Seth is out of town — on a business trip in San Francisco. My best friend Sarah and her dear sister Emily came over for dinner tonight.
Since I was busy all day helping Seth get on the road (working on a Keynote deck for his pitch to HP, booking his hotel, getting his clothes washed, packing his supplements, etc.) I didn’t think about what to make until about 5 pm.
Kate and I were at the mall, buying a diaper wipes warmer (for the cloth wipes we will soon be using), when I started trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. I realized nothing was defrosted. I mentally went through the ingredients on hand.
Bacon, fennel, blood orange, brown rice pasta, etc. I thought about making risotto (I had the Arborio rice) but I didn’t think I had enough chicken stock so that was out.
I ended up making Penne All’Amatriciano (so fun to say — you have to gesture while you say it) tonight for dinner. It’s a classic Roman dish made with red chili pepper (you probably have this on your spice rack) and pancetta. If you don’t have any pancetta, bacon works just fine. And very easy to whip up fast.
I had never made it before — but I’ve eaten it a few times. The first time in Rome (when I went with my sister and mother a few years ago). Second time in LA a year later.
Here’s the recipe I followed: http://www.babbonyc.com/rec-bucatini.html
I found other recipes online but this one’s by Mario Batali so I figured it was probably decent. Plus he called for 3 times the amount of bacon and twice the garlic that the other ones did. And he said to sautee the onions and garlic in bacon fat instead of olive oil — I thought that was a good thing.
I used brown rice pasta instead of the bucatini since I wasn’t planning to cook and needed something fast for company coming over. I didn’t have time to soak grains. Sally Fallon says it’s okay not to soak rice — it’s low in phytates.
I also didn’t have any tomato sauce so I used fresh tomatoes chopped (which had come in my CSA box). And I had the flat leaf parsley in my garden.
Served with a salad of arugula (also from my garden), thinly sliced fennel, crispy pecans (soaked and dried, per “Nourishing Traditions”), and fresh strawberry and blood orange slices (both also from my CSA box), with oil and vinegar dressing.
This pasta’s especially good paired with a spicy red — I poured a zinfandel — Full Circle (organic!), which I found at Whole Foods. It was very good.
I have to say, the meal came out great! I will definitely make this again.
