PASTA AS MEDITATION
Marcella Hazan’s “The Classic Italian Cookbook.”
Romano beans, aka borlotti or cranberry beans.
The past couple months have been a lesson in resting. I’ve learned that I’m still hopeless at traditional meditation, but that I can find momentary respite by taking deep breaths in my garden, or solace in the repetitive motions of making fresh pasta. I learned to acquaint myself with the person I am when I’m not working overtime, dreaming up side projects, and running from event to event. And I was largely relieved to find that I was the same person, not less.
Pasta e fagioli, or pasta and beans, is a humble but perfect dish to offer comfort as the weather cools, and showcase the abundant produce currently at the market. This one involves putting on a podcast and shelling some Romano beans, then simmering them in a touski (“tout ce qui reste dans le frigo”) mix of odds and ends of vegetables from the fridge. I took the recipe from Marcella Hazan as a base, and riffed off of it with what I had on hand.
I was completely out of homemade broth, but I simmered caramelized onions with a can of whole tomatoes, then added water to the lot and threw in some old parmesan rinds I’ve been squirrelling away in the freezer. I also found a block of pesto from earlier this season, and threw that in too. And I’m sorry Queen Hazan, but I gotta say that this slowly simmered brothy mix might be just as good as your version with a meat broth.
I did however follow Hazan’s advice to add maltagliati – the pasta that translates to “poorly cut.” Traditionally made from the ends of pasta dough, maltagliati originates from the Emilia-Romagna region, where it often makes an appearance in bean and vegetable soups. Handmade pasta is one of the most rewarding things to make, and this one only took me about an hour, half of which involves resting the dough. And herein lies my meditation: scatter flour, pinch a piece of dough, breathe in. Feel the fine grain of the rolling pin and roll out the dough, breathe out. Repeat, concentrating first on the radio playing, or your podcast, or the sound of your alleyway. Repeat again, until all of those sounds fade into the background, and you’re only hearing your steadied breathing, concentrating on the motions of your hands.
Maltagliati fresh pasta.
Maltagliati in pasta e fagioli, a bean and vegetable soup.
Having a bowl of this transported me back to Pasta Fresca Naldi, this little pasta shop on a side street of Bologna. Behind a counter, a team of older ladies diligently made fresh pasta by hand and you could only select from three or four varieties everyday. When I was there in 2017, I ordered one, they handed it to me on a disposable plate, and I started tucking in on the steps outside. A local cafe owner offered me to take a patio table, which I gladly took, and after which I ordered a glass of house red, savouring simple, well-prepared pasta. There were no frills or pretension, just fresh, bouncy pasta with a hearty bolognese sauce. I can’t find a photo of that happy afternoon, but here’s a snap from my travels between Tuscany and the Emilia-Romagna region.
COLLAB: Thank you to La Milanaise who gifted me with durum semolina flour!
FRESH MALTAGLIATI RECIPE
Makes enough for 4 portions in soup, or 2 portions as a main.
200 g durum wheat semolina, such as the one from La Milanaise
100 ml warm water
3 g salt
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In a large bowl, mix together the semolina flour and salt, then make a well in the middle.
Add the warm water to the well, and use a fork to slowly incorporate flour into the pool of water, working inside out.
Once you have incorporated most of the flour and have a scraggly dough, use your hands to knead the dough inside the bowl until it becomes uniform and smooth, and no dry flour is left.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Pour yourself a glass of wine :)
Flour a clean working surface with semolina flour. Take a quarter of the dough and roll into a thin round, about 1/8 inch thick, or the thickness of a round toothpick. Then use a pastry wheel cutter or knife to cut into long strips, and then into rhombus (diamond) shapes.
Toss the pasta pieces in a bit of flour to prevent sticking, put on a plate, and cover with a tea towel to prevent the pieces from drying out as you roll more pasta. Repeat the previous step until you have shaped all of your dough.
Boil à large pot of water with a heavy hand of salt. When the water is bubbling, add pasta and cook 3-4 minutes or until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Add to a soup with beans for pasta e fagioli, or toss with salted butter and herbs for a simple side.
ALTERNATIVELY: Do not roll out the dough and make other shapes instead.
