Frances Mayes - Pasta Veloce

Pastas cardinal virtue? Speed! Many tasty dinners can be prepared in the time it takes to boil the water, throw in the salt, and cook the pasta to pleasing perfection. There are hundreds of slow pastas, but many, both contemporary and those derived from classic recipes, are molto veloce, very quick. Take the Roman favorite cacio e pepe. Toss pasta with pungent pecorino cheese, a generous blast of piquant black pepper, and a dollop of salty pasta water to smooth it all out. Presto! This classic is more than the sum of its simple parts.

Tuscan construction workers cook up a bowl of plain spaghetti on-site, which they dress at their makeshift table with olive oil and Parmigiano. Down-home food to generations of Tuscans is simply pasta topped with chopped tomatoes quickly sauted with herbs, lots of herbs. Or when tomatoes reach their summer peak, skip the cooking and just stir in fresh diced tomatoes. Pestos, such as the old favorites of basil or walnuts, are made in a flash. A beyond-easy pasta is broccoli and fonduta, melted cheese with cream. A meal in a moment. From simple to elaborate, pasta is the most versatile food on earth.

These are rustic treasures, but quick pastas can attain elevated status, too. If you manage to score a truffle, nothing exceeds the pleasure of tagliolini mixed with good olive oil and graced with the thinnest shavings of aromatic truffle. This book was conceived one night over a rich and irresistible lemon and pistachio linguine () served by my coauthor Susan at her house. We marveled over how simple it is to make, despite such a luxurious effect. Everyone at the table asked Susan for the recipe. Before we poured the last drop of wine, wed decided to write this book.

Soon Susan and I were brainstorming over seafood, mushrooms, nuts, vegetablesall candidates for pasta molto veloce. We love improvising. A splash of wine, some lemon zest, a handful of herbed breadcrumbs and you have something divine on your plate. We had great fun collaborating and inventing as well as perfecting tried-and-true pasta favorites.

Many Italians eat pasta every daysometimes twice a day. Its a birthright. With such frequency, you get creative. In many periods of Italian history, people found their cupboards bare and took up the challenge to eat as well as possible. La cucina povera, the poor kitchen, means frugal cooking born of necessity. The cucina povera became the cornerstone of Italian cuisine and fostered a philosophy of innovation. For every pranzo or cena, lunch or dinner, a bowl of spaghetti or tagliatelle was carried to the table. In lean times, the pasta might have been graced just with slivers of finocchiona (salami with fennel) and oregano, or with foraged porcini and dashes of olive oil. Chestnuts, the blue flowers of borage and wild chicory, snails, almonds, field greens such as nettles, mint, truffles, and asparagusevery gift of the land will find a way to the pasta bowl. Theres the bunch of chard that might wilt by tomorrow, the overabundance of basil by the back door, meaty eggplants, and bright red and yellow peppers, just waiting to hit the olive oil, garlic, and ubiquitous crunchy breadcrumbs. (Because Italians usually buy bread daily, the toasted leftover slices often become a prime topping.)

Years of cooking with Tuscans have made me an admirer of their intrinsic instinct for spontaneity. Because pasta provides the chance for countless innovations, there exist out in the ether thousands of recipes never committed to paper. Lucky accidents happen as fast as leftover sausages, or roasted vegetables, or a wedge of pecorino can journey from fridge to stove. Theyre devouredthen forgotten.

A few years back, my husband, Ed, announced that he wanted to try a different pasta every day of the year. We began to pay more attention to great things that just happened on a random Wednesday night. Instead of forgetting those last-minute inspirations, I began to write down the combination of pistachios, shallots, and chickpeas; the sedanini (pasta shaped like little celery stalks) with prosciutto, onion, and peas; the minifarfalle with big garlic and toasted walnuts. I remembered how much we relished the shrimp and fennel wed stirred into fusilli. When our neighbor Ivan mentioned that for Saturday lunch he was chopping an onion, throwing together some sausage and peas, then stirring in a little tomato at the end, I envied his family pulling up their chairs for a bowl of that quick invention. Naturally, I drove home and made it myself, which is so often how Ive learned here in Tuscany. He didnt say what kind of pasta he planned to use, so I selected gigli, one of my favoritesa twirl of pasta that flares open at the tip like its namesake, lilies.

Susan, a frequent traveler to Italy, Food & Wine editor, and constant host of splendid dinner parties, had her stash of personal favorites. After the evening when her lemon pistachio inspired us, we began to gather our notes for speedy pastas that weve loved over the years and to experiment with combinations wed never tried before. How many nights am I home late, or Ed invites someone impulsively, and pasta saves us? I wish I had time to haul out the spianatoia, the wooden pasta board every passionate Italian cook owns, and spend long mornings listening to Monteverdi while rolling out pasta. Those days are cherished but seldom.

No surprise: Ed and I were unable to cook 365 pastas, day by day. Life interferes. But we did amaze ourselves with how many nights wed cut open that box of rigatoni, improvise with what we found, and butta la pasta! Thats the cry often heard in Italian kitchens: Throw in the pasta; time to eat! Although we treasure slow afternoons making our own agnolotti, gnocchi, or ravioli, were more often in the kitchen at dark, ravenous and facing a fridge with a distinctly odd assortment of choices. How to triumph over that demon, time? Dried pasta. Always at hand.

In this collection of veloce recipes, Susan and I share our shortcuts and tips, such as cooking in a large (10- to 12-inch/25 to 30 cm) skillet on high heat like chefs. This saves minutes and locks in flavor. We make good use of food processors and blenders. Theyre handy, as is the small spice blender previously relegated to a bottom drawer but perfect for chopping parsley, a couple of shallots, nuts, and herbs. A potato masher saves minutes when you are browning ground meat and sausage. Hand chopping is satisfying and precise, even meditative, but electric helpers save time. In each recipe, our priority is to see how to combine steps to streamline the process. In a pinch, at the grocery store, grab fresh vegetables already sliced or chopped. Another time savermise en place. If you assemble all your tools and ingredients as you begin, you stay focused and save time. And youre not running all over the kitchen while the garlic burns.