Read Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice
Fabulicious!: Teresa's Italian Family Cookbook (9 page)
Cavatelli with Red Sauce and Ricotta
Makes 6 servings
Cavatelli is a pasta (they look like tiny hot dog buns to me) that is made from ricotta cheese and flour so it won’t be found with the dried pasta—it’s either fresh or in some parts of the country, like Jersey, in the freezer section. If you can’t find cavatelli at your local store, don’t worry. I’ll teach you how to make it from scratch in just a few pages.
You can serve this dish plain—it’s great for lunch—or add Italian sausage, ground beef, or vegetables. The possibilities for personalizing it are endless, but here is the foundation.
12 ounces Homemade Cavatelli (see
page 62
), or use frozen cavatelli
3½ cups The Quickie Tomato Sauce (
page 22
), warmed
1¼ cups ricotta cheese
1.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the cavatelli and cook until they all float to the top, about 7 minutes. (If using frozen cavatelli, cook according to the package directions.)
2.
Drain well. Do not rinse the pasta, even if your mother taught you to do so.
3.
Transfer the pasta to a serving bowl. Add the sauce and mix gently. Serve in bowls, topping each serving with about 3 tablespoons of ricotta. Serve hot.
***
Juicy Bits from Joe
***
I
f you’re gonna make this recipe with homemade cavatelli, I wouldn’t put the ricotta on top if I was you. Tre will teach you how to make the cavatelli from scratch in a little bit, but know this: it already has lots of cheese in it. So, if you use the frozen cavatelli from the store, add the ricotta topping. If you make it yourself, leave it off ‘cause you got enough cheese in there already.
C
urvy Italian bombshell and fashion icon Sophia Loren (one of my personal heroes) supposedly said of her fabulicious figure: “Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.” Even though she told CBS News in 2009 that it wasn’t really her quote, I’m sticking to it. I love my pasta, and my pasta loves me.
You know you love pasta, too. In fact, you love it so much, when you were a kid, you glued it to construction paper and called it “art.” And it is art. Call it what you want: spaghetti, pasta, macaroni, noodles . . . there’s something magical about the simple combination of flour and just water or eggs. Especially when you make it yourself.
Not for nothing, dried pasta at the grocery store is delicious, cheap, and ready in minutes. Making your own pasta does take a little more time and effort. But the reward—especially when you do it with your family and friends—is so, so worth it.
***
Teresa’s Tip
***
A
reminder of how fabulous people make pasta: add salt to the water right after it comes to a boil, but before you add the pasta; cook it until
al dente
,
that is, until it’s just a tiny, tiny bit tough in the center but still tender; and don’t rinse your pasta after you drain it or you’ll rob it of its natural ability to stick to the sauce.
The other night, we had three generations making homemade cavatelli in my kitchen: my ma, me, and my daughters. We had such a good time—joking about
other times we’d made it, rolling it into different shapes. The girls loved it so much Gia took pictures with her little camera. When’s the last time your kid took a picture of what you were cooking together for dinner? That—that’s magic.
***
How We Roll
***
N
ow I’m not gonna lie, it is quicker to make pasta dough in a stand mixer with a dough hook instead of kneading it by hand (it’s just not as sexy . . .). And while you know I like to do everything with my hands—I don’t need toys to be happy—I do have to strongly suggest that you get a pasta machine to help you roll the pasta. You can technically use a rolling pin, but it’s the one place you can really mess up your pasta—and we don’t want to mess up our pretty pasta!
You can get an attachment for your stand mixer, but all you really need is a good, old-fashioned pasta roller with a hand crank. Electric or hand-powered, they’re all called “pasta machines.” You can find inexpensive manual ones just about anywhere online.
ROM
H
UMBLE
F
LOUR
F
ABULOUS
H
OMEMADE
P
ASTA
Believe it or not, when it comes to making most all pasta from scratch—no matter if it’s giant lasagna sheets or tiny corkscrews—you use the same basic recipe. That’s right, just one recipe with just two things: flour and eggs. The ingredients are the same, the process is the same—even the tools are the same. The only difference in what you end up with is how you cut it. My recipe is, of course, called Perfect Pasta Dough. (I know some of you can’t eat eggs, so hang tight, I’ll give you not one, but
two
eggless pasta dough recipes in a just a bit!)
Before we begin though, I have to tell you: when you use fresh pasta, because it cooks so quickly,
make the sauce first.
Bring the pot of pasta water to a boil, then turn it to low while you prepare the sauce. Once the sauce is ready, bring the water back to a boil and cook your pasta.
Makes 1 pound
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, as needed
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup cold tap water
1.
To mix the pasta dough by hand:
Sift the flour into a mound on your work surface. Scoop out the center—now it’s a volcano!—and add the displaced flour to the sides of the mound. Pour the eggs and cup cold water into the hole. Using your finger or a fork, gradually stir flour from the sides into the liquid. When most of the flour has been added, use your hands to knead the dough into a cohesive mass. If the dough is too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. If it is too wet, add flour. Knead the dough on the work surface, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and pliable, about 10 minutes. Do not add too much flour—the dough shouldn’t be too stiff—remember that it has to be rolled out into thin sheets. Now move on to Step 3.
2.
To mix the dough in a heavy-duty standing mixer,
combine ¼ cup cold tap water and the eggs. Mix with the paddle attachment on low speed, gradually enough of the flour to make a soft dough that doesn’t stick to the bowl. Change to the dough hook. On medium speed, knead the dough until smooth and supple, adding a little more flour or water by the tablespoon if necessary, about 8 minutes. Remember, the dough shouldn’t be too stiff.
***
Juicy Bits from Joe
***
O
nce you get a few batches of pasta under your belt, you can experiment with adding flavor right to the dough. You can cut up some fresh basil, or add some grated Parmigiano. You know that green pasta? That’s from adding about ⅓ cup of cooked spinach, squeezed dry and chopped real good, to the dough. And if you wanna freak out your kids, you can even make black pasta. Tastes real good, especially with a cream sauce or a fish. You just get some squid ink from the fish guy and add a couple of tablespoons to the dough. Be careful though, that stuff does stain.
3.
Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour, no longer than 2 hours.
4.
Attach your pasta machine to a kitchen counter. Cut the dough into four equal wedges. Shape each into a rectangle. Work with one portion at a time, keeping the remaining dough covered with the plastic.
Set the pasta machine to its widest setting. Dust the dough lightly with flour. Run the dough through the machine. Fold lengthwise and run through the machine 2 or 3 more times to knead and smooth the dough. Adjust the machine to the next thinnest setting. Run the dough through the machine twice, without folding it. Repeat with the next setting, and then the one after that, to make a long, thin strip of dough. If you want fettuccine, tagliatelle, or lasagna, the dough should be about the thickness of a nickel at this point, so stop. If you want ravioli, continue rolling on the next setting or two until the dough is as thick as a dime. Transfer the dough to a floured, tablecloth-covered table to dry slightly, just until the dough feels leathery, about 20 minutes. Don’t let the dough dry too much, or it will crack.
5.
To cut the pasta with the machine:
Generously sprinkle a rimmed baking sheet with flour. For fettuccine, run each pasta strip through the widest cutters. For tagliatelle, run each pasta strip through the smaller cutters. (In America, fettuccine and tagliatelle are almost the same size, but in Italy, fettuccine is the thickest.) Transfer the pasta to the baking sheet, and toss with the flour to keep the strips from sticking.