The perfect food — flour, water and salt, sometimes olive oil and eggs — can create an almost infinite universe of recipes. Christopher Kimball’s book Noodles explores its global possibilities.
We take pasta for granted, but a new cookbook called Noodles (Little, Brown/Hachette, $44) opens our eyes and tastebuds to its vast variety of traditions worldwide.
Christopher Kimball, who runs Milk Street, a Boston cooking school and food publishing centre, tells the story of what he calls “the perfect food.” Its basics — flour, water and salt, sometimes olive oil and eggs — can be traced to China. Italy made it a national dish. Now it ranges from Vietnam to Turkey in what Kimball calls “an almost infinite universe of recipes.”
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He offers 273 of them in his book, handsomely photographed by Connie Miller. Useful sections identify each type of pasta, as well as the various ways to enjoy the food, from soup to stir-fry, salad to Italian classics. Estimated cooking times lead off the colourful stories atop each recipe. An outstanding book.
Fettuccine with corn, tomatoes and bacon
Serves 6
12 ounces (4 cups/375 g) fettuccine or pappardelle pasta
Kosher or coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
4 ounces (125 g/4 slices) bacon
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups (375 mL/250 g/2 cobs fresh corn) frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 pint (2 cups/500 mL/300 g) cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons (30 mL) salted butter
2 teaspoons (10 mL) balsamic vinegar, preferably white
Bring 4 quarts (4 L) water to a boil in a large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon (15 mL) salt and cook just until beginning to tenderize. Reserve 1 cup (250 mL) of the cooking water and then drain the pasta. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy frying pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook bacon until browned and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and break into small pieces. Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of the fat in the pan.
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Return pan to medium heat and cook onions and garlic, stirring, until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in corn, tomatoes and 1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened and released their juices, about 4 minutes.
Add pasta and 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the pasta cooking water and cook, stirring, until the pasta is tender (al dente), 3 to 5 minutes. If mixture seems dry, stir in a little more of the pasta cooking water.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter, vinegar and bacon, stirring until the butter melts. Season with salt and pepper.
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