A Taste of Comfort
Pasta Fagioli Recipe
“Pasta Fagiole is what those old Italians knew, and needed it to be during the tough depression days — cheap, healthy, and good eats! With beans for protein, tomato sauce for vitamins and licopene, and pasta for carbohydrates, it makes a delicious and balanced meal.” ~Amy Barbato
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of extra-virgin Olive oil
2 whole cloves of garlic
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
Red pepper flakes, a pinch or two
Pinch of Italian seasoning
Pinch of black pepper
1 15 oz can cannellini (any white bean)
1 cup of ditallini pasta (or elbows)
Mozzarella and grated cheese of choice
Makes 4-6 servings.
Start a pan with olive oil on medium heat. Add garlic cloves (crush them to bring out more flavor), and heat until softened, which should take about 2 minutes. Add can of tomato sauce (stand back or lift pot off heat, it spatters!) and one 8 oz can of water. Season with red pepper flakes, black pepper, and Italian seasoning. Bring mixture to a bubble on medium high heat. Add the can of cannellini beans and one 15 oz. can of water. Bring back to a simmering bubble and then lower the heat to a slow simmer.
In another pan, simultaneously, bring water to a boil, salt and cook pasta for about 5 minutes if 8 min pasta (or 2/3 of total cook time). Drain pasta, and add to the pot with the sauce. Simmer until the pasta finishes cooking. You can remove the garlic cloves, or leave them in if you like to eat them.
Remove from heat and serve. Top with fresh grated mozzarella and grated cheese (Parmesan, Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano…or just mozzarella) Enjoy!
March 14th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
One comfort food that I can recall from my childhood is Nana Blanche’s homemade bread. It was a brown bread that was loaded with molasses. We never made sandwiches with it. It was always cut it into 1″ thick pieces and used for toast. After it was toasted, it was then drowned in butter and served. This toast was so good that it would melt in your mouth…and stick to your ribs too. As kids, my brothers and I would line up at the toaster and fight over who got to toast the bread first. Luckily, Nana Blanche was sure to make several loaves!
My other comfort food also came from Nana Blanche. This one was her apple pie…the best I ever tasted. It was always cooked to perfection, and as it was warmed up, the sweet aroma of baked apples and cinnamon would fill the house. The best part was the delicious, flaky crust. Each heaping forkful would melt in my mouth. I was always sure to eat it really slow so that I could savor every scrumptious bite.
Nana Blanche is gone now. She died about 15 years ago, but her culinary masterpieces live on in our memories. Her legendary apple pie is still talked about at our family gatherings. Fortunately, my oldest brother watched her make the bread and wrote down the recipe. He makes the bread on holidays, and it always brings back wonderful childhood memories.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Plum pudding is a comfort food that brings back fond childhood memories. When I was a kid, it was a special Christmas dessert. This was the old fashioned, labor intensive version of the confection. I remember it as being very rich and extremely filling. The steamed pudding was loaded with raisins, currants, a soft cake-like bread, and lots of molasses. It was served warm with a hard sauce and a lemon sauce. The hard sauce was a sweet, buttery sauce that had to be scooped like ice cream. The lemon sauce was sweet and syrupy.
I do have the recipe, though I have only made it once. While it was pretty close to what I remembered, it took a lot of work ( several hours of steaming). Nonetheless, I really enjoyed having it again and being able to serve it to my own family. Thanks for reviving this memory – I’m thinking of trying it next holiday season!
March 16th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
There are two types of food that, whenever I cook or eat them, define “comfort food” for me. The first is nearly any dish that begins with sauteing onions and garlic; mainly this is tomato sauce, but anything that is built on that base just feels like “real” cooking and is automatically comforting. I think this is because tomato sauce is the first real meal I ever cooked on my own.
The second is any dish that combines beans and greens. I’m truly not sure why, as I only began eating it in my 30s. However, there is something just so wholesome and complete about the combination that it leaves me feeling great. This is the case even when it is my favorite pane cotto recipe, which includes pancetta, bread and cheese, not exactly wholesome ingredients!