Poor pasta. One of our favorite comfort foods has been shunned in favor of our anything-but-carbs obsession. But pasta is not all about excess and gluttonous hedonism. Its roots are more frugal, humble, restrained.
Pasta is actually one of the best ways to eat on a budget and use up food scraps, and the ingredients are simple and inexpensive. It’s just flour and egg, maybe some water. Cheese too, if you’re being fancy. Maybe some fresh vegetables from the garden, or something you foraged in the woods. Or perhaps a bit of precious pork fat ― not too much ― from the family’s last pig.
And unlike baking, pasta is imperfect ― knobbly and forgiving ― much like the beautiful Italian grandmothers featured in the new cookbook Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks by Vicky Bennison ($29.99, Hardie Grant Books). The book is based on the popular YouTube channel of the same name, which features weekly videos of nonne from all across Italy, sharing their favorite recipes, pasta techniques and interesting food stories. It’s truly delightful and, honestly, they seem like magicians.
What I love about this cookbook is that it’s not just about the food, it’s about the nonne. Like Giuseppa, 97, who worked as a tailor. Rachele, 96, who defiantly ate raw chicken eggs as a child. And Maria, 85, who grew up on a farm and has been making pasta since age 5.
“Chickens were used to pay off our debts, and so were their eggs,” she says. “Thus, our pasta used to have a little bit of water in it so we would use fewer eggs.”
The cookbook has eight chapters focusing on the many ways to celebrate pasta ― in bean soup, topped with seafood, simmered in broth, and filled with cheese. All delicious and simple, relying on fresh, readily available ingredients.
Here are a few of our favorite frugal recipes from the book:
Marica’s Strapponi with Porcini Mushrooms
Known as a forager’s supper, this dish hails from the steeply wooded parts of Italy that are a mushroom hunter’s heaven. Strapponi are hand-torn, ragged pieces of pasta.
3 1/3 cups (400 g) flour
4 eggs
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 pound 2 ounces (500 g) fresh porcini mushrooms
Salt
To make the egg pasta dough, tip the flour onto your board in a heap. Use your fingers to make a well in the center. Pour the eggs into the well. Take a fork (or use your fingers) and scramble the eggs together. Draw your fork round the inside of the flour wall, so a small quantity of flour falls into the egg mixture. Whisk it in, smooshing any lumps, so you gradually create a batter. Repeat until you have a mixture that won’t run all over the board. At this point you can cave in the flour walls and mix in the rest of the flour with a bench scraper by scraping the flour inward and over the batter. Of course, you can beat the egg and flour together in a bowl of a food mixer, but it’s not as fun.
Mop up any flour with your dough and give it a quick knead. If it is sticky, add a tablespoon of flour and knead it in. It is better to adjust your dough now than later. The dough should feel soft and pillowy, but not too sticky.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes minimum. Once your dough has become a log, turn it 90 degrees and fold in half and continue kneading. You want to work at a brisk pace, as air is the enemy of decent pasta — it will dry it out. If the pasta feels too dry, dampen your hands with water to put moisture back into the dough. Kneading develops the gluten and elasticity of the dough. To knead, you can also use a dough hook on your food mixer.
At this point, place the dough in a lidded bowl and cover it to stop it from drying out. Leave the dough at room temperature for 30 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and makes it easier to roll out.
Once the dough has rested for 30 minutes, roll it out to the thickness of ordinary shortcrust pastry. Aim for 2-3 mm thick. (For more detailed instructions, watch the Pasta Grannies ‘How to Roll Pasta’ video on YouTube.) Roll it up round your pin while you make the sauce.
Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the garlic and mint and fry the mixture for a couple of minutes before adding the chopped mushrooms. Keep frying to soften the mushrooms, season them with a pinch of salt, and add 1/2 cup water. Let this cook off, then continue frying the mushrooms until they are golden. Remove the garlic.
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil, salt it, and return it to boil. Keeping the pasta rolled around your pin, hold the pin above and near the water and pull pieces off and drop them in the water. This is how Marica does it. You can also simply tear off pasta strips/squares/odd shapes roughly the size of a credit card and then dump them in the boiling water. Cook for 2-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pasta pieces.
Drain and add the pasta to the mushroom mixture. Give everything a good stir and toss together.
Makes 4 servings.
SOURCE: Pasta Grannies by Vicky Bennison ($29.99, Hardie Grant Books)
Anna’s Cresc’Tajat with Beans
Pronounced cresh-tie-et, this dish is an example of frugal cooking, traditionally made with leftover cornmeal and served with stewed wild greens or beans.
7 ounces instant polenta
3 1/2 ounces (100 g) flour
9 ounces dried borlotti beans
1 carrot
1 celery stick
2 ounces lardo or fatty pancetta
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 meaty, top-quality fresh sausage, skin removed and crumbled
7 ounces passata (sieved tomatoes)
Salt
2 ounces grated pecorino, for serving
The day before you want to serve this dish, make the polenta according to the packet instructions. The polenta will stiffen up as it cools and, before using it, it should be cold and firm, but you should still be able to cut it with a fork. You want about 10 ounces cooked weight.
Soak the beans for 8 hours or overnight. Place them in a bowl and cover with enough water to submerge them by at least a couple of inches. Drain them and then simmer in a pan of water with the carrot and celery (this helps to flavor the broth) until the beans are cooked through. How long they take to cook will depend on the freshness of your beans, but it will be around 45 minutes to 1 hour. Keep them in their broth to one side while you make the pasta.
Mash the cooked polenta with the flour and then knead until smooth and you cannot see any streaks of flour. Divide the dough into 3 pieces and shape each piece into a patty. Keeping them well floured, roll them out as you would pastry — aim for about 2–3 mm thick. Slice into broad strips (about 1 ½ inches wide), then cut along the strips on the diagonal to create small diamond shapes.
To prevent the pasta sticking together, Anna places the pieces in a single layer on a tray and pops them into the freezer until ready to cook.
Mince the lardo or pancetta by chopping it with a mezzaluna or a sharp, heavy knife. Heat it with the oil over a moderate heat and fry the onion until soft, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Fry the sausage meat in the onion mixture until browned, another 5 minutes or so, then pour in the passata along with a couple of ladles of the bean broth. Season with salt and leave everything to simmer for a good 15 minutes.
Strain the beans and add these to the tomato sauce to warm through.
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil, add some salt, and return the water to the boil. Take your cresc’tajat from the freezer and tip them directly into the water. When they bob to the surface, they are ready. Using a sieve or slotted spoon, scoop the pasta from the water and stir it through the bean mixture.
Serve immediately and let everyone sprinkle their own plates with cheese and drizzle with oil.
SOURCE: Pasta Grannies by Vicky Bennison ($29.99, Hardie Grant Books)
Olga’s Canederli
Canederli ― bread dumplings the size of oranges ― come from an era when a loaf of bread had to last several weeks. All the ingredients for this dish were the scraps left over from a better meal.
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or butter, plus extra for serving
1/2 small onion, finely minced
2 ounces speck (or pancetta), diced small
1 pound 2 ounces stale white bread, cubed
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 heaped tablespoon flour
Salt
1/2 ounce chives, minced
Heat the oil or butter in a skillet and sauté the onion over a low heat. When it is translucent, add the speck and sauté for 1 more minute, to warm it through but not to cook it. You want it to remain soft. Take the pan off the heat.
Take a large bowl and add the bread, eggs and milk, then stir. Once combined, add the speck and oil, followed by the flour, a pinch of salt and the chives. Continue to stir the mixture until the ingredients bind together. If the bread feels too dry, add more milk. Let the mixture rest for about 15 minutes so the bread fully absorbs all the wet ingredients.
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. It should be deep enough to cover the canederli by 3/4.
When the canederli is ready, have a bowl of water to one side. Wet your hands and scoop out a small handful of the mixture. Press it hard to make sure it binds together, then roll it between your palms in a circular motion and shape into a neat little ball. It should be the size of a clementine or small orange. Place it on a plate and repeat until all the mixture is used up.
Cook your canederli in batches. Lower them in the hot water and simmer for 10 minutes. You may need to turn the heat down a little, so the boil isn’t too rapid. Keep them warm in a low oven while you cook the others. To serve, drizzle over some melted butter and eat straight away.
Makes about 12 canederli, enough for 4 to 6 people.
SOURCE: Pasta Grannies by Vicky Bennison ($29.99, Hardie Grant Books)
