Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [83]
4. Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the grated Parmesan. As you toss, separate the onion strands somewhat to distribute them as much as possible throughout the pasta. Serve immediately.
Ahead-of-time note You can cook the sauce entirely in advance up to the point where you add the parsley. When you are nearly ready to toss it with the pasta, reheat the sauce over medium heat and add the parsley just before draining the pasta.
Butter and Rosemary Sauce
THE TASTIEST PART of an Italian meat roast is what is left over: The rosemary-saturated garlicky juices, the bits of brown that have fallen off the meat. They usually end up tossed with pasta, which is then known as la pasta col tocco d’arrosto, “with a touch of the roast.” If you don’t have leftovers to fall back on, you can make a mock and meatless “touch of the roast” sauce as in the quick recipe here in which the presence of rosemary and garlic summons up all the fragrance of the original.
For 4 to 6 servings
3 to 4 garlic cloves
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 beef bouillon cube, crushed
⅓ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese, plus additional cheese at the table
1 pound pasta
Recommended pasta This sauce probably tastes best of all with tonnarelli, the square fresh noodle. But it can also be used with unqualified success on fettuccine or spaghetti.
1. Mash the garlic cloves with the back of a knife handle, crushing them just enough to split and loosen the peel, which you will discard. Put the garlic, butter, and rosemary in a small saucepan and turn on the heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Add the crushed bouillon cube. Cook and stir until the bouillon has completely dissolved.
3. Pour the sauce through a fine wire strainer over cooked drained pasta. Toss thoroughly to coat the pasta well. Add the grated Parmesan and toss once more. Serve at once with additional grated cheese on the side.
“Aio e Oio”—Roman Garlic and Oil Sauce
For 4 servings
1 pound pasta
Salt
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic chopped very fine
Chopped hot red chili pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Recommended pasta Romans say “spaghetti aio e oio” as though it were one word, and they would as soon expect another pasta to be in the combination as the moon to change its course. If any substitution may hesitantly be suggested, it is spaghettini, thin spaghetti, which takes very well to the coating of garlic and oil.
1. Cook the spaghetti in boiling water to which an extra measure of salt has been added. There is no salt in the sauce itself because salt does not dissolve well in olive oil, so the pasta must be abundantly salted before it is tossed.
2. While the pasta is cooking, put the olive oil, garlic, and chopped hot pepper in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to medium low. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold. Do not let it become brown.
3. Toss the cooked drained pasta with the entire contents of the saucepan, turning the strands over and over in the oil to coat them evenly. Taste and, if necessary, correct for salt. Add the chopped parsley, toss once again, and serve immediately.
“Aio e Oio” Raw Version
For 4 servings
4 garlic cloves
Salt
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
Chopped hot red chili pepper, to taste
1 pound pasta
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1. Mash each garlic clove lightly with a knife handle, crushing it just enough to split it and loosen the skin, which you will loosen and discard.
2. Put the garlic, salt, olive oil, and chili pepper in a warm bowl, the one in which you will subsequently toss the pasta and turn all ingredients over two or three times.
3. Cook the pasta with an extra measure of salt. When done al dente, drain and toss it in the bowl with the raw garlic and oil. Thoroughly turn the strands in the oil again and again to coat them well. Taste and correct for salt. Add the chopped parsley, toss again, and serve immediately.
“Aio e Oio” Raw Version, with Fresh Tomatoes and Basil
To all the