/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Haven't posted in a while. Tonight is Pasta e Fagioli, or as it was known by New England wops like me, pasta fazool. Macaroni and beans, very simple peasant food. Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 head of garlic, chopped
1 lb Italian sausage (I used hot)
1 lb dried cannellini beans (I used Great Northern)
6-8 C broth/stock (see note)
Bay leaves to taste
Dried herbs to taste (basil, oregano, parsley - can use fresh too)
1 lb small pasta (ditalini, elbows - I used small shells)
2 15 oz cans chopped tomatoes
1/2 C olive oil

Soak your beans overnight. The next day, cook the onions, carrot, and celery in the olive oil until soft. Add the sausage and garlic, and break up the sausage some. When it's cooked through, in with the beans, broth, herbs, bay leaves, and tomatoes. Season it with salt and pepper, bring it to a simmer, then turn the heat down. Put the lid on and cook it until you're ready to eat. I like to give it at least three hours for the beans to break down a little and make it more creamy. When you're ready, add the pasta and cook it until the pasta's done, which won't take long (probably ten minutes or so). Fish out the bay leaves.

Notes: If you like it more soupy, use more broth. I like it more thick like a stew, so I use less. If you have an old parmesan rind, throw it in for the duration. If you have some fresh parmesan to grate on top and some bread on the side, even better. It's a simple food. Ditalini is a favorite, but neither of my grocery stores had it. As ever, use what you have.

I don't have the heart for these threads anymore since I had to put my cat down in April. Pic related is him with a Santa hat courtesy of an anon. Tonight I roasted a pork tenderloin and had it with some rice from a box. Sick fucking world. Glad this thread is still carrying on the tradition, especially this time of year. My thanks to the OP.

Here's the final product. Note that fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried. Had it alongside a bastardized Caesar salad (no Romaine), bread with butter, and some red wine. Everybody liked it and that's good enough for me.

Here's how it looks four hours after adding the tomatoes. You might notice throughout the cooking that all the liquid has evaporated. When this happens just add 1/2 C or so of water and keep cooking. At the end, before you serve it, you want there to be no liquid and have the fat separated from the tomato like in the picture.

Add the tomatoes and bring it to a simmer. Drop the heat to its lowest setting and cook a minimum of three hours. The more the better. If you have fresh nutmeg, grate a little bit into the pot. I didn't have any.

Here's what it looks like after the wine is cooked off. I just used a cheap $5 bottle.

Add the wine and again cook until it's bubbled away.

Here's how it looks after the milk is cooked off. In the book she says that this protects the sauce from the acidity of the tomatoes.

Add the milk and simmer until it's completely bubbled away. Depending on the size of your pot this could take 45 minutes to an hour.

Add the beef and crumble it up with your spoon, then add some salt and grind some pepper on it. Cook the pink out of the beef.

After the onions are translucent add the carrot and celery and stir to coat all the vegetables in the fat.

Now for the bolognese. Fairly simple ingredient list.

1 C chopped onion
1 C chopped carrot
1 C chopped celery
1.5 lbs. ground chuck (see note)
6 T butter
2 T vegetable oil
2 C milk
2 C dry white wine
3 C San Marzano tomatoes, cut up

Put the onions in the pot with the butter and oil and cook them a few minutes.

Note - the bolognese recipe I've used my whole life is by Marcella Hazan (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, highly recommended), and in it she suggests that ground pork can impart extra flavor into the sauce alongside the beef. She says to use two parts beef to one part pork. I've made it both ways and don't prefer one or the other.

When you've rolled it out, take a sheet and fold it over itself a few times so you have a short enough length to cut. I used a bench scraper. Cut the sheet into pieces about 1/4 wide. You now have tagliatelle. You can then either cook them immediately, or dry in little "nests" like pic related. You can also hang it to dry but I made too much for that to be feasible. Leave it on the counter until completely dry (this can take over 24 hours if it's in nests) and then put it in a container and store in your cupboard like store bought dried pasta. Careful because it's brittle.

The other night we had friends over for a late Thanksgiving. Rather than go with a traditional spread (ate our fill of that at her parents') I made tagliatelle with bolognese. First the pasta. I didn't take many pictures of this part.

3 C flour
6 eggs

Make a mound with the flour, then make a well in the center big enough for the eggs. Take a fork and beat them a bit, then start drawing flour over them until the flour becomes incorporated. Keep mixing until you form a dough. Work in enough flour until it doesn't stick to your hands.

Now for the therapeutic part, kneading. Push the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, rotate it a quarter turn, and repeat for ~8 minutes. The best way to see if it's ready is to wash and dry your hands completely, then push your thumb deep into the dough. If it comes out clean, you're ready to roll it.

I've got a Marcato pasta machine. Stainless steel and built to withstand nuclear bombs. Cut the dough into ten chunks, open the rollers to their widest position, then crank each piece through two or three times to form small flattened pieces. Once that's done, crank the rollers closed one notch, roll them all through twice, then repeat this process until the dough is the proper thickness. I stopped at notch five, which is about halfway between thickest and thinnest. Pic related is how it looks after all the dough is thinned.

Haven't posted in a while and didn't take any pictures as I was cooking. Simple dinner tonight.

Pot roast - chuck roast, 2 lb. or so. I patted it dry, rubbed some flour on it, seared it all around in some vegetable oil, then threw it in the crock pot. Put some salt, pepper, Cavendar's, garlic. Left it on low for 8 hours.

Cheese spätzle - Aldi had some dried spätzle. I made a basic cheese sauce with a roux (1/4 C each butter and flour), 2 C milk, and about half a pound of sharp cheddar I shredded. Seasoned it and mixed with the boiled spätzle.

Brocolli - another Aldi find. Steam-in-bag, I buy them for ninety cents and fill the freezer.

Turned out pretty good. My woman liked it and that's my only goal when I cook. Been rougher times lately and haven't posted much. Lots of good stuff ITT. Hope you all are well. Glad OP is still making this thread.

>>11357743
Wow, those look great. I wouldn't have expected the coffee grounds to work, especially with the gritty texture. I'm gonna have to try that next time. What's the shelf life on yeast? I've got a quart mason jar half full in the fridge that you're making me want to use.

>>11312415
Frying the paste is just something I've always done. Since browning means more flavor it makes sense that it'd add a little bit to the sauce. Could I taste two identical batches, one with fried paste and the other unfried, and tell them apart? Hard to say. Probably not.

>>11307575
Did a bit of parmesan. Didn't have any fresh herb.

>>11307595
The beauty of a sauce like this is you can add all kinds of stuff. Wine and basil would be good, but I haven't been out shopping in a while and my cooking philosophy is you use what you have.

>>11308131
Very nice. That's a huge batch. Have you thought about canning some next time? Unless you are short on shelf space.

Toasted the bread under the broiler for about five minutes. Careful and don't take your eye off it too long.

Tonight I'm using two pounds of farfalle (bowties).

Bought a loaf of Italian bread from the store, sliced it about 3/4 inch thick, then spread on the butter mixture.

>>11306825
Explain, friend.

Here is is after about four hours.

Finally, add the tomatoes. Bring it to a simmer and let it go for as long as you can. Remember to add your sausage back in. I'll post back ITT later.

After the onion and garlic are cooked, in with the paste. I like to fry it a little bit in the oil.