The Hungry Turk

Pasta Night - Again?

As I started my marathon training about five months ago I never thought that I’d get bored of having to eat pasta at least a few times a week. The prospect of getting to try out different pasta recipes was definitely exciting, especially at a time when I had just started my own food blog. Little did I know!

I did get to try many different recipes but as I was making most of them for the first time, they needed adjustment before they were blog worthy. Don’t get me wrong, they were very tasty, it’s just that they weren’t always, erm, photogenic. And the thought of cooking the same food over and over again for the sake of its photographic quality was not appealing.

And in all honesty, I did get bored of eating pasta every Friday night to load up on carbs before my Saturday morning long runs. At times, I got so uninspired and bored of it that I could no longer bother to come up with a new recipe and resorted to the Turkish national fail-safe sauce: yogurt. I know that it sounds bizarre to mix pasta and yogurt, but believe me with a little drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt, it’s enough to make any plain pasta (or as a matter of fact rice) palatable.

Having said all this, I still have two weeks of training before my marathon in San Francisco and whether I like it or not, I have to gulp down all the pasta I can. As I was pondering how to break the monotony of my Friday nights, a very unexpected source of inspiration came to my help. A good friend of mine and a fan of the now defunct Gourmet Magazine brought to my attention that the publishers (Condé Nast) were issuing a special edition of the famous foodie magazine on quick meal fixes. I bought the magazine without a second thought, and there it was, my personal light at the end of the tunnel: Rigatoni with Marinara Sauce and Ricotta!!

We all know how well tomatoes and pasta go together (especially if you add some garlic and a few basil leaves). I do sometimes find, however, that the tomato sauce can  be slightly too acidic, especially when using canned tomatoes (and I have no intentions of using fresh tomatoes in sauces past August). So adding ricotta cheese to the ensemble sounded like a great idea.

It sure was as delicious as it was simple to make. Now, I just have to keep my inspiration going for two more weeks, after which I can tell “see ya later” to pasta dishes for a little while.

And please, Condé Nast, I promise I will renew my subscription every year and, if necessary, get additional subscriptions for all my extended family. Please bring the Gourmet Magazine back!

Rigatoni with Marinara Sauce and Ricotta (from Gourmet Quick Kitchen Fall 2010 edition)

Serves 4


1 28-oz can of whole tomatoes in juice, chopped and half the juice from the can reserved
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Pinch of hot red-pepper flakes (more to the taste)
5 - 6 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 pack (1lb or 450gr) rigatoni
1 cup ricotta
Grated Pecorino Romano to taste
Olive oil
Salt according to taste

Cook the garlic and red-pepper flakes in about one table spoon of olive oil until garlic starts turning golden. Add the chopped tomatoes and reserved juice and cook until the sauce starts thickening, about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add your pasta and cook until it’s “al dante”. At this point stir the basil leaves into the tomato sauce and in a large bowl mix together the pasta and the sauce. Serve with ricotta cheese and grated Pecorino Romano.

Easy Does It

22.4 kilometers.

Three hours.

Have you ever wondered what 22.4km looks or feels like? Let me explain it to you…

In Montreal, 22.4km is the distance between the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Laurent - where on a Saturday night you will see girls with mind blowing short skirts and boys with outrageously pointy shoes - and Bout-de-l’Île, which is literally the eastern tip of the island of Montreal. Cool people don’t hang out there.

In Istanbul, you’ll have to drive (no fool would walk it, let alone run it), 22.4km to get from Emirgan to Rumeli Feneri.

In Brussels… well, I should really say Belgium, 22.4km is just shy of the distance between Brussels and Leuven. Two separate cities.

If you wanted to avoid paying the taxi ride between Hyde Park and Heathrow Airport in London, you would have to trot about 22.4km to catch the next flight.

I think you get the point.

For me, 22.4km is the longest distance I have ever run. Unfortunately, it will keep its privileged status only until next Saturday, when 25km will take over the gold position.

That’s what I do on Saturday mornings… I go for leisurely jogs.

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomatoes and Zucchini

Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook is the first cookbook I purchased when I moved to Montreal three years ago. The move was a turning point in my life as, in addition to many other things, it was also the first time I was going to live completely on my own. No family, no roommate… just me and the three square foot kitchen. So I had to take things in my own hands and cook for my own survival. This spaghetti recipe is one of my personal favourites. It’s so easy to prepare yet looks so beautiful and tastes so fresh that you can easily fool crowds about how much you laboured over it.

Serves 4

 

2 ripe medium-sized tomatoes, grated

1½ cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half

½ bunch Italian parsley, chopped

Handful of fresh basil, chopped

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

1 pack of dried spaghetti (about 500gr/1 pound)

1 garlic clove, minced

2 medium-size zucchini, cut into ¼-inch cubes

 

Place the tomatoes, parsley, basil, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes and ground black pepper in a medium bowl and let it sit at room temperature until all the flavours mix and develop, at least 30 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook your spaghetti until al dante. While the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil on a large pan and add the minced garlic. After one minute, add the zucchini and cook for about 5 minutes, until the zucchini have sweated but still have a bite.

Drain the spaghetti and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the zucchini and the tomato mixture and toss to combine.

Easy does it!

Pasta Day - Ciao da Bruxelles!

I moved to Brussels with my mom in 1996, at the tender age of 14. Landing in this small, slow and quiet city was not the easiest, especially coming from Istanbul. On our first day, a Sunday, my mom and I went out to explore the city, trying to calm ourselves down after such a huge change in our lives. We saw a total of 10 people on the streets on our way to the nearest metro station (which was a good 15 minutes walk away). In our total ignorance, we got off the metro at Maelbeek, in the middle of all the European institutions. When we got out of the station we were in shock. There was no one, absolutely no one… anywhere. We were on  Rue de la Loi, the second grimmest boulevard in Brussels after Rue Belliard (which happens to be parallel to Rue de la Loi). Everything was so grey. The sky (no surprise there), the boulevard, the buildings… We for sure did not get a pompous welcoming procession that day.

After that initial trauma, my mom really pushed for the two of us to explore our new city as much as possible and learn to appreciate it. On one such outing, we decided to visit the renowned Belgian Comic Strip Center. After all, some of the most famous comic strip characters had Belgian passports: Tintin, Lucky Luke, the Smurfs, Asterix etc.

However, our journey didn’t turn out to be what we expected. We had some directional problems. In Turkey, when you need directions to go from point A to point B, you’re not simply given an address and look it up on a map (I’m speaking of the pre-Google maps era, though with constantly changing street names and new neighbourhoods popping up everywhere, I don’t think much has changed). You’re given very thorough directions, which include groceries stores, street sellers, building sites and even big rocks. So my mom and I weren’t quite used to the idea of using a map. We knew more or less the direction in which we were supposed to go and set off.

Bad idea.

After an hour circling in Brussels city center area, we gave up and decided to satisfy our hunger first. We dived into a small restaurant located next to the Opera House (La Monnaie) called L'Intermezzo. It had one big central table that could sit about 10 to 12 people, and another 10 or so tables along the walls.  You could see into the kitchen through a little opening on the back wall. An Italian family ran the restaurant. Apart from a few appetizers, including Parma ham and bruschetta, the whole menu consisted of about 10 different kinds of pasta. I ordered the “rigatoni ai funghi”. I was in heaven. I had never not eaten anything like that before that day and I haven’t since. The mushrooms were hidden in a cream of tomato sauce that was subtly flavoured by fresh tarragon leaves and the rigatoni was cooked perfectly al dante.

14 years have passed since our first visit there and L'Intermezzo has seen me grow up. Over the years the friendly service and the delicious food have not changed a bit. The restaurant had a big face lift a few years ago, but the set up, with the big central table, remains the same. I still devour a Parma ham appetizer and the rigatoni ai funghi all on my own. But I do have to negotiate my right to a tiramisu with Massimo, the waiter and the unofficial sommelier (the wines at Intermezzo are worth the try).

That day, in 1996, we left L'Intermezzo with complete satisfaction, and even managed to get some directions to the Comic Strip Center. But I guess the Comic Strip Center was never really our priority. To date, my mom still hasn’t been there!!

Rigatoni ai Funghi

Serves 4

This is my version of my favourite Intermezzo dish. I can never even pretend to beat the perfection of the ladies in the L'Intermezzo kitchen, but this turned out to be pretty good as well.

 

1 pack rigatoni (500gr)

5 ripe tomatoes, grated

1 ½ cup cooking cream (I used 15% but you can use a lighter version)

A handful of fresh tarragon leaves, torn

15 or so white button mushrooms, bottoms removed and sliced

Extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Mash the grated tomatoes through a fine strainer and discard the solids. In a medium bowl mix the cream, tomato juice and tarragon leaves. Add some freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add your rigatoni and cook until al dante. In the mean time heat some olive oil in a large skillet (it should be large enough to contain your pasta) and cook the mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Pay attention not to brown the mushrooms. Add the tomato and cream mixture and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the Parmesan cheese, mix well. Increase the heat to high and cook for another minute. This will reduce the sauce. Season it according to your taste with salt and black pepper. By this time your pasta should be cooked as well. Drain the pasta and add it to your sauce. Mix everything on the skillet and serve, making sure to drizzle a few extra spoonfuls of sauce on everyone’s pasta!

Buon appetito!

Runner's Delight

I may be a novice runner but I learned pretty fast that I have to load myself with carbohydrates before my long runs to have enough energy. And what a better way to do it than with pasta? Apart from staying in shape, meeting new people and contributing to a great cause, this whole running experience has encouraged me to try out different pasta recipes. A win-win situation really!

This past weekend was a perfect example of my pasta binging: Pasta on Thursday, pasta on Friday, pasta on Saturday and on Sunday… half-marathon in Ottawa. All that pasta must have done its magic because I ran like the wind. Well, my own little breeze. I beat my personal record and it was all smiles for two hours and twenty minutes.

In honour of the wonder food that got me to the finish line, every weekend The Hungry Turk will feature a new pasta recipe. All comments are welcome and if you have your own favourite pasta recipe that you would like to share please let me know. I’m sure I will need fresh ideas pretty soon.

I’ll start off with this simple yet delicious recipe that my mom used to make. To be honest my memories of it were quite blurry at the start. All I could remember was the intense olive taste. So here is what I came up with. Loaded with green olives and tomatoes, this recipe is perfect for a casual summer dinner party among friends.

Enjoy!!!

 

Pasta Bake with Olives and Tomatoes

Serves 6

 

1 pack of spaghetti (500gr)

1 cup green olives, washed, pitted and sliced (I use olives that are already pitted and sliced, which makes this recipe very easy to prepare. Make sure to wash them to get rid of the extra salt.)

1 garlic clove, sliced thinly

6-7 ripe Roma tomatoes, sliced thickly

1½ cup grated cheese (e.g. mild cheddar, gruyere, aged mozzarella)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add your pasta to cook. For this recipe you’re allowed to cook your pasta a little more than al dente. In the mean time, heat some olive oil on a medium pan and add the garlic. Cook the garlic until golden and add the olives. Stir for 4 to 5 minutes, and put aside. Once your spaghetti is cooked, drain it, transfer it back to the pot and toss is it with some more olive oil. Transfer half of the pasta to an appropriately sized baking tray. Layer half of the sliced tomatoes and top it up with all the olives. Add the remaining past. Layer the rest of the tomatoes and cover with grated cheese. Bake in an oven heated at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden.

I can’t wait until next weekend!!