Crisped (Leftover) Pasta

Knowing that I like to cook, Ali got me a neat little recipe book for Christmas last year from the editors of Real Simple magazine called Meals Made Easy. She and I have helped each other cook meals from it in the past and they really are simple, easy, and tasty. Last night I was looking for some comfort food and the answer turned out to be Crisped Pasta, a quick and easy recipe that is designed to give you something to do with leftovers.

Now, in our house, there’s no such thing as leftover pasta that isn’t covered with sauce, so if you don’t have any leftovers, no problem, you can make it just as easily with pasta you cook on the spot.

This dish is similar to pizza di spaghetti or torta di pasta, but without the eggs. We’ll get to the cooking in a moment, but first…

Great Ingredients In Cooking – #17 – Pasta

The origins of pasta are surrounded with controversy. Most have heard the legend that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China. This was right before he started his own line of swim wear and, as a marketing ploy, invented the eponymous game of tag often played in swimming pools. But that appears to be all it is–a legend. Some food historians point to the ancient Greeks, others to the Etruscans, still others to the Near East theorizing that pasta was brought to Italy by Arab merchants somewhere between the 7th and 13th centuries. Thanks to the discovery of a well-preserved bowl of noodles over 4000 years old, we now know that the Chinese were eating noodles as long ago as 2000 BC! A 9th century dictionary compiled by Syrian physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali defines string-like pasta shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking, a recognizable ancestor of modern-day dried pasta.

The first evidence of pasta in Italy comes from a merchant in Genoa who recorded “macharonis” in his inventory. Through the Genoese, pasta-making spread across Italy, but the Sicilians first perfected the drying of hard wheat pastas. The climate in southern Italy was ideal for drying and enabled Naples to dominate the world pasta market until artificial drying methods could reproduce the Neapolitan results. Spaghetti was also born in southern Italy and is the most famous pasta shape. The name comes from the word “spago”, meaning “thin strings”.

The Dish

Here’s what you’ll need:

 
If you have cooked pasta in the refrigerator, let it sit at room temperature until it softens. If you need to cook some for this dish, follow the instructions on our favorite brand of spaghetti to cook your pasta until al dente (for more on this, see below).

In the meantime, heat the oil (if using) in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the prosciutto or bacon (if using) and cook until crisp, then transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate.

Once cooled, roll up the paper towel and crush the prosciutto or bacon into pieces.

Drain off and reserve all but 2 teaspoons of the drippings in the skillet. Add the red pepper (if using) to the remaining drippings. Increase heat to medium-high. Add the pasta to the skillet and gently spread it out to form a large nest.

Cook, but do not stir, until the pasta begins to crisp and brown on the bottom, about 4 to 5 minutes. You now have two choices: 1) You can sprinkle with the Parmesan and prosciutto or bacon (if using). Cook, still without stirring, for about 2 more minutes. Season with the salt and black pepper. Slide or invert the pasta onto a plate and sprinkle with additional Parmesan. ; or 2) You can invert the pasta and crisp other side before adding the Parmesan, prosciutto or bacon, etc.

Inverting is easy. Here’s how to do it: Place a plate upside down in the skillet on top of your pasta. With one hand holding the plate down, simply turn your skillet over and lift. Then add 2 teaspoons of the reserved drippings back into the skillet and slide your pasta off the plate and into the pan and repeat the browning process.

When done, sprinkle with additional Parmesan, cut into wedges and serve.

Dos and Don’ts When Cooking Pasta

The ideal way to cook pasta is “al dente” which means “to the tooth” – still a bit firm when tasted. For perfect pasta, it’s best to follow the cooking times on the package, even though it is a good idea to taste the pasta just before draining to make sure it suits your taste. Pasta has been cooked properly when it is soft on the outside, but still a little hard on the inside with a very small white dot at the core. Gnocchi is ready to eat when it floats. Cooked any longer and it becomes mushy. When adding pasta to a seafood sauce make sure that the pasta is cooked less than “al dente”. The pasta will finish cooking with the seafood, and soak in more flavors. Fresh pasta needs about half the cooking time as store bought pasta. If you’ve never made fresh pasta, you’re in for a treat. It’s easy and delicious, but that’s another post.

DO

• Bring your water to a full boil before adding pasta.
• Salt the water, but not until the water has started to boil. Salt brings out the natural flavor of the pasta. Added too late and it will not be absorbed correctly into the pasta.  Added too early and it may lengthen the boiling time.
• Allow the salt to dissolve before adding the pasta.
• Quickly return the pot to a boil after adding pasta.
• Stir the pasta gently several times while it’s cooking, approximately every three minutes.  Good pasta will not stick to the bottom of the pot, but stirring helps the pasta cook evenly.
• Follow the cooking times on the package.
• Drain pasta immediately when done into a large colander and toss gently to remove excess liquid. The pasta should be moist but not dripping wet.
• Save about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. This can be used to dilute the sauce or in sautéing the pasta with the sauce before serving. Many Italian cooks undercook pasta in the water by about 3 minutes. They then transfer the pasta to a sauté pan with the prepared sauce and cook for another 3 minutes to allowing the pasta to absorb the flavors.
• Serve pasta hot!

DON’T

• Add olive oil to cooking water to prevent the pasta from sticking. Because it releases just the right amount of natural starches into the water when cooking, a good quality pasta should not stick or clump. Using olive oil is a waste of good oil. By adding olive oil, the binding quality of the starches released in the water are offset by the slippery quality of the oil. Don’t blame yourself for pasta that turns out sticky, clumpy or breaks during cooking – it’s the pasta!  Choose a good-quality pasta and this problem is solved.
• Rinse pasta after cooking and draining. The starches released when cooking complement the pasta by helping to bind the sauce and allow it to adhere better to the pasta. The only exception is when preparing pasta salads.  In this case, rinse in cold water to prevent overcooking.
• Cover the pot!