What We Eat When We Eat Alone - Deborah Madison [28]
Similarly, an importer of rare Chinese teas also turns to simple pasta with robust and fiery attributes. “As I’m batching it these days,” Sebastian Beckwirth writes, “I often do the quick and delicious penne or linguini arrabiata with plenty of chili, garlic, oregano, and olive oil!” And finally, Cliff Wright, again, who commands an enormous repertoire of complicated culinary possibilities, says, “When I eat alone and I’m not eating a combination of leftovers, the two kinds of dishes I like to make for myself are spaghetti with a little bit of meat, like pancetta or leftover something, or spaghetti tossed with finely chopped vegetables, maybe an egg or some Parmigiano tossed in.”
I imagine that the simplicity of such pastas as Cliff’s would be a comfort to a person who is constantly cooking what are often very complex dishes. What a relief to turn to something so straightforward as hot pasta tossed with an egg and some good cheese. Have a sardine on a cracker with a clump of watercress while the water is boiling, and you’ve got a real meal.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, but only one woman said that she cooked pasta when eating alone, and this is a woman who says she always has three vegetable dishes at dinner. Sylvia Thompson, a garden-centric cook and writer, says, “Now that I’m mostly vegetarian, I’d say it’s pasta twice a week. Lots of mushrooms and pasta. Cheese and pasta. Herbs and pasta.” Describing her most recent pasta meal—saffron fettuccine sauced with a sauté of sliced mushrooms, kalamata olives, and leaves of fresh baby spinach, loosened with canned crushed tomatoes—she adds, “I might not have added the spinach,” she said, “but it was going to be lost if I didn’t cook it tonight. Actually, the little green flags in the dish were quite nice, but essentially it’s mushrooms and olives with the crushed tomatoes.”
So it appears that with the exception of Sylvia, pasta, with all its carbs and happy affinity for (good) olive oil, and despite its affinity for vegetables, is now a man’s food.
Sardines on Toast
It needn’t be sardines, you know. There’s also canned herring, smoked trout, mackerel—all kinds of fish that come in cans. Here’s one way to enjoy them. The bones are a good source of calcium, they say, but sardines do come without them.
1 OR 2 PIECES OF RYE OR WHOLE-GRAIN BREAD
MAYONNAISE
MUSTARD
1 CAN OF SARDINES OR OTHER FISH
PEPPER
HALF A LEMON
PICKLED ONION RINGS (BELOW) OR A FEW THIN SLICES OF SWEET ONION
Toast the bread. Spread it lightly with mayonnaise and a little mustard. Lay sardines over the toast and gently press them into it so they’ll stick. Grind pepper and squeeze the lemon juice over all. Cover with pickled onion rings or thinly sliced sweet onions, slice into quarters, and eat.
Pickled Onion Rings
Pickled onions can be ready in 15 minutes, keep for days, and bless all with their cheerful color (if they were red to start with) and vinegary tang. Their texture softens a little each day, so you don’t want to have too many on hand if it’s just you.
1 RED OR WHITE ONION
1⁄2 TEASPOON SALT
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR OR RICE WINE VINEGAR
Peel and then slice an onion into thin rounds. Separate the rounds and put them in a bowl. Toss with the salt and sugar, then pour vinegar over to nearly cover. Add water, about a fifth of the total amount of liquid, to cover. Swish the onions around to dissolve the sugar and salt. It will take about 15 minutes for them to color up. Store in the refrigerator.
Marsha’s Salmon Cakes
Canned salmon can sit on your shelf and wait patiently for you to get it into view. One small (71⁄2-ounce) can makes 2 good-sized salmon cakes or