In our hurry-up, busy day-to-day lives, we often find ourselves with too little time to make good home cooked meals. So it’s no wonder there is a plethora of fast meal cook books on the market. Unfortunately, most “30-minute meal” books and TV shows rely heavily on pre-processed and pre-packaged foods in order to meet their time constraints. What results is a fast, some times less than fresh, home made meal, but at a steep cost. This comes as no surprise as we all know time is money.
What’s refreshing about Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes
Hazan, recipient of the IACP Cooking Teacher of the Year Award and son of Italian cookbook legend Marcella Hazan, uses three key components to make these recipes quick and delicious. First there is the subject matter. Pasta, in and of itself, is a simple meal that can be prepared easily in under 30 minutes. Not to mention its versatility. Pasta can be made a thousand different ways and still be just as satisfying. Pasta lovers like myself can, and do, enjoy it several times a week with no two meals being the same.
A second component is that most of the recipes in the book, like a lot of great Italian food, use very few ingredients. Absent the seasoning and pasta, many of the recipes require only five or six additional ingredients. (A fact not lost on your wallet.) Fewer ingredients simply means less preparation time. Hazan also uses great care in combing high-quality ingredients that complement one another and create simple, delicate flavors. Hazan has balanced the ingredients so none dominate, and yet, each can be easily tweaked to meet your family’s preferences. If you like the taste of fresh sage in Rigatoni with a Veal Roast Sauce, than add a little more. Want a little more heat in your Linguine with Crab and Arugula? Double the crushed red pepper. View these recipes as the basis for building your own collection of family pasta recipes. The book is an excellent primer for cooking with pasta.
Finally, Hazan’s craft as a teacher has enabled him to structure the preparation tasks so as to make the most of your 30 minutes of cooking time. Many recipes will assume the preparation of the ingredients such as “2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and chopped”, but Hazan doesn’t. From the boiling the water to serving the final product, the teacher has mapped out the correct order of tasks to take us from stove top to table in thirty minutes as promised.
Author’s Tip:
“Ideally, I would encourage you to use homemade whenever egg pasta is called for. You can make large batches and dry it so that you’ll always have some on hand. Otherwise, use a premium brand of dried egg pasta. Don’t use the “fresh” pastas that are sold in the refrigerated cases. Refrigeration has a detrimental effect on pasta. Using a premium brand of flour-and-water pasta is also very important.”
- Giuliano Hazan, Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes
Since first testing these two recipes, they have become staples in my house. We have one of them at least twice a month. Both are very rich with ingredients like cream and butter, but don’t worry. The pasta will not be swimming in sauce like when using jarred Marinara. These “sauces” are more like a toss or a pesto, where a little bit goes a long way in flavoring the pasta.
Farfalle with Fresh Salmon
Adapted from Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes by Giuliano Hazan from Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
This recipe is so good. I served it to my guests for New Years Eve dinner. It makes four large portions, and even with wild-caught salmon and artisanal pasta, it costs less than $20 to make.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 1 medium garlic clove (I use up to 3)
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
- Salt
- 1/2 pound skinless salmon fillet
- 1 pound farfalle (penne or fusilli are also good)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 6-8 fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Fill a pot for the pasta with about 6 quarts of water, place over high heat, and bring to a boil.
- Peel and coarsely chop the tomatoes. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Put the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and place over medium heat. Saute until the garlic is sizzling. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, and cook until the liquid the tomatoes release has evaporated, 10 to 12 minutes.
- While the tomatoes are cooking, cut the salmon into strips about 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inch long.
- Once the tomatoes are ready, add about 3 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water, add the farfalle and stir well. Cook until al dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, add the salmon to the pan with the tomatoes, season with salt, and add the cream. Coarsely chop the basil and add it to the pan. Cook until the cream has thickened and reduced by about one-third, 2 to 3 minutes.
- When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with sauce, and serve at once.
Cooking time (duration): 30
Number of servings (yield): 4-5
Rigatoni with a Veal Roast Sauce
Adapted from Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes by Giuliano Hazan from Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
This pasta is rich and delicious. Hazan wanted to capture the flavors of a classic pan-roasted veal rolled with pancetta and sage. We love the fresh sage. So we add a little more at my house. Again this dish feeds four for less than $20.
Ingredients
- 2 medium cloves garlic
- 1 ounce pancetta, sliced 1/8 inch thick
- 1 pound fresh tomatoes
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 10-12 fresh sage leaves
- 3/4 pound ground veal
- Salt
- 1 pound rigatoni
Instructions
- Fill a pot for the pasta with about 6 quarts of water, place over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Peel the garlic. Cut the pancetta into 1/8-inch dice. Peel the tomatoes and coarsely chop them.
- Put butter in a 12-inch skillet and place over medium heat. When the butter begins to melt, put the garlic cloves in. Let them brown lightly on all sides then remove them.
- While the garlic is browning, coarsely chop the sage. After removing the garlic, add the pancetta and sage. Saute briefly until the pancetta loses its raw color, 1 to 2 minutes, then add the veal. Season with salt and cook, stirring often, until it begins to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and season lightly with salt. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking until most of the liquid the tomatoes release has evaporated, 10 to 12 minutes.
- When the tomatoes are halfway done, add about 2 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water, add the rigatoni, and stir well. Cook until al dente.
- When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce, and serve at once.
Number of servings (yield): 4
