In the afternoon, I wore just a t-shirt to run a few errands, including picking up bagels from Bodo's and a few things from Integral Yoga. While I was at Preston Plaza, I also stopped at Mona Lisa Pasta. Mona Lisa has been around since you all were little, but I remember when it first opened. Ed was still in town and we took a trip over to the store, where the owner gave us a tour and showed us the commercial mixer and extruding machines. Dylan played travel soccer with the owner's son a few years after that.
I got a pound and a quarter of egg linguine and decided to try making one of our favorite pasta recipes with fresh pasta for the first time. I've been making some variant of Amanda Hesser's recipe for Bavette Cacio e Pepe for almost as long as Mona Lisa has been open. In theory, you're supposed to make Cacio e Pepe with no oil or butter, just pasta, cheese, and pepper. But lots of recipes use oil or butter or both. Even Mario Batali uses both (in absurd quantities, like everything else in his recipe—a stick of butter, 6 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 3 cups of cheese, and 3 tablespoons of black pepper for just 1 pound of pasta!).
The problem with just pasta and cheese is that the cheese invariably glops together into unappetizing clumps when you add it to the hot pasta. Cook's Illustrated has you try to solve the problem by whisking the cheese together with 1 cup of the starchy water you cook the pasta in, but that failed miserably the two times I tried it, and I got tired of wasting 2 cups of good pecorino Romano. I finally dealt with the problem by adapting our old standby to use the oil in the recipe to coat the cheese before mixing it in with the pasta. It may not be authentic, but it actually works and the pasta tastes good.
I rounded out the meal by salvaging a two-day-old baguette from Costco that Dylan could barely bite into any more and turning it into garlic bread. It was a bit of a starch-fest, as Dylan said, but have some salad with it, and an apple for dessert, and you'll be fine.
After dinner, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies—"Miracle on 34th Street" (the original from 1947, in black and white, not the colorized version). It's right up there with the greatest of all Christmas movies—"Die Hard." Don't get me started on "It's a Wonderful Life," which is a horrible movie with an unlikable main character. If you want something with the same alternate-life theme, I much prefer "The Family Man," which we watched at Thanksgiving (again).
Linguine with Butter, Cheese, and Pepper
Adapted from Amanda Hesser in the New York Times
Time: ~30 minutes
This worked great with the fresh Mona Lisa linguine. Just be sure to test the pasta after only 90 seconds—fresh pasta cooks a lot faster than dried.
If you're eating alone or with just one other person and want a superfast meal that's surprisingly tasty (albeit really unhealthy), try David Chang's Instant Ramen Cacio e Pepe. You can see him making it in this video.
½ cup (28 grams) grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup (28 grams) grated pecorino Romano cheese
2 tablespoons (25 grams) extra-virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 pound linguine (see note)
4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon fresh, very coarsely ground black pepper
1. Bring 3 quarts of water to a rolling boil in a large stockpot. Meanwhile, grate the cheeses and mix them together. Combine half of the cheese with the oil in a small bowl. This will keep the cheese from clumping up when you add it to the hot pasta later.
2. When the water boils, add the salt and stir to dissolve. Add the linguine and stir for a bit to keep it from sticking. Cook, stirring occasionally, until a minute or so short of the package directions for al dente. You want the pasta to be a little firmer than when you normally take it out but not stiff and crunchy. For Montebello Organic Linguine, between 6 and 7 minutes usually works for me, but it can vary from package to package so you just have to taste it. Scoop out a mugful (at least ¾ cup) of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
3. Turn the heat down to medium. Off heat, add the butter, half the pepper (1½ teaspoons), and ¼ cup (one 2-ounce ladleful) of the cooking water to the pasta. Place the pot over the heat and cook for a minute or two until the butter is melted, using tongs to lift and toss the pasta. When the pasta is al dente, remove from the heat and fold in the cheese-oil mixture using the tongs. Adjust the consistency with additional cooking water as needed—I usually need at least one more 2-ounce ladleful (½ cup total) to get it just right. Serve immediately, passing the rest of the cheese and pepper at the table. Serves 4.
Garlic Bread
Adapted from the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook (2011)
This is also a good way to use up a one- or two-day-old baguette that's getting stale and a little hard.
9 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled (about 3 tablespoons minced)
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 (1-pound) loaf oval Italian bread, halved horizontally (see note)
freshly ground black pepper
1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line an 18-by-13-inch baking sheet with foil.
2. Place the garlic cloves in a small skillet over medium heat. Toast the cloves until they are soft and the skins are spotted brown, about 8 minutes. Shake the pan once in a while to toast evenly. Let cool a little bit, then remove the skins and mince the garlic. Sprinkle with the kosher salt and use the side of a chef's knife to puree the garlic. Place the pureed garlic, butter, and Parmesan in a small bowl, and mash everything together with a fork.
3. Spread the garlic-butter mixture evenly over the cut sides of the bread. Grind some fresh pepper over the top. Place the bread, buttered side up, on the baking sheet. Bake until the bread is golden brown, about 9 or 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after 5 minutes. Watch carefully as it can burn quickly. Let cool for a minute or two, then cut into thick slices. Serve hot. Serves 6 to 8.
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