How can the notion of “comfort food” be so universal, but its meaning so diverse? For many, comfort food is centered around the flavors of home. Or it can simply be a warm plateful of simple food done well that makes you so uncomfortably full you forget why you needed to be comforted.
For the Marys, it’s a pile of baked mac and cheese at Thanksgiving. For Tom, it's a good roast beef poorboy like he ate as a kid. For nearly everyone, though, it’s pasta.
A few of our city’s gourmet Italian favorites are coming forward to bring their upscale comfort food to your kitchen by generously sharing their secrets. Now’s your chance to try your hand at making homemade pasta, thanks to Sofia. Cook it up with one of these preparations by Josephine Estelle or Domenica and take you emotional eating to new heights.
Sofia’s Homemade Pasta
From Sofia Restaurant:
Step 1:
Measure 2000 grams of semolina flour. Add 10 grams of extra fine sea salt.
Step 2:
Mix with 660 grams of water. Ratios are super important so we make sure to measure everything to the gram. Too much water will create gummy or sticky pasta. Not enough water will create dry or cracking noodles.
Step 3:
Extrude! … Yes this is a fancy machine that can create multiple types of pasta shapes that most people don’t have at home. But hey! We’re a fancy Italian restaurant! The pasta pictured is called Malfadine – squiggly edges with a flat center. Think of the outer edges of lasagna. We use it in our Pork Bolognese to help create little pockets for the meat and sauce to collect.
Step 4:
Store. Extruded pasta is what is considered a dry pasta. This can be completely dried out or frozen, but we choose to cook ours fresh for the best quality and taste.
Josephine Estelle’s Cacio e Pepe
From Josephine Estelle:
Cacio e Pepe is our most requested recipe. To enjoy it at home, you’ll only need butter, cheese, a short pasta shape and black pepper. Swipe to see the finished dish.
Canestri Cacio e Pepe
(serves 4 as a main course, 6 as an appetizer)
Tools: a large pan wide enough to hold the pasta, a small pan, and tongs
Ingredients
1 lb dried canestri or lumache pasta (feel free to substitute shells, bowties, or other short pasta shapes in your pantry)
1 ⅓ tablespoon freshly ground black pepper — not too fine!
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, split in half evenly
2 cups freshly ground grana padano or high quality parmesan cheese
3 cups pasta water
Method
Bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Season with salt; add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until about 1 minute before tender. Drain, reserving 3 cups pasta cooking water. You don’t want to pull the pasta water too early! Wait until the pasta is ready, as it will ensure the water’s maximum starchiness. The starches in the pasta water will ultimately stabilize the emulsification between the cheese and butter, which creates magic.
Meanwhile, toast black pepper in a large heavy DRY skillet over medium heat. Swirl pan frequently, until pepper is toasted, about 45 seconds to 1 minute. You will know the pepper is sufficiently toasted when the aroma of black pepper fills your kitchen. Watch out for the sneezes!
Add 5 tablespoons of butter to the pan with the pepper. It will quickly melt. Working fast to avoid burning the butter, add 2.5 cups reserved pasta water to skillet and bring to a rapid simmer. Please be careful when you add the pasta water to the pan, as it may splatter a bit — it will burn you! Reduce volume by almost half (this will take a couple of minutes), then add pasta. Cook pasta for the remaining minute, reduce heat to very low and quickly add remaining 5 tablespoons of butter and the cheese, stirring and tossing vigorously with tongs until cheese is melted.
Remove pan from heat and continue tossing until the sauce is smooth, emulsified, and coats the pasta. (Add some of the remaining 0.5 cups pasta water if sauce seems dry.) Transfer to a large bowl, garnish with more cheese if desired and enjoy.
Domenica’s Bucatini all’Amatriciana
From Domenica:
