Adventures in Food: Pasta e Ceci

I have to admit I slack a lot when it comes to being adventurous in my cooking. Fact is, most of the time I'm tired and, yes, a little bit lazy and I tend to fall back on old favorites that I know taste great and are fast to prepare. Every once in a while, though, I get inspired and decide to cook a dish I've been meaning to attempt for awhile. Yesterday was one of those days and it was a success, if I do say so myself! Not only that, but it seems I've found a new fast, easy dish to incorporate into my rotation.

So what is this dish, you ask? (Well, even if you're not asking I'm going to tell you anyway!) It's pasta e ceci or pasta with chickpeas, which is kind of a pasta-soup hybrid and is my fave pasta-and-bean dish. One of my challenges when trying out dishes is not being able to make them taste like my mother or nonnas do, but this one I actually nailed. Here's how:

Pasta e Ceci

Ingredients

1 package of pasta (usually short, I used ditali)

olive oil

onions

1 can chickpeas

1 cup crushed tomatoes

3/4 of a Knorr chicken boullion cube (a dado in Italian)

Directions

1. Fry the chopped onion in oil for about 2 minutes on medium heat then add the chickpeas, tomatoes and the boullion cube. Cook for around thirty minutes, stirring occasionally. Chickpeas should be tender, but still slightly firm. If you see the mixture is getting too dry just add some hot water--your end product should be much more liquidy than regular sauce, although I do prefer it on the dryer side myself.

2. When your tomatoes and ceci have been cooking for about twenty minutes bring a pot of water (add oil and salt) to a boil and throw in the pasta. Cook according to package directions or until al dente (like the chickpeas the pasta shouldn't be mushy).

3. Strain pasta and throw in the tomato and chickpea mix. Top with cheese or hot pepper if you like (I don't) and voilà: dinner! Makes enough for four--or two if you eat like my husband does.

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Adventures in Food: Greek Pasta Salad

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I didn't start learning to cook until I was 24 and recently married and now, almost three years on, my culinary skills are still a work in progress. I've retained more than I realized from watching my mother, grandmothers and mother-in-law at work, but it's nearly impossible to ask any of these wonderful ladies how they make their food. Measurements? Pah. They spit on measurements. Everything is by eye or a occhio. A typical conversation will go something like this...

Me: "This is great. Can you tell me how to make it?"

Them: "Sure! A little bit of flour, some oil, un pugno (a fistful) of salt, three or four eggs--"

Me [pen poised over scrap of paper I managed to find in my freakishly large day bag]: "Wait! Wait! How much flour? Is that, like, a cup of oil or a tablespoon?"

Them: "How should I know?"

Me: "No, how should I know? I'm asking you, remember?"

Them [usually shrugging their shoulders unapologetically]: "You can't measure these things. You just know."

Me: "Right."

They might know, but I certainly don't. I begin to perspire as visions of overflowing pots and inedible experiments dance in my head. Staring fear in the eye I decide to bravely soldier on.

Me: "Okay, so then what?"

Them: [They go over forty-five steps at light speed, without so much as taking a breath] "...and then you put it in the oven. That's it. Easy."

Me [wondering if Webster's has changed the definition of "easy"]: "So, how long do you leave it in the oven?"

I'm grasping at straws at this point, well aware that I can neither remember what they told me nor replicate it in any acceptable way.

Them [casual shrug]: "Until its ready."

Of course.

Me [a little desperately]: "But how do you know when it's ready?!"

Them: "You just know."

And that's it. My introduction to cooking. It's been a trial by fire, as they say, although the trial is to avoid the kitchen fires. So I've done my best to cobble together some instructions, recipes and recommendations, while keeping my eagle eyes open to see what tips I can pick up by watching. Like I said, it's a slow process. I've used some recipes to guide me, but as I get more comfortable in the kitchen I find myself going down the road of doing things by eye, substituting on the fly, and not really knowing how I ended up with what I did. In short I'm turning into them.

All in all my journey in the kitchen hasn't been that bad. I can think of only one occasion when the fruit of my labour wasn't actually edible--a misstep with stuffed artichokes I'm happy to forget (we ended up eating fried eggs that night instead). This year I wanted to try to challenge myself to try out new recipes and expand my horizons, but I haven't been as religious about it as I wanted to be. Time constraints mean I'm always falling back on some great fail safe recipes, among them the pizza my husband loves and easy pasta dishes like one of my faves: fusilli with broccoli.

This weekend, though, I decided to try something different. For my nephew's birthday party on Saturday I was determined to actually make something to bring rather than buying something like I usually do. (I like no muss, no fuss and a certainty that the finished product will actually be edible). I figured pasta salad, which surprisingly I had never attempted before, would be an easy enough crowd pleaser and so I started trawling the internets for a recipe.

Of course, being me I couldn't just stop at one. Maybe it's the influence of the ladies in my life, who knows. I ended up making a Greek Pasta Salad that was a mishmash of about five recipes I found. Happily everyone seemed to really like it and so I made it again for a barbecue I was headed to on Monday and, what do you know, another success! I love this because its relatively quick and easy (the most labour intensive part is some chopping) and fool proof, which I need. So without further ado...

Greek Pasta Salad

{Please ignore the bad cell phone quality pic - will get my camera fixed one day soon!}

Ingredients

1 package of pasta (I used fusilli)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons dried oregano

3 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons dried basil

2 tablespoons black pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 green onions, minced

20-25 grape tomatoes, quartered

1 can of sliced black olives (4 oz), drained

crumbled feta, about 2 cups

Directions

1. Boil water (I add salt and oil) in a large pot for the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente (I don't like it too soft).

2. Add first batch of ingredients (oil to sugar) to a large bowl. Whisk together.

3. Add second set of ingredients along with pasta (after you've drained it). Mix together and you're done. Refrigerate overnight.

The first time I made this I only had time to refrigerate it a couple of hours. The second time I let it chill over night. While the first batch was good, I found that the flavors were much stronger with the last batch. I'm not sure how many this recipe serves, exactly, but it makes a pretty big bowl -- good for at least ten people.

Buon Appetito!


I'm going to watch SATC tonight -
I really hope it's good!

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