Biba Caggiano - Spaghetti Sauces

There is an old Italian saying, A tavola non sinvecchia at the table one never grows old. That is possibly why Italians used to spend a great deal of time around the tablesavoring good food, sipping good wine, and enjoying their company.

Today, most women work outside of the home and the food they prepare daily is simpler than what the generation before them served. A plate of pasta might be followed only by a salad and cheese. The three-to-four-course dinner seems to be a thing of the past, or it is prepared only for special occasions.

This is a cookbook about spaghetti a string pasta that most people in the world, young and old, love. Many of the sauces in this book are quick, inspired, and uncomplicated, with perhaps the exception of the ragu chapter, and are absolutely delicious. Just think that while the water comes to a boil and cooks the pasta, you can make a tasty sauce. How great would it be to come home from work and know that in 15 to 20 minutes you can have a wonderful pasta dish on the table?

I was born and raised in Bologna, a city well known for its amazing homemade pasta, and fed a daily diet of tagliatelle, tortellini, ravioli, and lasagna. Yet today, when I crave pasta, I often reach for a box of factory made spaghetti. Perhaps it is the immediacy of the product that is so appealing. No hassle, no fuss. Just reach for the box and drop the pasta into boiling water. Nothing can be quicker and appease hunger like a plate of perfectly cooked spaghetti.

For many people who have traveled to Italy, spaghetti conjures up images of a sunny land. A land of white beaches, tranquil seas, high mountains, magnificent cities, quaint towns, and gregarious people who are at their happiest when they gather around the table with a steaming bowl of wholesome, mouthwatering pasta.

Of the many types of regional Italian pasta, spaghetti is perhaps the most familiar, the least threatening, and the most immediate. Boisterous and colorful in the South, it is more restrained and luscious in the North. Throughout the centuries, people all over the world learned how to preserve grain against the vagaries of weather, molds, and insect infestation. They learned how to turn grain into flour and eventually into pasta with its innumerable shapes. Spaghetti, with its rich golden color, is Naples contribution to the regional Italian table and, without any doubt, is the most popular pasta in the world and a symbol of all things Italian.

Spaghetti is also the perfect dish to prepare for an impromptu get together. Ci facciamo una spaghettata ? How about a nice plate of spaghetti? The spaghettata is an Italian ritual. It takes place in someones home or in a homey trattoria. The only rule is that the spaghetti be tossed with quick, appetizing sauces and that it gets to the table while hotand, of course, that it is enjoyed in a spirit of conviviality.

When I have family or friends over for a spaghettata, I use seasonal ingredients as well as ingredients I have in my well-stocked pantry. Canned Italian tomatoes, white tuna packed in oil, anchovies, olives, garlic, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, dried porcini mushrooms, roasted bell peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, and so on, can be used all year around. In spring and summer, I take advantage of what the season has to offer; ripe tomatoes, spring onions, fresh basil, peas, asparagus, and zucchini. I often enhance the flavor of the sauces with some diced prosciutto, smoked pancetta, or really great olive oil. And the nice thing is all of these sauces can be made in the time the water comes to the boil and cooks the pasta.

Because I work at my restaurant six days a week, on Sunday, when my grandchildren come over for dinner, this is the type of food I like to cook. Quick, stress free, flavorful sauces tossed with spaghetti. I look at my grandchildrens faces as they try to twirl the spaghetti around their forks and some strands fall back onto the plate in spite of their efforts... it is pure magic! Then a small voice says, Nonna, more spaghetti pleeease!

Spaghetti and other dry pastas are made with durum wheat flour and water. This dry pasta, which has the golden color of wheat, is made in factories all over Italy using a large mixer and extruded by putting the dough through different sizes of metal dies to form the various shapes. These shapes are then dried in temperature-controlled chambers.

In choosing factory made pasta, look for an imported Italian brand. Some of my favorites are: Rustichella dAbruzzo, Del Verde, Martelli, Barilla, La Molisana, De Cecco, and Fini. Factory made Italian pasta, when properly cooked, swells considerably in size while maintaining its toothsomeness and immediacy. Just reach for a box of imported pasta and in no time at all you will have a mouthwatering pasta dish on your table. Spaghettini, linguine, vermicelli, rigatoni, and penne may be used instead of spaghetti to be served with your favorite sauces.

The following are basic staples that should always be available in an Italian pantry. These ingredients can be kept for months and they are the key to the success of your dishes. Basic non-perishable items such as dried pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, dried mushrooms, olive oil, capers, and anchovies are some of my favorites, and they can be quickly transformed into a tasty sauce.