Two from Trattoria

I know I’ve designated Mondays as “Marcella Mondays”, but, well . . . Patricia Wells' Trattoria: Simple and Robust Fare Inspired by the Small Family Restaurants of Italy was calling out to me! I have a terrible weakness for perusing cookbook reviews on Amazon late at night. Big mistake. Which is part of the point of what I’m trying to do this year – cook out of all of these delightful books and expand my skillset.

Tonight we had “Penne with Vodka and Spicy Tomato-Cream Sauce” and “White Bean Salad with Fresh Sage and Thyme”. I chose the latter because my husband does love a bean dish, and you should just see my herb bed this summer! The sage, thyme, and oregano are just crazy-big, and I have nice parsley, chives, and rosemary as well.

The white beans simmered in a pot for an hour with herbs and veg:


It was tasty, but my beans were not the freshest and despite giving them an extra 45 minutes, they could’ve been more cooked yet. Still, most of the pan was eaten with pleasure:




The penne was just fabulous. Really over-the-top good. Complicated and deep, unexpectedly spiced. Patricia Wells says this dish is her husband’s favorite, and there is no mystery involved in this preference! My own husband is not fond of pasta at all, but was a sport about it and thought it was “fine” after the addition of hot sauce :-). We used gluten-free pasta so that Sophia and I were able to eat it as a minor cheat. I used Lundberg Organic Brown Rice Pasta Penne -- 12 oz , which is not always the best brand, frankly. In a brightly-flavored sauce like this it is fine, but a delicate white sauce won't mask the somewhat cardboard-y flavor. What was an unexpected delight about this dish for me was that it is quite close to a favorite of mine pre-cancer; a local restaurant's Tortellini Aurora. The latter doesn't have the red-pepper-flake kick to it, so next time I make this, will probably try it without the red pepper flakes (just to see how close I can get to my restaurant favorite).



I am very excited about trying other dishes from this wonderful cookbook! It is older, but unless you want to be on the forefront of what is going on in food-dom (in which case you want to buy Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking , don’t you ::wink::), this is the sort of book that puts delicious food on the family table.