After much debate, MacMama and I have finished our negotiations about me posting on the family blog. The conditions are: I will post regularly about our menu, and in return she will continue to be married to me.
So, here it goes:
Like many modern families, we have mashed up the domestic tasks into a system that looks nothing like the '50s-era American model, but still manages to work. Although I would love to come home every night to an apron-clad wifey, who would take my hat in exchange for something bourbony in a highball glass, this just ain't going to happen.
Instead, I'm greeted more often with the recurring and always challenging, "What's for dinner?" (and now with MacBaby, add some crying and howling for effect)
Really, I don't mind. I like to cook, and MacMama has enough on her hands, including being the sole source of nutrition for the MacBaby. So my challenge is to pull together dinner, one night after another, quickly, efficiently, tastily and healthily.
I've got plenty of tips and such, lessons I've picked up from a few years spent in kitchens, but always as an amateur, not as a pro. Here's my first one: learn value of parsley. Not the spidery green that you get next to the baked potato and steak at your 80s-era steakhouse, but the real kind: flat, broad green leaf Italian parsley.
Here's what you do with it to put on a homey but impressive meal in about 20 minutes:
1. Boil water for pasta. As a rule, don't add oil to the water, add salt. If you add oil it will coat your noodles and keep the sauce from penetrating it. Salt will help the water boil faster and add a little something to the noodles.
2. While the water boils, clean your parsley and chop it up. Also crush, shell and mince 5 or 6 cloves of garlic. The smaller cloves will pack more punch. Shred some parmesan. If you're doing a salad with dinner, now is the time to get it going, while the water is heating to a boil.
3. If you're still waiting for the water to boil, have a glass of wine or a beer. If you're drinking a beer, pour it into a glass; don't drink it from a can or bottle. You can look into its colors and swirls, and appreciate them, while you wait for the water.
4. Water's boiling: drop in your pasta and stir it up immediately to keep it free flowing. I like to use regular spaghetti for this tho some recommend linguine. You'll want to pull it a little early on the cooking time, so it's just al-dente. At this point you need to get everything else done while the pasta cooks, so get to it.
5. Heat a fair amount of olive oil in a saucepan with some red pepper flakes. A medium heat is all you need. When there's about 5 minutes left on the pasta, drop your garlic in the oil. Whatever you do, don't burn the garlic. If it turns brown, it's gone bitter. Game over. Order a pizza.
6. Optional- if you want to be a purist, you can proceed to next step. But at this point if you want to add anything else- diced tomato, some mushrooms, etc- go for it.
7. Mix it all together. Drop a cup of the pasta cooking water into the oil. Drain the noodles and add to the oil. Add the parsley. Turn everything together; I use a tongs for this. Add the shredded parm. Turn it all together. Lift into some pasta bowls, and eat.
This dish has a lot of names but the simplest one is
Alio e Olio. When it works, the parsley's high, fresh notes balance the earthy garlic, the parm binds and the pepper flakes lend some zing. I like to do a broccoli thing with this, but that's another recipe. All doable in 20 minutes.
OK, more to write but I have to go make Sunday dinner.
