Well, folks, this recipe ended up being a bit of a wreck. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty enough. But it seemed like God was tossing up roadblocks all over the path to deliciousness. Let me explain.
First, I couldn't get my hands on any pancetta. Or proscuitto. The butcher was clean out of it. I mean, they had some pre-sliced. But because it was pre-sliced it wasn't thick-cut. And Lidia definitely had thick cut little squares of pancetta. So I bought bulk bacon instead. I think this is the first wrong step I made. Because there's so few ingredients, I think the dish really needed pancetta for depth of flavor. Anyway, on to the next obstacle.
I was determined to make fresh pasta. On her show, Lidia literally had her food processor about halfway filled with flour, turned it on, drizzled in some water and voila! Fresh pasta. Now, my food processor is the miniature size, so I used my standing mixer. No problem there. About three cups of flour and maybe 1/4 cup or so of water and the dough came together in a ball. Perfect.
I let it rest, rolled it out super-thin (I don't have a pasta rolling machine, so I used a rolling pin), cut it into strips, floured it very generously, and placed it on a floured towel. Then I set it aside for about an hour as my guests were arriving and my friends S, R, and I were setting stuff up. Mistake number two.
The sauce itself is super easy to make. I threw the bacon in a pan, planning to render the fat off it...but there really wasn't any. It was bulk bacon that I had cubed, and in the process, I had trimmed the fat off it. I thought I was doing us a favor. But in retrospect, I think that fat might've been necessary for flavor! Are we at mistake number three?
After browning the bacon a bit, I added the finely diced celery. Then tossed in about a half-can of tomato paste. It was super-thick so I thinned it out with the water boiling for the pasta. Then I added the beans. I let it simmer while I went to cook the pasta.
Well, the pasta was a mess. Letting it sit on the counter near my hard-working stove with 10 people in the room had warmed it up. The warming had resulted in it congealing back into lumps of dough. No longer did I have beautiful individual strands of pasta. It was as though I had never rolled and cut it at all! Luckily I had a box of dry fettuccine on hand.
While the fettuccine cooked, I went back to the sauce. I tasted it and was unmoved. It was...fine. Not great. The beans weren't bursting open to make the sauce creamy. The bacon wasn't giving a real bacony flavor (more just a pork flavor). And the tomato was exceptionally acidic. Poor news all around.
So, I added about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and about a tablespoon of honey, hoping the cheese would create some creaminess (had I had any cream or milk in the fridge, I would've added that) and that the honey would cut the acidity. I bet a tablespoon of butter would've been a good idea, too, but I couldn't think fast enough.
In the end, we all ate it and enjoyed it. I guess I just set my expectations too high. It was yummy...but...meh.
Anyway, when I do this again I will make sure to do the following:
1. use pancetta!
2. cook the beans longer than I did...I slightly undercooked them to help them keep their structural integrity. So great, I perfect little beans but no creaminess. Let the suckers cook!
3. be more careful with my fresh pasta. I frankly think the fresh pasta would've made the dish. I made some more the following day (just put olive oil on it) and the texture really makes a difference. I think the starches on the outside of the fresh pasta would've helped the sauce.
Luckily, I did something better (and more succint) with the leftovers. Stay tuned.
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3 comments:
I found your blog searching for the recipe. I couldn't find it anywhere online so I went to the library and borrowed the cookbook it's in... I'm planning on making it tomorrow.
Anyway, do you want the actual recipe or are you not planning on trying it again? I have it typed up.
I also found your blog looking for Lydia's recipe and posted this comment on your blog comments back in July. Has info about the book the recipe is in! I tried duplicating what I saw Lydia do but my efforts were okay, just not outstanding. Pancetta is the answer and also I think she used a grana (maybe because the grana company is one of her sponsors) which I think is a parmesan type cheese just not aged as much (??). Here's the post I put back in July on this:
Like you I saw Lydia's show and looked everywhere for the recipe, to no avail. I think the recipe or close to it is in her cookbook "Lydia Cooks from the Heart of Italy." If you go to the Amazon Books website it lets you look at the book's index and sure enough once I found "beans" that section contains a listing for the beans/fresh pasta/bacon. But on the show I think she used a grana not parmesan (or are they the same? I don't think grana is aged as much as parmesan but not an expert yet!) in Italian cheeses. Anyway I'm going to get the book or at least sneak a peek at the local big box bookstore and see if I can quickly memorize the recipe. There is another website that has transcripts of her shows, I read the transcript and while it is a big helpful there's a lot more "mmmmmm YUMMMM" going on than actual detailed instruction. My reaction to that episode was similarly "mmmmmmm YUMMMM" so can't say as I blame her...she's really fun to watch!
If some of you were wondering about the Lydia's Italy recipe, if any of you get Create TV (in our area, Pacific NW, it is piggybacked with our PBS local affiliate) the episode of Lydia's, No. 326, will have the recipe for beans, pasta and pancetta on the schedule for tomorrow September 8. I will be watching with notebook in hand!!!
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