Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [87]
Recommended pasta The homemade lasagne-like piccagge are the traditional and most interesting choice. But even if you settle for spaghetti, you are not likely to be disappointed.
Black Truffle Sauce
WHEN THIS RECIPE was first published in More Classic Italian Cooking, the cost of the ingredients and the powerfully sensual quality of the dish led me to scale the quantities down to serve two persons. It still seems to me that its pleasures are of the kind that are best savored a due, in the company of just one other. If you’d rather have a crowd, increase the recipe, but each time you double the truffles, add only half again as much anchovies.
For 2 servings
3 ounces black truffles, preferably fresh
1 or 2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus a little more oil for the pasta
1 flat anchovy fillet (preferably the kind prepared at home), chopped very fine
Salt
½ pound pasta
Recommended pasta Thin spaghetti, spaghettini.
1. If using fresh truffles: Clean them with a stiff brush, wipe them with a moist cloth, and pat thoroughly dry.
If using canned truffles: Drain them and pat them dry. Save their liquid to use in a risotto, or a meat sauce.
2. Grate the truffles to a very fine-grained consistency, using the smallest holes of a flat-sided grater. Some Japanese stores sell a very sharp metal grater that does the job extremely well.
3. Mash the garlic lightly with a knife handle, enough to split it and loosen the skin, which you will remove and discard.
4. Put water in a narrow saucepan and bring it to a lively simmer.
5. Put the olive oil and the garlic in another small saucepan, earthenware if possible, turn on the heat to medium, and cook until the garlic becomes colored a light nut brown.
6. Discard the garlic, remove the pan from the burner, and place it, double-boiler fashion, over the pan with simmering water. Add the chopped anchovy, and stir it with a wooden spoon, using the back of it to mash it against the sides of the pan. After a minute or two, place the pan over the burner again, turning the heat on to low, and stir constantly, for a few minutes, until the anchovy is almost entirely dissolved into paste.
7. Add the grated truffles, stir thoroughly once or twice, taste and, if necessary, correct for salt. Stir quickly once more and turn the heat off.
8. Toss cooked and drained spaghettini with the entire contents of the pan. Drizzle a few drops of raw olive oil over the pasta and serve at once.
Tuna Sauce with Tomatoes and Garlic
For 4 to 6 servings
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
1½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
12 ounces imported Italian tuna packed in olive oil, see Tuna
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 tablespoon butter
1 to 1½ pounds pasta
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Recommended pasta Spaghetti or short, tubular macaroni, such as penne or rigatoni.
1. In a saucepan or small sauté pan put the olive oil and the chopped garlic, turn on the heat to medium, and cook until the garlic becomes colored a pale gold. Add the cut-up tomatoes with their juice, stir to coat the tomatoes well, and adjust heat to cook at a gentle, but steady simmer for about 25 minutes, until the oil floats free from the tomatoes.
2. Drain the tuna and crumble it with a fork. Turn off the heat under the tomatoes, and add the tuna, mixing thoroughly to distribute it evenly. Taste and, if necessary, correct for salt. Add a few grindings of pepper, the 1 tablespoon of butter, and mix well once again.
3. Toss with cooked drained pasta. Add the chopped parsley, toss again, and serve at once.
Ahead-of-time note The sauce can be prepared up to this point several