cup and 3/4 cup for 2 servings. You can adjust this based on the look and taste of the sauce. Ready the egg, bacon, and cheese.

* Remove the garlic from the pan and temporarily turn off the heat. We don't want to make melted cheese balls and scrambled egg!

* Add the cooled pasta, bacon, cheese, and egg. This mixture will be very thick. Turn the heat on medium low and begin ladling the warm pasta water. This is where the dish is made. As the temp very gradually comes back up, the egg will begin to set and thicken the sauce. By slowly adding the seasoned, starchy water you can temper the sauce and adjust the consistency to your liking. I like my sauce to be a little runny compared to say, and Alfredo sauce. This keep the dish feeling and tasting light even as it is deeply and richly flavored.

cooled pasta with the bacon, cheese, and egg added



* Completed after gradually bringing up the temp on the burner and adding warm pasta water to adjust the consistency if the sauce as the egg sets up.



Final plated dish... enjoy!

This is so different from what I'm used to that I can't wait to try it. Have never involved either stock or the starchy water.

mrbarolo wrote:This is so different from what I'm used to that I can't wait to try it. Have never involved either stock or the starchy water.

It is certainly my take on the dish and far from the only way to make it. I have just developed this method with a lot of trial and error (delicious, delicious trial and error ).

The stock is there for depth of flavor and to act as a medium to allow for the garlic essence to develop (beyond what is produced in the lipids) before removal from the dish as well as letting the onion fully soften without browning. The pasta water works better than plain water for three reasons. First it is already seasoned so it requires less adjustment of salt in the final product. Second, the warm temperature provides a temper for the hot fat and onion and the cooler egg and pasta resulting in a more even thickening. Third, the egg seems to set up better with the starch creating a more velvety texture with a lower fat content.

Give this one a go, I think you will be happy with the results!

Another variation on Carbonara I did a couple weeks ago:
When I got home I found the pancetta was sliced very thin. By the time it rendered out, it was sticking to the pan and falling apart, so I added a half-cup of white wine to the pancetta and wilted onions. Probably should have added more olive oil, but I was trying to keep this somewhat lighter than usual.
Instead of romano, I used about a half-cup of ricotta, two eggs, parsley, some parmesan (it's what I had), and black pepper mixed together into a pound of thick spaghetti at al dente stage dropped into the pan with a ladle of the pasta water. There was just enough cheese and egg mixture to just coat the strands of spaghetti.

Stagger,

I like the sound of your carbonara method. I would note that while I agree bacon makes a decent sub for guanciale, the type of bacon here will make a difference. Smoke, in my opinion, does not belong in carbonara. Pancetta or other cured pork products work well, but something like Nueske's, imo, ruins the balance of the dish.

Kenny

To be honest, I like a bit of smoke, and make my adjustment via quantity, so that it doesn't overwhelm.
Marcella suggests blanching American bacon briefly if that's all you have on hand. I haven't tried that, but it sounds like a very plausible 'fix.'

Kennyz wrote: while I agree bacon makes a decent sub for guanciale, the type of bacon here will make a difference. Smoke, in my opinion, does not belong in carbonara. Pancetta or other cured pork products work well, but something like Nueske's, imo, ruins the balance of the dish.
Kenny

Kenny, thanks for the kind words. I agree with you completely that Carbonara should be all about getting a deep "porky" flavor into the sauce and smoke flavor is not ideal. I also agree that pancetta is the second choice of meat behind guanciale. The most important thing when buying pancetta for this dish is that it is not sliced thinly. You want the meat to be fairly think so it has some interior chew even as the exterior is crisp. I really just wrote the "recipie" with bacon because most people already have some in their refrigerator and I was trying to keep with the "simple" theme. In fact, I'm guessing that most people here have the ingredients to make this dish sitting at home already except for possibly chicken stock and the aforementioned guanciale or pancetta.

Edit: all this talk of carbonara as had me thinking about this dish all day so for dinner tonight I fixed up a batch and took some new photos as I went along. For the sake of continuity, I think it will flow better if I go back and insert them in the original post about my carbonara method.

Thanks for the recipe Stagger! I tried this last week. I was low on eggs so I only had 2 yolks for 2+ servings (which is just as well, since I'm trying to eat a little healthier during the week). It still tasted great--there was a fight for the leftovers.

Looks beautiful. Perfect saucing from the picture. I know the sauce looks heavy in the pictures I put in the recipe post a my camera doesn't do all that well in low light (it was actually sauced quite lightly and I was afraid folks would get the wrong idea) but that it exactly how it is supposed to come out.

Spaghetti Carbonara is in the regular rotation of weeknight meals at our house. I use whole eggs - 1 per serving. So, I usually go with 4 eggs for a pound of pasta. I whisk up the eggs in a bowl, season with salt & pepper, and grate in a bunch of parm-reggiano. I've been adding a big splash of heavy cream to my egg mixture for insurance against curdling.

I saute up some chopped bacon in another pan while I boil the pasta. Then drain the pasta, return it to the pan, dump in bacon & bacon fat into the pasta, toss. Then dump in egg/cheese/cream mixture and mix.

viaChgo wrote:Spaghetti Carbonara is in the regular rotation of weeknight meals at our house. I use whole eggs - 1 per serving. So, I usually go with 4 eggs for a pound of pasta. I whisk up the eggs in a bowl, season with salt & pepper, and grate in a bunch of parm-reggiano. I've been adding a big splash of heavy cream to my egg mixture for insurance against curdling.

I saute up some chopped bacon in another pan while I boil the pasta. Then drain the pasta, return it to the pan, dump in bacon & bacon fat into the pasta, toss. Then dump in egg/cheese/cream mixture and mix.

Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes...especially when using Bucatini and Guanciale.

Now that La Quercia Guanciale is readily available and produced locally ( right next door in Iowa) I can use it daily and I believe it has a better taste than the imported Italian version. The La Quercia version is merely cured and gives a great flavor to your dish.



*I'm going to the store now to pick up the ingredients needed to cook this tonight...after I go to Avec of course.