Soulmates
BACK in the last century, an Italian sommelier who became a friend spent a fair amount of time in my kitchen, much of it insisting that nearly every iconic American food was made not just first but better in the country of his birth. Apple pie? They had it at crostata. Grilled cheese? Mozzarella en carrozza was the Model A. Meatloaf? They call it polpettone.
Despite his annoying nationalist arrogance, it was impossible to deny he was absolutely right when it came to macaroni and cheese. Pasta ai quattro formaggi not only predates Kraft, it trumps it, big time. Cheese and pasta just go together like a burger and fries.
Starch is comfort. Cheese is seduction. Put them together and you’re asking for pleasure, especially if you eat pasta the way the Italians do, as a first course rather than the main event. A small portion is the perfect size.
My friend Giorgio would never deviate from any of the recipes his great-grandparents followed, but this being America, our national instinct is to reinvent any dish, borrowing an ingredient from Cuisine A and a technique from Cuisine B. Pasta and cheese, in particular, can be tweaked, upgraded and even translated, ingredient by ingredient, almost into infinity.
Now that the cheese aisle has grown so far and so wide, and specialty shops have proliferated, the choices are limitless: You can mix and match with even the classic recipes. Change the cheese and you get something that tastes completely new.
Start with that pasta with four cheeses. Traditionally, in Italy, it is made with some variation on the quartet of Bel Paese, fontina, Gorgonzola and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Some recipes use mozzarella instead of fontina, and pecorino Romano instead of Parmigiano.
My personal cheese advisor Steven Jenkins, who wrote the definitive guide “Cheese Primer,” suggests bringing the dish up to 2006 cheese-aisle standards by using a fresh goat’s milk cheese, mascarpone, Gorgonzola dolce and a sheep’s milk cheese from Spain (manchego, Idiazabal, Roncal) or from France (Ossau-Iraty). The combination is almost other-worldly, much more nuanced than the predictable original.
But if you swap out the imports for American cheeses, either uniquely American or Americanized Italian, you get a fascinating flavor combination and a tangible indicator of how far cheese-making has come in this country in the last 20 years.
Instead of Gorgonzola, a domestic blue cheese adds a sharper flavor, especially the Smokey Blue from Rogue Creamery in Oregon. For the goat cheese, Humboldt Fog has real resonance, but any California chevre would work. A domestic mascarpone, such as the one made by San Diego-based Cantare Foods, and Monterey Jack cheese substituting for the Italian fontina are both mellow and melting enough to counter the other, stronger partners in the sauce.
A fifth flavor
TO make this dish seriously American -- meaning pushing the boundaries just a little further than absolutely necessary -- you can add a fifth cheese, using grated dry Jack such as Vella as a topping at the end. The texture, taste and saltiness are close to Parmigiano-Reggiano but still different.
Melted together with a little cream, the four main ingredients swirl into a sauce to rival a Giorgio-quality quattro formaggi. For the pasta, stick with the traditional penne, and make it the best brand possible, one that will stand up to the serious richness of the sauce.
You could make this with other quartets of cheeses, keeping in mind that you need two that are mellow and/or melt easily, as mascarpone and mozzarella do, and two with flavor that can only be described as robust, like Gorgonzola and chevre. No matter which you choose, you will be eating happily in very short order: The sauce takes half the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Another twist on an Italian classic is more straightforward. Simply substitute a superb fresh cheese for the time-honored and well-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano and/or pecorino Romano. As wonderful as both those cheeses are, the American way with cheese is to play around. And ricotta salata has essential characteristics in common with those, particularly its saltiness and perceptible tang.
This is a wondrous cheese, dry and crumbly in a good way. It melts into strands of pasta and, when sprinkled on at the end, stays firm enough to add another level of flavor.
Cheese and tomatoes are always natural partners, but a slow-cooked sauce really stands up to the ricotta salata. Arrabiata, with tomatoes cooked with lots of hot peppers, or amatriciana, with tomatoes slowly simmered with red onion and pancetta, are two excellent choices. Each should be served with a pasta with hollow strands such as bucatini or perciatelli.
The sauce is more of a glaze than a glop, which makes the cheese almost stand alone. Where Parmigiano tends to blend in with either sauce almost as soon as it is grated over, ricotta salata keeps its integrity and its chunkiness to the last bite.
Another translation
EASILY the most rewarding way to turn an Italian cheese-and-pasta classic into something even jazzier is to translate it into Spanish. Spaghetti carbonara is a spectacular dish made very simply, by tossing the hot pasta with beaten eggs, bacon and Parmigiano; those few ingredients immediately cohere into a rich sauce, without even a hint of cream, that clings to every strand of spaghetti.
It’s hard to beat the way it has been made for centuries, but just looking around the supermarket you can see a better idea. Spanish chorizo substituted for the bacon, and manchego for the Parmigiano will produce a rich and vibrant sauce for spaghetti that tastes like a whole new dish.
The sausage has a sharp spiciness that makes the sauce livelier, while the aged cheese has a distinctive pungency because it is made from sheep’s milk rather than cow’s, as the Parma cheese is. It’s fast and easy enough for a quick dinner but rich and dramatic enough to serve to company.
Once you start playing around with cheese and pasta, the ideas keep coming because there are so many cheeses from which to choose. After you try ricotta salata, you may find yourself using it on every pasta with tomato sauce, even the kind from a jar (instant upgrade).
You could also use manchego or Asiago instead of Parmigiano in fettuccine Alfredo or even pesto sauce. Any cheese that melts well -- Brie, Camembert, Taleggio, Gruyere, Gorgonzola -- can just be heated with cream or whole milk to also make a fast sauce.
One trick Giorgio taught me is to add a tablespoon or so of butter to pasta after it has been cooked and drained well; the tiny bit of lubricant makes any sauce cling, particularly one made with tomatoes.
Another is to toss the pasta with the sauce in the pan in which it cooks, which gives a better coating than pouring the sauce over the pasta in a bowl and trying to mix the two.
He would be horrified to see chorizo and chevre in his revered recipes. But neither is as much of a sin as macaroni and cheese from a box when the real deal is so simple.
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Bucatini amatriciana with ricotta salata
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Servings: 4 to 6
Note: Ricotta salata is available at cheese shops and specialty stores including the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, the Cheese Store of Silver Lake and Surfas in Culver City. Also available at select Whole Foods markets.
2 ounces pancetta, in one piece
1 tablespoon best-quality olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 (14-ounce) can whole Italian tomatoes in puree
Kosher or sea salt
1/2 pound bucatini or perciatelli
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely crumbled ricotta salata
1. Cut the pancetta into one-fourth-inch dice.
2. Heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium-low heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring, until it crisps and renders its fat, about 10 minutes. Remove all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pan and discard. Add the onion and cook, stirring until tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, then crush the tomatoes into the pan and add the puree. Cook, stirring to crush the tomatoes into the finest bits, for 5 minutes. Simmer 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. While the sauce cooks, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil with salt (about 1 tablespoon for every 2 quarts -- it should taste salty). Fifteen minutes before the sauce is done, add the pasta to the water. Stir and then cook until it is just al dente, 11 to 12 minutes or according to the package directions.
4. Reserving one-half cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta in a colander. Add the butter and toss quickly, then transfer to the pan with the sauce. Stir until the strands are thinly but evenly coated. Add a little cooking liquid if the pasta seems dry. Add half the ricotta salata and stir to combine well. Transfer the pasta to a large bowl or platter and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Serve hot.
Each of 6 servings: 236 calories; 9 grams protein; 32 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 9 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 17 mg. cholesterol; 276 mg. sodium.
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Spaghetti carbonara translated into Spanish
Total time: 25 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: Aged manchego cheese is available at cheese shops and specialty stores. Spanish chorizo for cooking is available at Spain Restaurant in Los Angeles, Surfas in Culver City, La Espanola in Harbor City and select Whole Foods markets.
Kosher or sea salt
1 pound spaghetti
6 ounces Spanish chorizo, cut into about 1-inch-long and 1/4 -inch-wide strips
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups grated aged manchego (about 6 ounces), divided
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil with the kosher salt (about 1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water). Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is al dente, 12 minutes, or according to the package directions.
2. While the spaghetti cooks, heat the chorizo with the butter and garlic in a large, deep skillet until the sausage starts to crisp and the garlic to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard the garlic.
3. When the pasta is done, drain it in a colander and put it in a large bowl. Scrape the chorizo mixture in. Immediately add the eggs and half the cheese. Toss until all ingredients are well mixed and the pasta well coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the remaining cheese, mix well and serve at once.
Each of 8 servings: 446 calories; 20 grams protein; 43 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 21 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 116 mg. cholesterol; 475 mg. sodium.
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Penne with five American cheeses
Total time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: Mascarpone from Cantare Foods is widely available at supermarkets including Whole Foods, Gelsons, Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs. Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue cheese and Vella Dry Jack are available at Auntie Em’s Kitchen in Eagle Rock, the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, the Cheese Store of Silver Lake and select Whole Foods markets.
Kosher salt
1 pound penne or penne rigate
4 ounces crumbled blue cheese, preferably Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue
1 cup grated Monterey Jack
1/2 cup fresh mascarpone
4 ounces California goat cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch cayenne
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground white
pepper to taste
1/2 to 3/4 cup grated Vella Dry Jack
1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil with salt (about 1 tablespoon for every 2 quarts of water). Add the penne, bring the water back to a boil and cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, until it is al dente, 11 minutes or according to the package directions.
2. Five minutes before the pasta is done, combine the blue cheese, Monterey Jack, mascarpone and goat cheese with the cream in a large saucepan over low heat. Heat, stirring, until the cheeses are melted. Stir in the cayenne.
3. When the pasta is done, drain it in a colander. Toss it with butter, then add it to the melted cheese. Stir until it is well coated. Season with pepper to taste and serve, sprinkled with the Vella Dry Jack.
Each of 8 servings: 521 calories; 20 grams protein; 44 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 30 grams fat; 18 grams saturated fat; 84 mg. cholesterol; 393 mg. sodium.