Farfale with Italian sausage and roasted peppers. Photo: Dawn Viola
The culinary world was turned upside down this week when New York Times columnist, Harold McGee, posted the idea of cooking pasta in less water than the never-questioned 6 quarts cookbooks have been spoon feeding us since pasta was invented. Gasp? Hardly. Thank you for validating what home cooks have been doing for decades.
Using less water saves resources and energy. Less water boils faster. Less water uses less salt. Less water uses, well, less water. Throw that at your wall and see if it sticks.
Beyond reducing your pasta carbon footprint, using less water results in a silky, wonderfully starchy, thick liquid, ready to hardy up any sauce with minimal effort.
So why the two camps on cooking in more or less water? Lots of water means you can walk away from the pot with just a stir or two, to prevent the pasta from sticking together. Cooking in less water requires more of your immediate attention - it begs to be frequently stirred to prevent sticking. So if you are fear-of-commitment free, give the less-is-more pasta theory a try.
Farfale with Italian sausage and sweet peppers
Serving Size: 4-6 with 2nds or leftovers; or 8 single servings
Prep Time: 10 - 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tbs. olive oil
6 sweet Italian sausage links
12 oz. Farfalle (bow tie macaroni)
1 large yellow onion, minced
1 cup green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup organic beef broth
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Directions:
Fill a medium sauce pan about 3/4 with water. Bring water to a boil with a generous amount of salt (water should taste like the sea). When the water is at a rolling boil, add the farfale and stir every few minutes until just before al dente (about 4 minutes). Do not drain.
In a separate pot, (dutch oven or spaghetti pot) heat 1 tbs of olive oil on med heat and brown sausage links on all sides. This does not need to cook through - what we're doing here is adding flavor to the pot and "setting" the meat within the sausage casing so when we slice it later to finish the cooking, it holds its shape. Remove sausage and set aside. Add remainder of olive oil, onion, and peppers to the pan. Toss to coat and continue to cook on medium. At this point, we're going to char/caramelize the peppers and onions a bit, so adjust the heat as needed, without burning anything on the bottom of the pan. Once the onion and peppers are coated with oil, leave them alone for about 5 minutes.
While the onion and peppers are caramelizing, slice the sausages, between 1/8" and 1/4" thick and add to the pot. Stir to incorporate. Add the garlic, stir to incorporate. Reduce the heat to medium/low and add the beef broth, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add the farfale and cooking water to the peppers and sausages. Increase heat to medium/high and cook for 1 minute, or until the sausage is completely cooked through (no longer pink in the middle). Sauce will thicken slightly from the starch in the pasta water. Serve family style with crusty bread for dipping. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Neat things you should know:
- The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.
- During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, sausages were associated with the Lupercalia festival. The early Catholic Church outlawed the Lupercalia Festival and made eating sausage a sin. For this reason, the Roman emperor Constantine banned the eating of sausages.
- Farfalle, commonly known as "bow-tie pasta," is derived from the Italian word farfalla (butterfly). The "e" at the end of the word is the Italian feminine plural ending, making the meaning of the word "butterflies."
- Usually, the farfalla is formed from a rectangle or oval of pasta with two sides trimmed in a ruffled edge, and the center pinched together to make the unusual shape. They are sometimes ridged, known as farfalle rigate.
- Parmigiano-Reggiano is a grana, a hard, granular cheese, cooked but not pressed, named after the producing areas of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna, and Mantova, in Lombardy, Italy.
- According to legend, the Parmigiano was created in the course of the Middle Ages in Bibbiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia. Its production soon spread to the Parma and Modena areas. Historical documents show that in the 13th-14th century Parmigiano was already very similar to that produced today: this suggest that its origins can be traced far before. Read more about it here.
Have you tried the less-is-more pasta theory? Tell us about your results here!
Dawn Viola is a nationally recognized artist, competitive cook and food writer. Follow her blog, Wicked Good Dinner, or onTwitter.
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