Wheat flour, water and salt are the basic ingredients of this wild pantry from home pantry that gives rise to a whole collection of dishes
Coronavirus, last minute
It cannot be missing in the pantry of the confinement kitchen. Long or short, even in sheets, pasta is the perfect accessory that, with a few minutes of cooking, gives rise to a sure value that works with everything: meat, fish, vegetables, aromatic herbs, spices, various sauces or, without more , an extra virgin olive oil.
But who is behind this unbeatable invention ? There does not appear to be a generally accepted thesis on the origin of pasta . Some researchers point to Marco Polo, who was able to introduce her to Italy in 1271, on the return of one of his trips to China. However, other theories place it in a much more distant past and hold the ancient Etruscan civilizations (9th century BC) responsible for a recipe based on crushed cereals, mixed with water and cooked. From the International Pasta Organization (entity created in 2005 in Rome) they pointed out that "when the Greeks founded Naples, they adopted a dish that the natives made and that consisted of a paste of barley flour and water, which they then dried in the sun, and They called makaria . In Ancient Rome, there are also references to recipes that date back to the 3rd century BC. " The Romans, responsible for the expansion of cereal cultivation in the Mediterranean, created instruments to make plates or strips of pasta . Thus, this heritage seems completely different from the origin of other types of pasta in Asia, which Marco Polo was able to meet on his travels, while in Italy that culture was already developed in the 13th century. And it is that Italian pasta treasures the merit of having entered the daily eating habits of almost any home, from Europe (including, of course, Spain) to America, where the arrival of Italian immigration made it the protagonist of restaurants from Little Italy , the famous neighborhood in Manhattan.
Rich in carbohydrates and minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium or phosphorous), low in fat, high in fiber and with between 350 and 400 calories per 100 grams, pasta is a staple of the Mediterranean diet, which We find it dry or fresh, this one with a more limited expiration date.
Short and long
The culinary literature of the transalpine country has historical references on different elaborations, with almost infinite options and many applicable to different types, with names whose complete dictionary is only dominated by the most knowledgeable.
Among the short ones , fusilli, with a helical shape; farfalle, almost a butterfly; conches, molded with a shell; the famous penne (literally feathers), cylinders with or without grooves on the outside (rigate or lisce), with ends cut diagonally and variants such as rigatoni (of not excessive diameter, always with grooves and without ends cut obliquely) ... Apart Of course, macaroni, a kind of generic very popular in Spain. The long ones (sometimes presented in a nest) can be spaghetti, some fine noodles; tagliatelle, flat ribbon-shaped noodles; fettuccine, somewhat wider than the previous ones, and sometimes made with eggs; pappardelle, wider ribbons (up to 3 cm); mafaldine or reginette, wide, flat and curly noodles; tripoline, with one side shaped like a curly bow ... The list seems endless.
Basic recipe
In essence, pasta is a dough made up of wheat flour or semolina, water and salt, to which after subjecting it to simple cooking, you can add multiple ingredients, from a simple dressing with EVOO to meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, passing by the almost omnipresent tomato-based sauce , which is made with any variety available on the market, including canned tomato (natural chopped), to which we will be happy , for example, with some basil leaves, sage, black pepper, grated parmesan, pecorino or other cheeses.
Another option is to take advantage of sauces already cooked and available online in supermarkets or sites , such as El Corte Inglés Gourmet Club, MangioItaliano.shop, Petra Mora, Accademia del Gusto (which has carried orders at home in recent weeks) and , if only to gossip a bit, the Eataly website, a monographic space on Italian culinary culture, with locations from Turin to New York.
Tomato, as a common thread, gives rise to many sauces . For example, with the amatriciana , which incorporates bacon or guanciale (cured meat of pork cheek), chilli and onion, we could replicate at home the garganelli all'amatriciana by Andrea Tumbarello (Don Giovanni), which uses red onion; the arrabbiata, with garlic and chilli and much more spicy than the previous one , is ideal for some penne, as they were served in Pulcinella -an Italian classic from Madrid- with San Marzano tomato and basil. Or why not go for the puttanesca , with garlic, capers, black olives or salted anchovies, a good companion for a short pasta, according to the recipe by Paulo Airaudo (Da Filippo, in San Sebastián).
We continue in a sauce key: among the usual ones in these parts we find the Neapolitan (with spices and herbs such as oregano and basil) and the Bolognese (originally from Bologna, incorporates minced meat normally from beef), with recipes to imitate such as the chef's fresh pappardelle Francesco Ingargiola (Lettera Trattoria Moderna, in Madrid). It is also a recurring option to complete the tomato sauce with a parmesan gratin .
Pasta lives not just tomato. There are almost insurmountable dressings, such as garlic, oil and pepitocino (chili), or mythical sauces such as pesto , with basil, pine nuts and EVOO, which Casa Marco (Madrid) applied to its linguine, and innovations such as the Tagliatelle recipe with Arugula and baby squid pesto , by Gianni Pinto, in Noi (Madrid). Also essential is the so repeated as badly replicated carbonara (with guanciale, pecorino and egg yolk, the protein responsible for the creaminess of this tasty recipe originating in Lazio, which never contains cream).
Typical of Roman cuisine (Lazio) is the recipe cacio e pepe , literally cheese and pepper, with pecorino . This is how spaghetti were cooked in Madrid's Maruzzella, just like the version that the Marbella chef Dani García showed these days via Instagram. And, to complete the basic tour, you can try a long pasta on the phone : tomato sauce and melted cheese turned into wires similar to the cables of old phones.
With meat
The carnivorous ingredients are, in any case, good accomplices to create a unique dish with more calories . Apart from bacon (sometimes with mushrooms) or Genovese , made with braised veal, onion and carrot, any pasta works with a beef ragout, pork (for example, with some busiati, a kind of long macaroni, with ribs, according to the proposal of the Madrid Mercato Ballarò), mixed (as the broad pasta was escorted in Trattoria Popolare) or, even, with some game meat .
Ignazio Deias (Da Giuseppina, Madrid) made famous his macaroni or spaghetti with beef and tomato dumplings, iconic meatballs created by Italian immigrants in Little Italy ; in addition to its short pasta accompanied by a peculiar -and easy to cook at home- Bolognese, made with sausage and to which it adds tomato, white wine, saffron, fennel or cheese.
In a recipe book commissioned by Joselito from Massimiliano Alajmo (available on the Iberian producer's website), the renowned Italian chef (owner of Le Calandre) bets on some spaghetti with bacon, garlic, parsley and chilli (by the way, he proposes to enjoy them with bread fried and bloody mary). And, in case we dare to emulate gastronomy icons, why not dare with a couple of famous recipes from Harry's Bar, a popular establishment in Venice: pappardelle with saffron and bacon and tagliolini with ham gratin .
In green and marine key
Vegetables also play a role, with ideas such as spaghetti with zucchini strips in the style of the Isabella dining room (Madrid); penne in zucchini, cheese and basil sauce or in tomato sauce with aubergines and cheese and pappardelle with mushrooms, garlic and parmesan .
Sometimes the vegetable is an ingredient in the preparation of dry pasta: orange if it incorporates tomato or green if it has spinach, for example, the egg and spinach pappardelle with zucchini, green asparagus and garlic that Petra Mora proposes. This online grocery recommends curious recipes to make it clear that, although far from Italian orthodoxy, pasta offers endless options, such as conch with gin flambéed prawns and cherry tomatoes . That alcohol-sea mix can be another way to explore, with dishes such as penne with salmon, onion, cream and a touch of vodka from Madrid's Pulcinella. And it is that seafood and fish form good marriages with pasta , especially with the long one like spaghetti frutti di mare , which admit as many variants as marine products we have in our fridge (and, these days, in the freezer): shrimp, clams , mussels, squid, lobsters ... First, we must cook them or, simply, sauté them before mixing them with the pasta. With them we can recreate, among others, the Spaghetti with prawns and their coral sauce (squeezing their heads) from La Tavernetta (Madrid); the Tagliatelle scampi alla veneziana , with grilled baby lobsters, creamy tomato, garlic, white wine and pepitocino, or the Spaghetti vongole verace , with clams, garlic, white wine and parsley, both recipes from El Italiano (Santander).
And, if we have cuttlefish or squid, we can dare with a nero di sepia , with a touch of chilli, or use the free version of the twins Sergio and Javier Torres, with chopitos and squid ink.
With surprise inside
A separate chapter deserves the stuffed pasta : ravioli, square in shape and sometimes topped with zig zag; tortellini, ring-like; bottone, which are circular, or gnocchi, almost pellets made with potato dough, flour and cottage cheese.
You can buy the ready-made dough or fill it at home with meat, cheese, vegetables, pumpkin (like the famous tortelli di zucca ), mushrooms or other ingredients, and then serve it with sauce (tomato, mushrooms or, why not, with fish bisque). As a suggestion, we point out the fillings used by Andrea Tumbarello in Don Giovanni's ravioli and tortelli: artichoke with cream of gorgonzola cheese; bufala mozzarella and spinach with roasted nuts; eggplant and scamorza or with shrimp, zucchini and cream; in addition to its pomodoro gnocchi , with tomato sauce, basil and parmesan.
Cannelloni and lasagna
Finally, the laminated pasta, where the queens are the cannelloni and lasagna . The first ones (optionally you can buy them in the form of cylinders) are usually filled with veal and bechamel and, also, with pork - even better if it is Iberian - and with some chorizo taquitos as toppings in the style of Madrid's A'Barra and Joselito's. And more than monarchs, cannelloni are almost a religion in many Catalan homes . Renowned chefs like Ramón Freixa or Nandu Jubany bet on the classic beef and béchamel, not forgetting those of Montse Fontané, mother of Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca , who has served for half a century at Can Roca, his bar in the Taialà neighborhood, in Girona. The trick of their festive cannelloni covered in bechamel and cheese? Use lean beef and pork, brisket and chicken livers and nutmeg .
We arrived at lasagna ( laganum as an ancestor and Cicero's favorite recipe), those sheets of pasta with which to build up by steps a good unique dish for everyday use, with vegetables, meat, béchamel and, even, canned bonito, for example. It can be made with a Bolognese , like the one that, in the shape of a square, is used to serving at Matteo Cucina Italiana, whose store in Madrid's La Paz Market is kept open ; or -in a lighter version- vegetable, with zucchini, aubergine and pesto, in the style of the Madrid trattoria Pulcinella.
And how can we forget that in Spain we have grown eating macaroni with chorizo and tomato and that pasta is the base of many homemade salads .
The secret is in the cooking
Nothing like the tricks of an Italian chef to discover the keys to cooking pasta. Angelo Marino, owner of Mercato Ballarò and Premiata Forneria Ballarò, in Madrid, reveals them to us. First, "you have to bring the water to a boil. Once the boiling breaks, add the salt and then the pasta ", Marino begins, noting that "obviously, the amounts vary according to how much pasta and what type we are going to use ", so it seems difficult to determine a fixed rule on these variables , to which another unknown is added: the cooking time.
"For neophytes, it is best to respect the manufacturer's times , " explains the Sicilian-born hotelier. However, there are some guidelines to follow that Marino breaks down in the form of advice: "Once the pasta has been introduced, if it is short, it must be removed so that it does not stick and, if it is long, we must wait for it to be submerged by complete and, after half a minute, move it so it doesn't stick. " He comments that it is convenient "to repeat the movement every minute, more or less, until it reaches the cooking point", which, on the other hand and regardless of the time recommended by the manufacturer, can be as subjective as the taste of each one . Finally, "drain to pasta" and finish with the sauce that the recipe has.
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