3 Classic Recipes from OG Pasta Queen Lidia Bastianich's New Cookbook
Photo, Dana Gallagher.
In her latest cookbook, chef and author Lidia Bastianich describes pasta as a "blank slate": open to almost any diet, any flavour, and easily scaled to your desired level of effort. Tough week? Toss some cooked fusilli with a couple of pantry staples and maybe a chopped vegetable and you've got a fresh and delicious puttanesca in 20 minutes. Feeling ambitious? Make the dough and noodles yourself; maybe turn them into a cheesy pasta bake. Bastianich's Lidia's Art of Pasta, out in October, is designed to help home cooks master pasta in its myriad forms, from dried to freshly made, with plenty of veg-forward and vegan options—and with many dishes clocking in at just 10 ingredients. Here's three recipes with Lidia's signature detailed and easy-to-follow instruction that make these classic pasta dishes cook like a breeze.
Fusilli Alla Puttanesca
One story says that this recipe originated in early 20th-century Naples, specifically in the Quartieri Spagnoli, where the houses of pleasure were situated. Others say the dish was invented in Rome under similar circumstances. Get this fusilli puttanesca recipe.
Bucatini All’Amatriciana
This pasta was originally made with a white sauce, before tomatoes were introduced to Italy in the eighteenth century, but the key ingredients now are jowl bacon (called guanciale), olive oil, ripe plum tomatoes and pecorino cheese, cooked together in a lightweight cast-iron pan. Lidia's rendition deviates from the traditional version with the addition of sliced onions, for texture and sweetness, as well as some peperoncino and, to add complexity, bay leaves. Get this bucatini recipe.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
"I bake the meatballs here, which is easy and uses no extra oil, but you can also lightly flour and fry them in some olive oil, turning them until they're crisp on all sides. Then drain them on a paper towel and add them to the sauce. The flour will make them a bit denser. Or you can gently add them raw to the simmering sauce, give them some time (about 5 minutes) to firm up, then gently move them around with a wooden spoon to coat them with sauce and cook through." Get this spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
The very best of Chatelaine straight to your inbox.
Chantal Braganza is a writer and editor living in Toronto. She is deputy editor, food at Chatelaine, a cookbook nerd, lover of vintage dish ware, and currently training for yoga teacher certification. Her first book, Story of Your Mother, is out with Strange Light Press.
