Comfort Pasta

I was waiting in the grocery store line the other day, and my eyes were drawn to all the covers of the food magazines by the checkout. There were only about four different magazines in the rack next to my cashier (none of them were leading food publications), but I noticed they all had a common theme. Not only were they all promoting comfort food (must be the time of year), but every cover in the rack showed a big plate of pasta. It made me think. Is pasta the quintessential comfort food? I guess that all depends on where you’re from and what makes you feel warm and fuzzy. I tend to think of a roast leg of lamb and yorkshire puddings, but I started asking friends what they considered their comfort food. I have to confess, pasta came up frequently. So, I guess these journalists had done their research.

Those magazine covers forced warm thoughts of pasta into my mind. I do love pasta. There was a time in my life when I had pasta several times a week. It was inexpensive and very versatile, acting as the vehicle for many different flavors and ingredients. I didn’t think it very special then. I suppose because I now don’t eat pasta that often, I find myself reminiscing about pasta and sometimes truly craving a big bowl of rigatoni or cavatappi (two of my favorite pasta shapes).

I was at university when I first really started cooking . In the summer or during the Christmas break when I visited my parents, I would sometimes go through my mother’s cookbooks looking for new (to me) things to make. One book that I particularly loved was Diane Seed’s The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauce Recipes. It was from this book that I first made one of my favorite pastas to date - Pasta Putanesca.

Pasta Putanesca is a quick tomato-based sauce, made with anchovies, garlic, chili flakes, capers, black olives, tomatoes and parsley. Some of you might turn your nose up at the mention of anchovies, but don’t. The anchovies don’t impart their own flavor as much as they season the sauce with a salty meatiness that can’t really be achieved any other way. Pasta Putanesca literally translates as “whore’s pasta”, and there are several folk tales about the origin of the name. The most common is that the Putanesca sauce is so quick and easy to make that ladies of the evening would have time in between clients to whip up a batch for dinner, plus the aroma of the sauce would waft out into the streets luring men into their ummm… “lodgings”. All the flavors in this pasta sauce certainly are vibrant and it will fill your kitchen with a fantastic and alluring aroma. As such, Pasta Putanesca is definitely a common favorite among pasta lovers. As for whether or not it is “comfort food”, well, I guess that depends on where you’re from and what makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

Here’s a recipe for the notorious pasta. If you’d like to see it made, tune into QVC on March 7th at midnight, 7:55am, noon or 9pm (all ET) in a very special new product from the Technique® line of cookware.

Pasta Putanesca

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 fillets anchovies, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• ½ cup black olives, pitted and halved
• ½ cup canned diced tomatoes
• 1½ cups chopped fresh tomatoes
• ¼ pound dried pappardelle
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Salt the water.
2. Pre-heat a 10-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the olive oil and sauté the anchovies and garlic for a minute. Add the capers and olives and toss. Add the tomatoes (canned and fresh) and toss again. Let this cook for 5 minutes.
4. Drop the pappardelle into the pasta water and cook according to the package directions until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
5. Season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper and toss in the parsley. Pour the sauce over the pasta and serve with Parmesan cheese if desired.