Pasta Recipe

Unstaged photo of 3-day-old Pasta. This sauce was made with 3ish spoonfuls of tomato sauce and the noodles are gluten-free ones salvaged from some  gourmet Kraft-dinner style packages that super store likes to pawn off on me when I spend a lot of money there. 

Purist Pasta

This recipe is roughly based off one my family has been making for years. The ingredients have been a list in my brain since I was a preteen, and I have been using and adapting it ever since. The current version, the one I’m posting today, is an homage to the fresh garden produce (onions, garlic, herbs, squash, and more) so abundant at this time of year. This is a recipe to take with you as you start wrapping up your summer and edge your way toward fall.

Ingrédients. List I. 

•1-2 newly harvested garlic cloves, peeled and thoroughly smashed (I use a kitchen mallet or knife blade) 

•1 small garden onion diced into tiny pieces (optional) 

•1/2-1 cup butter (No substitutions.) 

•Handful of fresh parsley, basil, or mixture of both, finely chopped 

Directions. Part I. 

In a pot, sauté garlic, and onion in butter over lowish heat for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Stir periodically; do not let the butter or aromatics brown or burn. Add herbs and sauté a minute or two longer. While your veg are sautéing I’d recommend getting that pasta cooking or turning your oven up really high and roasting some wedges of spaghetti squash. If you’re not interested in a meatless meal toss a couple strips of bacon on a hot cast iron pan or whip up a batch of blackened chicken. 

•optional: finely diced sweet pepper, jalapeño, habanero, spinach and/or Swiss chard can be added along with onion and garlic at the beginning of the sautéing stage.  I like these add-ins, but the purist in me loves the original uncomplicated version the most.  

Ingrédients. List II. 

•1/2-1 cup Parmesan (I start with a smaller amount and adjust to taste)
•1 cup of milk or heavy cream. 
•4-6 heaping spoonfuls of sour cream.  If you’re using heavy cream you will need less sour cream.
• salt and pepper 

Directions. Part II. 

1. Add the above ingredients parm, milk/cream, sour cream, s+p to your pot of butter and sautéed veg. 

2. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring frequently until it the sauce is heated through and ingredients are semi-incorporated. It’s hard to get the butter and milk to blend; it doesn’t affect the end result if they’re slightly separated. This sauce can hold up to a 15-20 minute simmer on low low heat if you give it a little stir every once in a while. 

3. Taste your sauce, keeping in mind that once you pour it over the calm canvass of pasta, the flavours won’t be nearly as intense. Adjust ingredients to your liking. Add butter for saltiness, parm for intensity, milk if you don’t have quite enough sauce, sour cream for creaminess. And if you to play up the comfort food aspect , add a dash or two of some kind of tomato sauce (pasta sauce, pizza sauce, sautéed tomatoes, whatever) just enough that your sauce looks pinkish. You’ll know you have the right amount when each bite has a quiet, sweet, tangy, tomatoy undertone. 

4. Pour sauce over cooked pasta of your choice, or serve with roasted spaghetti squash, my favourite way to eat this in fall. 

5. Serving this dish with slivers of crispy bacon and blackened  chicken are great way to erase the vegetarian connotations of this dish, but honestly, if you get the sauce right, you don’t even need the meat. 

6. Finally, garnish with a few sprigs of parsley, and serve.