Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It (14 page)
Read Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice,Heather Maclean
Tags: #food.cookbooks
B
ASIC
T
OMATO
S
AUCE
,
AKA
“T
HE
Q
UICKIE”
MAKES ABOUT 3 ½ CUPS, ENOUGH FOR 1 POUND OF PASTA
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
One 28-ounce can imported Italian plum tomatoes, broken up, with their juices
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
1.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and their juices and the tomato paste. Bring just to a boil.
2.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the basil. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 10 minutes. The end.
Sauces to Cry For
Now that you have a true tomato sauce, you are ready to make dozens of delicious sauces. I’m going to give you my family recipes for five tomato sauce–based classics—Marinara, Bolognese, Puttanesca, Napoletano, and Arrabbiata—but you’ll soon discover you can create your own signature sauce with a good tomato sauce and your favorite seasonings. I’m naming the sauces after my kids, because my kids are gorgeous and delicious, and I could just eat them up.
MAKES ABOUT 3 ½ CUPS, ENOUGH FOR 1 POUND OF PASTA
Marinara sauce is what most people think of as the classic Italian red spaghetti sauce. And it is great over spaghetti, but you can use it over any pasta. It’s nice and light, and super healthy, so enjoy your spaghetti guilt-free!
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
12 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 ½ cups “The Quickie” Tomato Sauce (see
page 117
)
½ cup hearty red wine
1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or crushed hot red pepper
1.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they are beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Move the mushrooms to one side of the saucepan. Add the onion to the empty side of the saucepan and cook, stirring the onion occasionally, until it softens, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, stir everything together, and cook until the onion is tender, about 2 minutes more.
2.
Stir in the tomato sauce, wine, oregano, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and well flavored, at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours, but the longer the better! If the sauce gets too thick, add a little water. Serve hot, as a pasta sauce.
Sauce of the Sailors
“Marinara”: it sounds so good, I almost wish it were a girl’s name because I’d use it! But it’s not. “Marinara” is from the Italian word
marinaro
, which means “of the sea.”
Marinara sauce was first favored by the sailors in Naples in the sixteenth century and so it was named “the sauce of the sailors.”
The ships’ cooks loved it because as a tomato-based sauce without any meat or seafood in it, it could last for long voyages without needing refrigeration (which, of course, they didn’t have on boats back then).
MAKES ABOUT 6 CUPS, ENOUGH FOR 2 POUND OF PASTA
T
eresa’s
T • I • P
To save time, use a food processor to chop, dice, and mince your vegetables and meats.
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce originally from Bologna, Italy. It traditionally uses less tomato sauce than other recipes (especially a marinara), and at least two different kinds of ground meat (“minced meat” to the rest of the world). I like it best over cavatelli pasta (the pasta that looks like little hot dog buns), but any pasta that can grab onto the sauce is good.
I make this sauce for Dina Manzo all the time. She’s like one of those carnivores who has to have meat at every meal. I love meat, but no one loves meat like Dina. (She’s going to kill me for saying that because it sounds all sexy and stuff, but it’s the truth. And she is all sexy and stuff.)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
½ carrot, cut into ½-inch dice
½ celery rib, cut into ½-inch dice
1 garlic clove, minced
8 ounces ground pork
8 ounces ground veal
3 ½ cups “The Quickie” Tomato Sauce (see
page 117
)
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
When in Rome . . .
Bolognese = bow-lone-YAY-say
Napoletano = nah-pole-lay-TAWN-oh
1.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
2.
Add the pork and veal and cook, breaking up the meat with the side of a spoon, until the meat loses its raw look, about 5 minutes.
3.
Stir in the tomato sauce, wine, parsley, salt, and pepper and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and well flavored, at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours, the longer the better! Serve hot, as a pasta sauce.
MAKES ABOUT 5 CUPS, ENOUGH FOR 1 ½ POUNDS OF PASTA
Like Bolognese, Napoletano is named for the city it comes from: Naples. (You might see it as Neapolitan Sauce in America.) The biggest difference between the two sauces is that Bolognese uses ground meat and less onion and tomato sauce, while Napoletano uses whole meat or meatballs. Napoletano sauce is typically what Italians serve at their weekend family dinners, and it’s also called “Sunday gravy.” It would sit on the back of the stove simmering for hours while everyone went to Mass. When you got home, the smell . . . unbelievable!
You can make this with different meats—Italian sausage and pork shoulder is really popular—but I try to pick healthier meats (and save the sausage for dishes where it’s the star!). Some cooks even use chicken. There are hundreds of variations on this recipe, but this one came over from Italy with my mamma, and it’s the best.
T
eresa’s
T • I • P
Napoletano is a great sauce to make ahead of time. And it freezes well, too. Make more than you need, and freeze leftover sauce (meat and all) for future lasagnas, eggplant dishes, even to spread over pizza!
1 ½ pounds beef top round steak (about 1/8 inch thick), cut into 4 equal pieces
4 pork spareribs, preferably in one piece, but individual ribs are OK
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup hearty red wine
3 ½ cups “The Quickie” Tomato Sauce (see
page 117
)
1.
Pat the round steak and spareribs dry with paper towels. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Mix the parsley and Pecorino Romano cheese together in a shallow dish. Pat and rub the cheese mixture into the meats.
2.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. In batches without crowding, add the meat and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Adjust the heat so the meat browns nicely without burning. You want little chunks stuck to the bottom of the pan, as these will help flavor the sauce. Transfer the meat to a plate.
3.
Heat the remaining oil in the saucepan. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to high and add the wine. Cook, stirring up the browned chunks in the bottom of the saucepan (the fancy word for this is
deglazing
; yeah, I didn’t know that either). Bring to a boil.
4.
Stir in the tomato sauce, 1 cup water, and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Return the beef and pork to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Partially cover the saucepan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender, about 1 ¾ hours.
5.
Remove the meats from the sauce and transfer to a cutting board. Cut the beef into ½-inch pieces. Cut the meat from the spareribs, discard the bones, and coarsely chop the pork. Return the meats to the sauce. Serve hot, as a pasta sauce.
MAKES ABOUT 3 ¾ CUPS, ENOUGH FOR 1 POUNDS OF PASTA
OK, I don’t have a daughter named Danielle, but I couldn’t name this dish after any one of my darling girls. It’s delicious, and very popular in our house, but the name . . . the name . . . First let’s cook it, and then I’ll tell you why I could only name it for a grown woman.
This sauce is usually poured over spaghetti, but you can use any noodle you want.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
½ teaspoon crushed hot red pepper
3 ½ cups “The Quickie” Tomato Sauce (see
page 117
)
½ cup pitted and coarsely chopped kalamata olives
2 tablespoons drained capers
1.
Pour the oil into a large saucepan. Add the garlic, anchovy paste, and hot pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the garlic is very fragrant and beginning to turn golden brown, about 2 minutes.
2.
Stir in the tomato sauce, olives, and capers and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until lightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Serve hot, as a pasta sauce.
When in Rome . . .
Puttanesca = pooh-tah-NES-kah
Pasta Puttanesca is a common dish in Italy, where it enjoys an uncommon name: “whore’s spaghetti.” It was supposedly invented in the 1950s when brothels were owned and run by the Italian government (a way to keep them under control, I guess). The brothels were required to have their shutters closed at all times to shield the good Italian women on the street from having to look at the
puttanas
, or prostitutes. The “ladies of the evening” were only allowed out for a short amount of time to shop in the local markets, so they had to quickly grab whatever they could. Pasta Puttanesca was their meal of choice because it was cheap and could be made in a jiffy, between customers.
An Italian restaurant owner in the 1950s also claims to have invented the dish for his hungry friends late one night, saying he named it after
puttanata
, the Italian word for “garbage.” In either case, the name fits.