Yogurt Sauce
Cottage Cheese
Cucumber Salad
Duxelles
Quick Cream and Tomato Sauce
Ham and Peas
Anchovy Sauce
Mushroom Sauce
Raisin and Pignoli Sauce
Quick Tuna Sauce
Smoked Salmon and Scotch
Olives
Oysters
Canned Tomato Sauce
When I was testing the pasta recipes for this book I very often found myself with an embarrassment of riches at lunchtime. The simplest solution was to put the hot cooked noodles in a bowl, drop in a nugget of unsalted butter, and toss it with whatever cheese I had in the refrigerator.
But there were other solutions that were nearly as simple, and were often more delicious than prepared, long-cooked sauces. For example, I might melt the butter into the pasta and then simply grind a good deal of coarsely cracked peppercorns over it. Almost any fresh herb melted in butter was good. Chopped parsley, butter, and minced garlic made a sublime sauce. And another lunch of pasta, herbs, and butter became the inspiration for the tarragon-shallot-butter sauce on page 71.
The point is that you need never be at a loss for something good to eat if you have some pasta and the resources of an ordinary kitchen. I remember one memorable meal that Marion Cunningham and I put together at La Costa, where we were giving a series of cooking demonstrations. We didn’t want to eat at the spa, and we were too tired to go out to dinner. We hung around until it got late, and then we tore down to the little local grocery shop and found, to our dismay, that it was closed. Back to our demonstration kitchen we went and surveyed what we had on hand. We found a package of imported spaghettini and a couple of cans of salsa, the spicy onion, pepper, and green tomato sauce that is used in Mexican cooking. We cooked the pasta, dumped the salsa, cold, on the steaming hot spaghettini, tossed it all together, and to this day Marion claims that it’s the best noodle dish she’s ever had.
I’ve never been the sort who knew on Monday what he wanted to eat on Tuesday. Or, for that matter, who knew at three what he wanted for supper at eight. That’s why I’ve found pasta such a resource for spontaneous, last-minute meals.
It’s endless, for example, what you can do with pasta and fresh vegetables. (Even potatoes, as on page 79; even beans, as on page 83.) I might sauté broccoli florets in olive oil with garlic and pour it over shells. Stir-fry broccoli stems in peanut oil, season them with ginger and soy sauce, and serve them on a bed of cellophane noodles. Or steam the broccoli, add it to canned tomato sauce with a little cream and a good dash of Tabasco, and serve it over penne.
Here, then, is a collection of ideas that I hardly think of as recipes, but rather as last-minute inspirations for using pasta. Each one began with a quick review of what I had on hand that day in the cupboard or in the refrigerator. Each one made a gratifying meal. But then, of course, I love pasta.
I haven’t eaten baked potatoes with butter or salt for years. Instead, I squeeze on some lemon juice and then add a lot of freshly ground black pepper. If you don’t want to have any oil with your pasta, there’s no reason you can’t treat it similarly.
GARLIC AND OIL
Nobody ever has to dine badly if he has olive oil, garlic, and fresh pepper. Heat ½ cup oil in a saucepan with 4 cloves finely chopped garlic. When the garlic is soft, but not brown, pour the scented oil over ½ pound of freshly cooked pasta, and grind lots of fresh pepper on top.
PARSLEY AND CHEESE
Melt a stick of butter with a clove of garlic. Then put a bunch of parsley into the bowl of the processor with a big chunk of cheese, and process well. Put some freshly drained pasta into the butter and immediately stir in the parsley and cheese, which should melt beautifully into the butter.
PASTA AND PEPPERS
One day I found myself ready for lunch with nothing promising on hand except some fresh pasta and a bowl in the refrigerator full of roasted bell peppers in a vinaigrette sauce. I put the peppers and sauce in the processor and served the purée over the hot pasta. But I could also have sliced the peppers into slivers, perhaps added some scallions, and poured that with the vinaigrette over the pasta.
YOGURT SAUCE
It’s not at all traditional, but I’ve taken a liking to yogurt served with pasta. I make a luncheon salad by mixing cooked noodles with a cup of yogurt into which I stir about ¼ cup parsley, 2 tablespoons chopped chives, and some tarragon leaves, then let it all cool to room temperature.
COTTAGE CHEESE
A friend tells me that the happiest meals of his childhood were in his German grandmother’s kitchen, where he watched her cut out wide egg noodles, and then was served a bowl of the freshly cooked noodles mixed with cold cottage cheese sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar.
CUCUMBER SALAD
I can see an icy-cold dish of cucumbers and onion in vinegar or yogurt tossed with hot pasta.
DUXELLES
This delicious mushroom paste is used in stuffings, omelets, crépes, or simply spread on thin toast for an appetizer. I don’t suggest that you make it up for a pasta sauce, but if you have some duxelles in the refrigerator, you could well use it for an instant sauce. For the recipe, see The New James Beard, page 535. To use it as a sauce for pasta, spoon off about ½ cup of the paste. Warm it in a heavy pan and thin it with some cream until it is the proper consistency.
QUICK CREAM AND TOMATO SAUCE
I can’t deny that this is best when it’s made with homemade tomato sauce. But, on the other hand, if you find yourself with a can of undistinguished commercially made tomato sauce, here’s a way to turn it into something special. Heat the tomato sauce with the juice of half an orange, a dash of Tabasco, and about ½ cup heavy cream. Warm through and pour over hot noodles.
Very simple. Pour a cup of heavy cream into a saucepan. Let it cook down and thicken slightly, and add some peas and bits of ham. Pour over hot noodles and sprinkle on quite a lot of grated cheese.
ANCHOVY SAUCE
Everyone has a can of anchovies in his cupboard. Drain the oil into a measuring cup, and add enough olive oil to make ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons oil altogether. Pour the oil into a saucepan with 2 cloves chopped garlic and the anchovies. Heat them all with 2 tablespoons hot water. Pour over the pasta and sprinkle with lots of chopped parsley.
MUSHROOM SAUCE
What could be better? Sauté a lot of sliced mushrooms in butter with just a hint of garlic. Toss with the pasta and add lots of chopped chives.
QUICK TUNA SAUCE
Warm ½ cup olive oil with a clove of garlic. Dump in a 7-ounce can of tuna, and break it up with a fork. Then add a lot of chopped parsley, heat through, and pour over the pasta. Add a few chopped Greek olives, if you have them.
SMOKED SALMON AND SCOTCH
I used to make this years ago. Warm some heavy cream with a good lump of butter. When it has cooked down a little, pour in a splash of Scotch. Let it heat through and pour over the noodles. Then toss in as much smoked salmon, cut into shreds, as you have. If you don’t have smoked salmon, do it with canned kippers or smoked sturgeon.
RAISIN AND PIGNOLI SAUCE
Made in minutes, if you have pignoli on hand. If you don’t, don’t despair: almonds will do in a pinch. Heat ¾ cup olive oil with 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine. Add ½ cup nuts and ½ cup raisins, and heat through. Serve over pasta, sprinkled with lots of fresh pepper and chopped parsley.
OLIVES
Take some of the lovely black Greek olives, mix them with a little garlic and olive oil and scallions, and pour them over pasta. Green olives will do, too.
OYSTERS
Take freshly opened oysters (or the opened oysters that you buy from a reputable fishman). Toss them briefly with hot melted butter and pour them into a bowl of pasta. The heat from the noodles will continue to cook them. Serve with lemon wedges.
In the best of all possible worlds all tomato sauce would be freshly made. But this is not the best of all possible worlds, and sometimes that extra 20 minutes is just too long to spend on preparing dinner. That’s why it’s wise to have some canned tomato sauce in your pantry.
These sauces are as useful as canned tomatoes. Some are abysmally bad, while others are better, frankly, than the fresh sauces that some people would make. The packing companies are often able to get better tomatoes than we do. And there are many small companies around the country that package really high-quality sauces. Here in New York, for example, Aunt Millie’s puts out three or four varieties of tomato sauce that are more than acceptable, that are really damned good.
As for the bad ones, you can always dress them up. Take a canned sauce as a starting point. Then add some browned chopped meat; or leftover meat and gravy; or a can of tuna and some parsley. Put in some mushrooms sautéed in butter. Pour in some cream: that helps a lot. Add herbs. Keep on tasting. Use your imagination.
