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A creamy, calming pasta dish
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By Nigel Slater, author of Appetite |
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| General Category : Main Course |
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| Food Group : Pasta |
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| We eat not just to please our mouths and fill our bellies but to satisfy our bodies' needs. Clear, hot noodle soups fill us with energy, while anything with pasta and cream can virtually send us to sleep. What follows is a soporific supper for those times when you want to curl up and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the night. |
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Ingredients
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per person: |
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garlic: fresh and young, a whole head |
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olive oil: a few glugs to drizzle over the garlic |
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thyme: a few sprigs |
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pasta: shell or tube shaped, 125g |
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double cream: a small carton (150ml or so) |
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Preparation
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Set the oven at 200°C/Gas 6. Trim any long stems from the garlic, then put the bulbs, whole and unpeeled, in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and scatter with some of the thyme. Roast until the cloves are soft, sweet and virtually caramelised. They should be tender enough to squash between your fingers. This will take thirty to forty minutes, depending on the age of your garlic.
When the garlic is ready, tear the heads apart and squeeze the golden cloves from their papery skins, then mash them to a pulp. They should be as soft as butter.
Put a large, deep pan of water on to boil and cook the pasta till it is as you like it. I suggest about nine minutes. Warm the creamed garlic in a pan over a moderate heat, then pour in the cream and let it bubble briefly before crumbling in a little salt, some ground black pepper and the rest of the thyme leaves stripped from their branches.
Drain the pasta, but not so thoroughly that it becomes completely dry. Tip the pasta into the sauce and toss gently until all is warm, bubbling and sweetly fragrant.
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More Information
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Pasta with roast garlic, cream and pancetta
Add crispness to the overall softness by cooking thin slices of pancetta or streaky bacon under the grill, then crumbling them over the pasta as you serve. I reckon on two rashers per person.
Pasta with sausage and thyme
Skin a butcher's sausage, crumble the meat into a frying pan with a slick of oil and fry it till golden. Toss with the cream and pasta. A fat, herby butcher's sausage for each person.
Pasta with mustard and Parmesan
Stir in a spoonful or two of grain mustard with the garlic, tasting as you go, then shake over some grated Parmesan.
Pasta with cream and mushrooms. Wacky fungi, now available from most supermarkets and the more adventurous greengrocers, will add a warm, woodsy flavour. Toss a handful of mushrooms, cut up if larger than a mouthful, in some sizzling butter, then add the roasted garlic and cream as above.
Pasta with asparagus, lemon and black pepper
Boil a few asparagus spears until soft and truly tender, then chop them into short lengths and fold them in with the cream. Stir grated lemon zest and a grind or two more than usual of black pepper in at the end. When I make this I use slightly less of the roasted garlic purée.
Pasta with ricotta and herbs
You will need a small handful of ricotta and a good, big handful of soft and fleshy herbs, such as parsley, basil or tarragon, per person, folded into the drained pasta and cream.
Pasta with Gorgonzola and toasted breadcrumbs
Melt some ripe Gorgonzola with the cream - about 100g per person - and scatter over breadcrumbs that you have fried first in butter till crisp and golden at the end.
Pasta with anchovies
Add a few chopped anchovies, some shredded sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped steamed spinach, or maybe some broad beans briefly boiled and popped from their skins?
A suitable salad
Add crunch to your supper in the form of a salad and use it to mop the garlicky cream off your plate. Frisée or chicory, both crisp and bitter, will be a great contrast to the general sweet creaminess. |
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Source
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Excerpted from Appetite by Nigel Slater. Copyright© 2002 by Nigel Slater. Excerpted by permission of Random House of Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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