Pasta paradise

When I lived in Kingston, 2-odd years ago, we used to order People magazine. Please, don’t judge – 5 girls, hard at work, need some mindless celebrity gossip once in a while. Our ever-growing stack of magazines was always precariously perched on our hand-me-down coffee table, and one or two of them would be strew, half open, on the dinner table, to be glanced over during a rushed breakfast before morning class.

It’s those small details that I miss about those days in our undergrad, the camaraderie that came with being collectively poor and the built-in fun of living in a house with your best friends (and a handsome cat named Jones).

After moving to Montreal, for a while, I kept up my subscription to America’s favorite cash register staple, my guilty secret  - hey, every grad student has one. And that is when I discovered Coolio chicken. Not familiar with Coolio? Check out the link and see for yourself why he is one of the iconic rappers of the 90s (I mean that semi-seriously). Coolio chicken is a recipe, from the master’s new down-home cookbook, that I found in the Great Ideas section of the magazine, a section devoted to celebrities’ recipes, home decorating tips and so forth. Coolio chicken was my first attempt at making a recipe from the magazine; quite honestly, I was a bit skeptical. I mean, Coolio lives in a gangster’s paradise but that doesn’t mean that he can cook chicken legs. But in the spirit of 90s rap, I took a shot at it, and it actually tasted delicious (M can attest to that). Good on you, Mr. Coolio.

Fast-forward a year, and on a cold, rainy Saturday night, A and I decided to give another People magazine recipe a shot – a very fall-appropriate pasta dish with apples, bacon and pork. It came out quite well, in the end, but with quite a few modifications on our end. Some cooking notes: we chose to substitute basil for oregano purely out of necessity, as apparently, no grocery stores had basil in stock. We increased the amount of bacon in the recipe itself, but both agreed that an additional 2 slices of bacon, crumbled, mixed into the sauce right at the end would have added a smoky, salty crunch to offshoot the thick, chunky sauce. Red chili flakes would have brought out the sweetness of the tomatoes, and a garnish of grated Romano or Parmesan cheese would have been a nice finishing touch to bring the dish together. Nevertheless, a good meal altogether, enjoyed of course in good company!

Stephanie Izard’s Hearty Pasta

Adapted from People magazine (January 23 2012 issue)

Ingredients

-       1 tbsp olive oil

-       ¾ lbs lean ground pork

-       3 strips of bacon, chopped, plus 2 slices, chopped, for garnish

-       ½ cup diced shallots

-       3 garlic cloves, minced

-       2 Fuji apples, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch thick slices

-       ½ cup dry white wine

-       1 15-oz can of whole tomatoes, chopped

-       1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

-       1 lb dried fettuccine

-       2 tbsp capers, drained

-       1 tbsp fresh oregano, thinly sliced

-       1 tbsp red chili flakes

-       Romano or Parmesan cheese, to taste, for garnish

-       Salt and pepper, to taste

1.     Heat ½ tbsp oil in large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until it browns, about 5-7 minutes breaking into smaller pieces.

2.     In a large saucepan, add remaining ½ tbsp olive oil and lightly brown 3 slices of bacon. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. Add apples and wine, and simmer for about 4 minutes, or until wine has almost evaporated

3.     Add tomatoes, broth and pork to the saucepan. Make sure to add all of the tomato juice as well, as this is what will thicken into the sauce in the final product.

4.     Bring to a boil and then reduce to heat slightly, until simmering steadily. Cook until sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.

5.     Brown remaining 2 slices of bacon until crisp, and chop into large pieces.

6.     Cook fettuccine until al dente and drain; if sauce is not ready, toss drained pasta with a bit of olive oil, to prevent clumping, and set aside.

7.     When sauce is almost ready, add capers, basil and chopped bacon to sauce, and heat through for an additional 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

8.     Serve over fettuccine and garnish with Romano or Parmesan.