English-born food journalist Rachel Roddy has called Italy her home for the past 18 years. Her column "A kitchen in Rome" runs in The Guardian. With a strong desire to feed her family without any bells and whistles, pasta is often at the centerpiece of the dinner table.
Roddy says strascinati, the pulled flour and water pasta coming out of Southern Italy, along with orecchiette and cavatelli, gave her confidence in making pasta, which reminded her of playing with plasticine as a child.
"[Strascinati] helped me overcome my fear of making pasta actually," says food journalist Rachel Roddy, "[something] that I thought was some rarefied skill that you could only have if you had Italian blood." Photo by Jonathan Lovekin.
In her book An A to Z of Pasta, Roddy tips her hat to the great food historian Massimo Montanari, who believes form leads to flavor when combining a shape of pasta and a sauce. The nature of noodles, how they fold and how they feel in the mouth, is an indicator to help pair pasta and sauce. With very clear ideas of what pastas match with what sauces in a city such as Bologna, Roddy says she encountered a refreshing anarchy and explains that food is forever changing.
The three pasta shapes always in her pantry? Rigatoni, spaghetti, and mezze maniche, which translates to "short sleeves." Roddy compares it to the sleeves of a white Fruit of the Loom t-shirt.
Quadrucci alla romana
Quadrucci and peas Roman style
Serves 4
A particular favorite of mine for the way it looks, the peas and squares are playful somehow, and its taste, brothy but clouded with cheese, bright and good. We usually have this on a Monday, relief after a weekend cooking. I agree with my mum and my favorite food writer Simon Hopkinson: frozen peas are wonderful, and this is a dish in which they shine. I have suggested light stock, but lightly salted water would work too.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 stalk of celery, with leaves, finely chopped
- A few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- salt
- 10 oz (300g) peas
- 1½ quarts light vegetable stock
- 7 oz (200g) fresh egg pasta quadrucci, or 6 oz (180g) dried
- grated pecorino and dried red pepper flakes, to serve
Instructions
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Put the oil, onion, celery, parsley and a pinch of salt into a skillet. Put the skillet over medium-low heat and fry the vegetables, stirring often until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
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Add the peas, stir for a few minutes, then add the stock, bring to a gentle boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes.
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Raise the flame so the soup boils gently, then add the quadrucci and cook until al dente— the consistency should be that of a dense soup but with visible broth.
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Serve immediately, encouraging everyone to stir grated pecorino and red pepper flakes into their bowlful.
With 1,300 options available in Italy, An A to Z of Pasta centers on the stories behind 50 shapes of pasta and their complementary sauces. Photo courtesy of Knopf.