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Buccatini with Meatballs. The Don Draper of Pasta Dinners.

Buccatini and meatballs is a classy spin on an old classic. I don’t think I’ve met anybody who does not like a good ol’ bowl of pasta and meatballs. For me, it’s one of those few meals that I crave if I go too long without. I guess that’s one of the defining characteristics of comfort foods in general…

But I have to say, this is one of the best bowls of pasta that I’ve had in a long time – at a restaurant or at home! In the past year or so, I’ve started to try and remember my favourite types of pasta. I still love the classics – spaghetti, linguini, penne – but there are so many interesting kinds, it’s easy to find a few other favourites. If you can get your hands on buccatini, I would highly recommend it. It’s basically just like spaghetti but with a hole in the middle, making it a tube.

I almost always have some of this tomato sauce in my freezer. It’s a good starting point for a pasta dinners and marinara sauces and can just be defrosted the day before.

The meatballs can be made ahead of time to save some trouble, or just thrown together before you start cooking – my typical M.O. The lemon zest in the meatballs here really brightens up the pasta and works perfectly with the bit of heat from the chilies.

Buccatini with Meatballs

For the pasta:

250 grams Buccatini

Tomato sauce (recipe follows)

1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

For the meatballs:

1/2 lb good quality ground beef

1 dried red chili

small pinch of cinnamon

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

Sea salt & ground pepper

Small handful of freshly grated Parmesan

Zest of 1 lemon

Small handful fresh basil

To make the meatballs, mix together all of the meatball ingredients and form in to large marble sized balls. As I’ve said before, unless you’re making meatloaf, you do not need to mix the meat too much. Just fold it over enough times to incorporate the ingredients. The more you smash up the meat and play with it, the more dense it will cook. The idea is to get tender meatballs that fall apart, not mini-meatloafs. The same goes for rolling them – just enough to shape them. To help them hold their shape and to help you roll them, run your hands under cold water every few meatballs.

Once you’ve rolled the meatballs, add a little olive oil to your pan of choice and heat over medium-high. Cook the meatballs until they are browned on all sides (about 6-8 minutes). It is not necessary to roll and shake the meatballs around constantly. You want each side to get some colour, which means letting it sit without moving. You only need to roll the meatballs around 3 or 4 times for this step. When finished, remove to a plate with paper towel while you deal with the sauce.

If you’re using dried pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook to your liking. Buccatini, like all pasta, should be cooked to al dente.

Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan the meatballs were in and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. This is a good point to add more garlic if you’re so inclined. Otherwise, add your tomato sauce to the pan with the mushrooms and get your meatballs back in to the sauce. Allow the sauce to heat all the way through and wait until the meatballs are cooked through to turn off the heat, about another 8-10 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust for seasoning if need be. You may want to add more salt, pepper or chili flakes to your taste.

Drain the buccatini and reserve a bit of the cooking water. It is always a good idea to keep a cup of the pasta cooking water as it can help to loosen up the pasta and sauce if it is too ‘sticky’. Toss the pasta with the meatball sauce and add a spoonful of butter, the Parmesan cheese and half of the ripped up basil leaves. Add a splash of the pasta sauce if you like.

Serve up the pasta in large bowls and top with the rest of the basil leaves and grated Parmesan.

Buon appetito!

Basic Tomato Sauce

4 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, cut to small dice

4 or 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1 tbsp dry

1 medium carrot, shredded

1 dried red chili, crushed (or red pepper flakes)

2 large cans whole plum tomatoes

Sea salt

For the tomato sauce:

In a large sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft and slightly coloured, 8 minutes. Add the thyme, carrots and chili and cook until the carrots are quite soft, about 5 minutes more. Add the tomatoes by crushing them by hand into the pan. You can just grab them out of the can and squish them through your fingers, making sure to get all the juice in the pan as well. Bring this to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

This will keep in the fridge for 1 week or in the freezer for 6 months.

CURRY SHRIMP PIZZA: A SAUCY SIGNATURE

I do not remember under what circumstances I made this recipe up. It doesn’t sound like it would be as good as it is, but for some reason I tried it once upon a time. I do know that I’ve made a few different incarnations of it in the last couple of years, and they have all been great. I’ve yet to see a similar dish elsewhere, so I’m going to go ahead and call this a signature dish of mine. One of my favorite things about this pizza is that it tastes even better as left overs the next day.

It’s a cold pizza and the sauce is cream cheese, so it may not satisfy your craving for a good old sloppy classic tomato pizza, but I promise you’ll want to make this again. And again. You can use the vegetables I’ve listed below or whichever you think would work. Let me know what you try!

Cold Curry Shrimp Pizza

6 oz cream cheese (3/4 of a package)
1 tsp curry powder

~14 medium sized shrimp
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp curry powder
tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp olive oil

orange pepper, julienned
red pepper, julienned
broccoli, broken into small florets
red onion, sliced thin
1 clove of garlic, minced

Pizza dough/crust

Fresh cilantro for garnish

First things first, fold together the curry powder and cream cheese. You don’t necessarily need to whip the cream cheese, but you do want a nice smooth soft texture so it’s fluffy and easy to spread later. You can also add a little more or less curry powder to your tastes. Let this rest while you work your magic on the rest of the ingredients.

Next up is the dough. The first several times I made this pizza, I used a store bought, precooked dough. I would typically just brush it with a little olive oil, maybe toss a pinch of salt on there and brown it in the oven for a few minutes. This works great and is definitely the easiest method here. This time, for the first time, I actually bought a ball of freshly made raw dough from Whole Foods to spin myself. Your grocery store may not sell raw dough, but you can try going to a nearby pizzeria. A lot of pizzerias will sell you dough if you ask nicely.

Once your dough is made (or unpackaged), you want to roll out about a 9 inch pie. How much dough you actually use depends on how thick you like the crust. I like a thinner crust for this pizza so I used a ball of dough about the size of my fist. Cook the dough on a pizza pan according to the instructions (or your experience). Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack until ready to use.

In a large non-stick pan, heat a glug of oil over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and garlic and saute for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the veg is just tender. Remove from heat.

Heat another pan over high heat and add the last tbsp of olive oil. Saute the shrimp until they are just cooked through or pink, about 1 minute per side.

Now you’re ready to assemble the final product! Spread the curry cream cheese evenly over the pizza crust and top with the sauteed vegetables and finally with the shrimp. Tear up a handful of the cilantro leaves and SHAZAM, right there on top.

Cut this fine specimen in to slices and go to work.

SAUCY CODFISH TACOS

I don’t have a story behind these fish tacos, I just love the flavors in them. And who’s not in to deconstructed meals that you have to piece together yourself? Seriously, who? Give me their name. I won’t say I got it from you. It’s a great family-style meal to serve, and if you have kids for some reason, this will get them in to eating some fish!

It’s always so much more rewarding when you have to work to eat your food. Work up a bit of a sweat; kick your salivary glands in to overdrive as you agonize about how much of each ingredient to pile in to that taco shell. How much can you pile in to that shell?? Oh, wait! Do I even want to fill it as much as I can? Maybe I want to have four smaller tacos instead of two huge tacos.

When I made this, I actually wanted to use Mahi Mahi, but there was none left at the fish counter. On top of that, the cod was super cheap. Really, any flaky white fish will do, but Cod is generally the easiest on the wallet.

I served this with a Peach Radish Salsa.

Cod Fish Tacos

1 lb flaky white fish (mahi mahi, cod)
¼ cup vegetable oil
Juice of 1 lime
1 bunch of cilantro, divided
1 tbsp chili powder
1 Serrano chili
Flour tortillas
Shredded white cabbage
Thinly sliced red onion

Saucy’s Mayonnaise (adapted from Tyler Florence)

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 chipotles in adobo, plus 1 tablespoon of adobo sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, cilantro, chili powder and Serrano and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

I used a cast iron pan to cook this fish cause I didn’t feel like going up to the roof to use the BBQ. Both would work great, but you might lose some of the flaky fish in the BBQ unless you have a fine grill. And skills. Heat the cast iron pan on medium-high until just barely smoking. Remove the fish from the marinade and get it in the pan. Sear the fish for 4 minutes on the first side and then flip for 30 seconds and remove. Let rest for 5 minutes then flake the fish with a fork.

Prepare the Mayo:

Put the chipotles in a blender and puree until smooth. Add the sour cream, mayonnaise, adobo sauce and lemon juice and continue to process until the mixture is creamy & saucy. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Warm the tortillas in the pan for 20 seconds, or better yet, over an open flame (I use my gas stove).

I like setting up the tacos “family-style”. Assemble the fish in a pile on a plate, hanging out with the pink chile mayonnaise and peach-radish salsa. Arrange a pile of shredded cabbage, cilantro leaves, chopped red onion and lime wedges next to the fish.

Go to town!