Orecchiette with Mozzarella

From The Silver Spoon: Pasta, Phaidon, 2009.

I’m always ready to try a new pasta and I rather liked the idea of this one that was basically an all fresh sauce—only the pasta had to be cooked.

To begin I peeled and chopped three plum tomatoes and placed them in a large bowl. I sprinkled on a little salt and pepper. I then cut into cubes about 200g mozzarella. These were added to the bowl with a few basil leaves torn into halves. A little olive oil was dribbled over all of this.

Now the orecchiette were cooked in boiling salted water until done. They were then drained and quickly added to the bowl of ingredients. A quick stir so that the hot pasta would part melt the cheese, some capers were added and the dish was ready to eat.

I did enjoy this. The little ear shapes of the pasta managed to pick up cubes of mozzarella or pieces of tomato and the freshness was evident in the eating: wonderfully ripe tomatoes, the occasional salty tang of a caper and the chewiness of the part-melted mozzarella. A great meal starter.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Bucatini with Mozzarella and Aubergine

From The Silver Spoon: Pasta, Phaidon, 2009.

I found some bucatini in the supermarket so thought I’d like to try it out.

An aubergine was cut into slices and then cross cut into julienne strips. It was placed in a colander and sprinkled with salt. After half an hour I rinsed it and dried it. It was then fried in a little olive oil until it had browned slightly. It was then left while I went ahead with the sauce.

 Four tomatoes were peeled and chopped. The recipe called for them to be seeded but the seeds never worry me so I just ignored this. I also left out the bacon that was included in the recipe. So the tomatoes went into a saucepan with a little olive oil, some chopped chilli and salt and pepper. It was brought to the boil and then turned to a simmer.

A pot full of salted water was put on to boil. When it was ready the bucatini was added and cooked until al dente. At this stage the aubergine went into the tomato sauce and was brought up to simmer again.

The bucatini was drained and added to plates. Chopped mozzarella cheese was stirred into the sauce and the sauce was spooned over the pasta. A chopped boiled egg was sprinkled over the top.

I enjoyed the bucatini. I rather like the hollow straws which take in more of the sauce than solid spaghetti does. The sauce was flavoursome, the aubergine by now having disintegrated into the tomato mixture. And there was the added joy of pieces of stringy mozzarella being met on some mouthfuls.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Pumpkin Agnolotti

Pumpkin Agnolotti

from The Silver Spoon: Pasta, Phaidon, 2009.

My first attempt at a filled pasta was not too successful. The filling was a good one but the pasta itself was thick and tough. I thought I had it thin enough but obviously it had to be much, much thinner. The instructions were clear though gauging the correct thickness, it seems, needs to come with practice. 

The flavours were good. The buttery raisin and sherry sauce went extremely well with the roast pumpkin filling.

There was one piece of information that the book could have supplied which I did not find on making the pasta but soon found out as I was trying to stick the upper layer to the bottom: there was no mention of the necessity of a sticking agent such as an egg wash or even water to hold the two layers together. It would have been a great help to have this included in the instructions as when I had made some of the agnolotti I soon found that they fell apart if moved and so I had to redo them.

It was all somewhat disappointing, some of it due to myself but also some to the recipe book. Next time I try a filled pasta it will be rolled much thinner.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔ 

Pasta with a Brandy Sauce

Bigoli with Brandy

from The Silver Spoon: Pasta, Phaidon, 2009.

Bigoli is a pasta I had never heard of before delving into The Silver Spoon: Pasta. That was sufficient motivation to get me going to make it.

Apparently it requires a press with a particular mould known as a ‘bigolaro’. That ruled it out for me so I decided to just follow the pasta recipe and cut the resulting mixture into strips.

The cookery book is divided into four sections: long pasta, short pasta, cut pasta and filled pasta. The bigoli is in the cut pasta section so to cut the mixture seemed totally appropriate. My cutting was not too accurate; it had a rough look about it that made it look like a peasant dish which suited me fine.

The sauce was a tomato based one with brandy and a couple of vegetables added. It was quite flavoursome. All in all this was a reasonable pasta dish to include in the repertoire.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔