Friday, April 28, 2006
Tortellini with Mixed Leftovers
Imagine you had spent months fearing an event and when you're finally guaranteed that it won't happen, you are not relieved, but feel guilty and sad as if your thoughts had actually prevented it. You never thought that you could be this powerful so you never thought of the consequences of it not happening. The consequences for all parties involved that is. No, you spent all this time thinking only of yourself and completely forgot others and their feelings in the process. And now that you've realised what you may have innocently wished for yourself is actually quite nasty towards others. That's exactly how I felt today when I realised a colossal bit of misjudgement on my part. I won't dwell on the issue any further because other people concerned might not want to share their story online, but I felt that I needed to explain the frame of mind I was in when I started cooking dinner. While on the one hand I desperately needed to relax, somehow I felt that everything I were to do today would go wrong.This apprehension was confirmed when, at 7 p.m. I realised that I had missed the judgement day episode of Great British Menus. So much for relaxing, now I was really enraged. My first reaction was to simply cancel dinner. Like an angry child throwing its toys about I decided that I was a good-for-nothing loser who should not be allowed inside a kitchen ever again. I sat down at my PC and started a game of solitaire and had a cigarette. I agree that the latter is something neither cooks nor non-smokers should do and I take myself to belong to both groups. But occasionally I just feel like having a smoke. In my humble opinion, cigarettes are better than espresso if you have eaten too much (for best results I take both together) and they definitely help me relax when I'm nervous (I know it's just an oral thing and a lollipop would work just as well). I just don't like other people's smoke in my face when I'm eating. I am strongly opposed to Ireland's smoking ban indoors because all that does is make outside areas inaccessible to non-smokers. I would much prefer smoking rooms in bars and a ban everywhere else. If you want to protect non-smoking staff, make these areas self-serve only, but at least you would be able to go to the beer garden with your kids again. And anyone who now protests that traffic fumes are much worse than cigarette smoke, please have a hard think when you last enjoyed a meal sitting in the centre of a busy intersection with busses and trucks coming close enough to blow their exhaust fumes straight in your face. Never? I rest my case. I do not dislike smokers, I just don't like the mix of food and smoke.
But where was I? Yes, a game and a smoke... That calmed me down sufficiently to realise that I was being childish and to look for a repeat of today's show. Much to my surprise I actually found one tomorrow afternoon. All happy again I bookmarked it on my telly and ended my self-imposed exile from the kitchen.
Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to cook
anything overly exciting. It's Friday and we haven't shopped in a week again. I found some spinach in the back of the fridge that still looked surprisingly edible. The leaves had gone slightly limp, but they were not rotting or going brown. There was some leftover broccoli that was in roughly the same state, a few asparagus spears, a handful of mushrooms and a few spring onions. Looks like the beginning of a pasta sauce, doesn't it? Add to that a few sliced sausages and a packet of shop-bought tortellini with smoked chicken and sun-dried tomatoes that I found in the freezer and some chopped herbs, a drop of balsamic vinegar and a few sun dried tomatoes and you actually have a fairly good end of the week dinner. And just in case you don't have any of the above ingredients, here is a quick guide to making the perfect pasta dish from leftovers and cupboard staples:- The first rule is simple: Make sure to use good quality pasta. Some people prefer fresh egg noodles, others go for dried pasta. I personally have no overall preference. I like to keep a few packets of dried spaghetti in the cupboard. I also buy fresh pasta occasionally and freeze whatever I don't use. I used to have a pasta maker before I moved to Ireland, but could never get my hands on the right ingredients in Prague. And this is where the key lies. Pasta doesn't have to be expensive to be good (I get Tesco's own), but whatever you buy, make sure they are made with durum wheat flour. Only those noodles will cook al dente; everything else turns into a gooey mess.
- Rule number two is equally simple: Make sure you cook the pasta right. Fresh pasta really only wants 2 to 3 minutes after that it turns into pudding. Dried pasta can go a similar way, but more often people undercook it. Al dente does not mean inedible for people with dentures! Your pasta is supposed to retain a bit of bite, not be hard to chew.
- Role number three is simple: Contrary to what you may have heard, you do not want to refresh your pasta in cold water after cooking or add olive oil before the sauce. Both are meant to prevent the noodles from sticking together, the former by washing away the starch they release during cooking, the latter by lubricating the pasta. However, an unwanted side effect of both practices is that the sauce will glide off the pasta and the dish will be less tasty.
- Rule number four has, at first glance, more to do with presentation than taste, but don't forget that the two are intimately linked: Forget the old idea of a pile of noodles on a plate with some sauce on the top. Pasta actually tastes better if you mix the sauce in before dishing up. This way the noodles are nicely coated in the sauce, which not only means that every bite you take is a perfect mix of the two, but also that the pasta will not stick together. For the same reason you should always pick the appropriate pasta shape for your sauce (for more information on this topic check out ilovepasta.org).
- And finally, let's leave the rules behind and move on to what you can or should do:
- Let your imagination run wild, pasta can take just about everything! If it sounds good in a salad or as a sandwich, it probably tastes good with pasta. (OK, maybe with the exception of Thousand Island dressing, but I think you get what I mean.)
- Forget low fat and low salt. If you want flavour, you need these two elements. It is better to eat less overall and have a side salad or some fruit for desert to fill you up than to skip corners and have a large plateful of tasteless gunk for dinner.
- If you are making a tomato-based sauce, a dash of balsamic vinegar or red wine will help to bring out the flavours.
- If your tomato sauce is too sour, add a bit of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and a dash of cream to mellow it down.
- Tomato sauce goes particularly well with strong flavours and hard vegetables (such as but not exclusively beef, lamb or game, carrots, celery, parsnips and, the exception that proves the rule, aubergines).
- Creamy sauces prefer mellow flavours and soft textures (such as chicken, pork, white fish or prawns, mushrooms, peas, spinach or broccoli).
- Certain ingredients don't need any 'sauce' as such at all. Garlic, onions, spinach, asparagus, bacon, sausages, salmon, peas and many, many more can simply be fried in butter or olive oil until tender (blanch your vegetables beforehand) and added directly to the pasta.
- Got something slightly odd to use up? Eggs make a carbonara, beetroot is great with creamy mushroom sauce (do not cook in the sauce! just top the pasta with little cubes of beetroot when you dish up) and truffle oil. Be creative and think of what you might put in a salad.
- Got nothing at all? That can't happen. Garlic and olive oil (aglio e olio) should always be in the house. No? How about some anchovies or some other fish in olive oil? Octopus is particularly nice. Alternatively, vegetables in garlic oil (home-made or store bought) work very well too. Or blue cheese just crumbled into the noodles. Or mix your cooked pasta with some condensed creamy soup, top with grated cheese and bake it in the oven.
- Before I end today's lesson in pasta, just one more remark about herbs and spices. Some things seem to be predestined for pasta. Basil for example is lovely just on its own with olive oil and Parmesan (or, better yet, in a freshly made pesto). Other things are nice in combinations. Mint and peas, caraway seeds and mushrooms, fennel seeds and fennel bulbs, sun-dried tomatoes and tomato sauce. And then there are those things that go with everything: Garlic, onion, pepper, parsley, chilli powder and, I'm sure, a few more that I can't think of just now.
Christine at 10:40 pm
