Food Friday: Modern Pasta

We like to be innovative and modern, here in the Spy Test Kitchen. We like labor-saving devices, such as the life-changing (though hideously expensive) KitchenAid stand mixer, which has brought us closer and closer to pizza perfection. We have just acquired a 4-slice toaster – though not an eye-wateringly pricey Smeg or Breville, just an affordable, middle-of-the-road Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster, for $49. Now Mr. Sanders and I can enjoy English muffins simultaneously on Sunday mornings, instead of sequentially. I love these modern times.

We cleaned out a couple of running feet of book shelf space in the kitchen this weekend. We decided it was time to get rid of the decade of Bon Appétit and Gourmet magazines we have been holding onto, as well as the stack of Thanksgiving Cooking Guides that Williams Sonoma used to distribute each year. We can find all of the helpful hints online these days, and some of Marie Kondo’s philosophy is wise, and good for us, too. (I also organized my sock drawer – let’s see how long that lasts!)

We still have shelves of cook books that we won’t be editing out of our lives, although they are no longer the sole source of cooking inspiration these days. I keep cook books for sentimental reasons, and because sometimes I can only remember a dish by its photo, or place on a page. One of my favorites is a well-thumbed second hand edition of Amy Vanderbilt’s (that well known cook and connoisseur) Complete Cook Book – with drawings by Andrew Warhol. (Also, not a foodie, but I enjoy the novelty, and man, could he draw.) I enjoy a good chuckle over the first line of the introduction: “…to serve good and attractive meals is a delightful feminine virtue.” Also, almost as invaluable, and irreplaceable, and wedged in there on the shelf, is Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book, Emily Post’s Etiquette, Latest Edition (1929), and M.F.K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating.

Food52 has been a great source of ideas and wisdom over the years for Food Friday. I started off slowly, first reading Amanda Hesser’s collection of columns that chronicled her food and Splenda experiences while dating her future husband – Cooking for Mr. Latte. And I have the original book that brought Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs together- The Essential New York Times Cookbook– before they thought up Food52. It is wise to have a hard copy of reference material instead of letting Alexa know that I can never remember how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon.

I have found listening to podcasts an excellent way to develop with column ideas. I need to walk Luke the wonder dog twice every day, and as I am rather dull company, and cannot listen to my own thoughts while puffing along, striving to make our daily walking goals, food podcasts are highly amusing and informative. Table Manners (https://www.tablemannerspodcast.com) mixes food with show biz gossip, and with English accents. Food52 (https://food52.com/tags/podcasts) has a podcast – imagine that! Also British, Comfort Eating with Grace Dent (https://blog.ocado.com/food/the-guardian-podcast-comfort-eating-with-grace-dent/) , is a Guardian newspaper production that does not pretend to be interested in what’s new or good or healthy in food, but rather what people cobble together to eat sitting on their sofas, watching terrible television, and waiting for COVID to be finished. It is a relief to learn that other folks use potato chips as an ingredient, although it does sound more posh and permissible saying “crisps”.

A podcast I continue to return to is The Sporkful. (https://www.sporkful.com) It is not as technical (or as expensive) as an America’s Test Kitchen subscription (https://www.americastestkitchen.com/podcasts), or quite as resourceful as Splendid Table (https://www.splendidtable.org) . But I think I have absorbed more, and certainly eaten more, and cooked better because of it. It had never occurred to me that onions taste sweeter when they have been cooked, which makes them more palatable to fussy children, or that some dark chocolate is better tasting if left to melt in your mouth – what a simple thing, but such a game changer. Dan Pashman is an entertaining genius.

Recently one of Pashman’s personal obsessions came to the marketplace. He invented a new pasta shape, the Cascatelli, a creative process that isn’t as simple as it sounds. I’ve made some primitive fresh pasta, nothing fancier than fettucini noodles. I couldn’t begin to design a new shape that was sturdy enough for a Bolognese sauce, that cooked evenly, with nooks and crannies for sauce reservoirs. Pashman has done it – designed, marketed and sold a unique pasta to the NPR crowd. And it is delicious. Some friends, who are always passing along enticing food ideas, sent us a box, with a package of ‘Ndjua sausage, and some New York Times pasta sauce recipe suggestions. We will have to move closer to a Whole Foods so we can buy more Cascatelli on a regular basis. And you will, too. Here is the Cascatelli story: https://www.sporkful.com/how-to-buy-cascatelli-new-pasta-shape-sporkful-dan-pashman/

Here is a recipe from the pasta manufacturer: https://www.sfoglini.com/pages/cascatelli-with-double-pork-ragu

And this is the recipe we tried, from the New York Times: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019862-orecchiette-with-nduja-shrimp-and-tomatoes?

Spring is on its way, but we still have some cold nights ahead. Make some pasta, curl up on the sofa, and be a comfort to each other. The sock drawer can wait.

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
-Federico Fellini