I’m a little cranky tonight so instead of blogging about it, I’m going to post a recipe or two from one of my favorite cookbooks.  Julia wanted a copy and this is an easy meal you can make during the week.  I’m also going to include a recipe for Carbonara.  This particular recipe is freakin’ awesome and just don’t think too much about the raw egg it calls for.  A little bacteria is good for the soul.

Both recipes are from from “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” by Marcella Hazan.  My sister hooked me up with this cookbook when she found out I was marrying a big greasy Italian guy.  It has yet to let me down, though I bastardize her pesto recipe by adding cream cheese to it. 

Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Sauce with Sausages
Serves 4-6

3 meaty Bell Peppers, 1 red, 2 yellow
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped onions
4 sweet sausages (I use an entire package cuz we like us some MEAT!) without fennel seeds, chili pepper or other strong seasonings, cut into 1/2 pieces.  (I also remove the skins from the sausages because I think they cook better)
Salt
Black Pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained and cut up (you can buy them cut already, or, if you are a spaz and forget to buy this, I have used plain old tomato sauce in a moment of desperation and Mike didn’t notice)
Fresh pappardelle suggested below* or 1 1/2 pounds boxed dry pasta

For tossing the pasta:
1 tbsp butter (not margarine, Jennifer!)
2/3 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese, plus additional cheese at the table

Recommended pasta:  Yellow and green broad egg noodles, pappardelle, is what this sauce was created for and no other pasta combination seems quite so perfect.  Make pappardelle as described below, using a dough made from 2 large eggs and approximately 1 cup flour for the yellow noodles, and for the green noodles, 1 large egg, 3/4 to 1 cup flour and a tiny fistful of cooked spinach.  Cook the yellow and green pasta separately. 

Although it may not be quite so sublime a match, boxed, dry factory pasta would be delicious with this sauce.  Try such shapes as rigatoni, or ruote de carro, cartwheels.  Or be a loser like Cristina and use whatever the hell you can find in the pantry, like penne or that leftover nasty gluten-free crap Kristin told you about during The Cleanse. 

1.  Split the peppers into 4 sections, discard the seeds and cores, and peel them, using a swiveling-blade peeler.  Cut them into more or less square 1-inch pieces. 

2.  Put the olive oil and the chopped onion into a saute pan, and turn on the heat to medium high.  Cook and stir the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold.  Put int he sausages, cook them for about 2 minutes, then add the peppers and cook them for 7 or 8 minutes, turning them occasionally.  Add salt and pepper, and stir well.

3.  Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook them at a lively simmer for about 15 or 20 minutes (or until the kids scream), until the oil floats free of the tomatoes. 

4.  Empty the entire contents of the pan over cooked drained pasta and toss thoroughly.  Add the butter and grated Parmesan, toss one more time, and serve at once with additional cheese at table. 

*Seriously, other than Tim Bereika, who makes their own pasta???  My friends mostly have kids and not a lot of time. Boxed pasta works fine.  I’m including the fresh pasta info just for those of you who are freaks and like to do stuff like that. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pappardelle Instructions
In Bologna, the city where homemade pasta reigns supreme, this eye-filling noodle is one of the favorite cuts.  Its larger surface accepts substantial sauces, whether made with meat or vegetables or a combination of both.  It has to be cut by hand because the machine has no cutters for this shape.  Cut the rolled out pasta strips into ribbons about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide.  A pastry wheel is the most efficient tool to use for the purpose, and the fluted kind yields the most attractive results. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carbonara Sauce
(I’m including the story of Carb because it’s so cool)
An Italian food historian claims that during the last days of WWII, American soldiers in Rome who had made friends with local families would bring them eggs and bacon and ask them to turn them into a pasta sauce.  The historian notwithstanding, how those classic American ingredients, bacon and eggs, came to be transformed into Carbonara has not really been established, but there is no doubting the earthly flavor of the sauce: it is unmistakably Roman.  Most versions of Carbonara use bacon smoked in the American style, but in Rome, one can sometimes have the sauce without any bacon at all, but with salted pork jowl in its place.  It is so much sweeter than bacon, whose smoky accents tend to weary the palate.  Pork jowl is hard to get outside Italy, but in its place one can use pancetta, which supplies comparably rounded and mellow flavor.  You can make the sauce either way, with bacon or pancetta, and you can try both methods to see which satisfies you more.

Serves 6.

1/2 pound pancetta, cut as a single 1/2” slice or its equivalent in good slab bacon
4 garlic cloves
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 large eggs**
1/4 cup freshly grated romano cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 1/4 pounds pasta, usually spagetti

1.  Cut the pancetta or slab bacon into strips, not quite 1/4” wide. 

2.  Lightly mash the garlic with a knife handle, enough to split it and loosen the skin, which you will discard.  Put the garlic and olive oil into a small saute pan and turn on the heat to medium high.  Saute until the garlic becomes colored a deep gold, and remove and discard. 

3.  Put the strips of pancetta or bacon into the pan, and cook until they just begin to be crisp at the edges.  Add the wine, let it bubble away for 1 or 2 minutes, then turn off the heat. 

4.  Break the two eggs into the serving bowl in which you will be subsequently tossing the pasta.  Beat them lightly with a fork, then add the two grated cheeses, a liberal grinding of pepper, and the chopped parsley.  Mix thoroughly.  Add cooked, drained spaghetti to the bowl, and toss rapidly, coating the strands well. 

5.  Briefly reheat the pancetta or bacon over high heat, turn out the entire contents of the pan into the bowl, toss thoroughly again and serve at once. 

**Make sure you use very fresh eggs.  We’ve never had an issue with illness but I certainly wouldn’t want to use some nasty old eggs in there.