The Minimalist Cooks Dinner Read Online Free PDF Page A

strong, sturdy, high-class red, like super-Tuscan, good Bordeaux, or California Meritage, to Beaujolais, Chianti, or Côtes du Rhône wine
SERVE WITH
Made with asparagus, Glazed Carrots . Made with carrots, Steamed Broccoli (or Other Vegetable) . Simple Green Salad goes well with both versions. (This pasta can also serve as a side dish if you like, and would be perfect next to a breaded sautéed chicken cutlet, for example.)
    Keys To SUCCESS
    YOU MUST USE cut pasta here, because long pasta is far too unwieldy for this treatment.
    IF YOU’RE USING canned stock and have a little time, heat it with an onion, a carrot, and a garlic clove before beginning to add it to the pasta. And don’t salt the dish until you’re done cooking; canned stock can be overly salty.
    With MINIMAL Effort
    |    Substitute peeled carrots, cut into small chunks, for the asparagus; they add vivid color and a marked sweetness. Or experiment with other vegetables.
    |    Any sharp grated cheese will fill in well for the Parmigiano-Reggiano, especially Pecorino Romano.
     

Pasta alia
Gricia
    TIME: 30 minutes
    MAKES: 3 main-course to 6 first-course servings
    There is an important and splendid group of pasta recipes that is associated with Rome and the area around it; all the variations begin with bits of cured meat cooked until crisp. Around these delightfully crispy bits—and, of course, their rendered fat—are built a number of difference sauces of increasing complexity. The first contains no more than meat and grated cheese 3 and is called pasta alla gricia; the second, in which eggs are added, is the well-known pasta (usually spaghetti) carbonara, one of the first authentic nontomato pasta dishes to become popular in the United States, about thirty years ago; and the third is pasta all’Amatriciana, which adds the sweetness of cooked onions and the acidity of tomatoes.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup minced guanciale, pancetta, or bacon (about ¼ pound)
Salt
1 pound linguine or another long pasta
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano, or more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Begin heating water for the pasta. In a small saucepan, combine the oil and meat and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is nicely browned, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Salt the boiling pasta water and cook the pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Before draining the pasta, remove about a cup of the cooking water and reserve it.
Toss the drained pasta with the meat and its juices; stir in the cheese. If the mixture is dry, add a little of the pasta cooking water (or a little olive oil). Toss in lots of black pepper and serve.
WINE
Crisp white, like Pinot Grigio or even Frascati, with the Pasta alla Gricia and Spaghetti Carbonara; Chianti or another light red with Pasta all’ Amatriciana
SERVE WITH
60-Minute Bread or good store-bought bread; Simple Green Salad
    Keys To SUCCESS
    COOKBOOKS AND ARTICLES about Italian cooking insist that the “genuine” meat for these recipes is pancetta—salted, cured, and rolled pork belly. Pancetta is available in almost any decent Italian deli and in many specialty stores, but for those of us who cannot obtain pancetta, bacon—which is also pork belly, but cured and smoked—is an adequate substitute. (In fact, the first choice for these dishes is guanciale, salted and cured pig jowl; but that’s hard to find.)
    SIMILARLY , Pecorino Romano is “essential” to pasta alla gricia, Parmigiano-Reggiano is the most commonly used cheese in carbonara, and the Amatriciana-style sauce is at home with either. But, again, you can choose whatever you like—no one is looking.
    With MINIMAL Effort
    Spaghetti Carbonara: Steps 1 and 2 are the
    same. While the pasta is cooking, warm a large bowl and beat 3 eggs in it. Stir in about ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and the pancetta and its juices. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss with the egg mixture. If the mixture is dry