Baked noodles in a bacon, leek and walnut sauce
I have read a lot about Italian cooking, eaten a lot of Italian cooking, here and there and at home. And I can’t help but feel that Italians love their food, but cook without much spontaneity, preferring the tried and true, almost to the stage of admonishment if certain procedures are not followed. Gual-tiero Marchesi, that much-lauded three-star chef from Milan, took a hardly radical, but different look at some old and tried pasta dishes, and the establishment said of him: ‘Lovely restaurant, but it’s really French, isn’t it?’ What he had done was to take traditional cooking into a classy restaurant, and smoothed out the rough edges. To me, this represents the greatness of cooking – maintaining tradition and flavour, while giving the lot a new vigour.
The reactionaries don’t agree. Their view is that the cuisine of long-established, usually peasant, cultures has been passed down from generation to generation – and don’t you dare meddle with it.
We, down under, on the other hand, can do what we like with cooking from all cultures. It’s not ours; we can twist it and turn it any way we like. Which is something of an advantage when the kids pester you and grapple with you and drive you crazy with requests for pasta, day in day out, then refuse to eat it. Don’t shrug your shoulders – turn a potential waste into something glorious.
The beauty of this dish is that you can make it up in advance, and reheat it whenever you like. It’s great for breakfast, for a dinner party or for a party of hundreds. I don’t know where the chilli came from. Doesn’t seem too Italian to me.
300 g dried pasta — Use anything you like. I prefer those with a bit of shape, like orecchiette — little ears. I always use dried pasta for shapes — not for any hankering for childhood lost, but because of their rare talent for gripping hold of a sauce.
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, chopped roughly
1–2 leeks, chopped finely
1 chilli, chopped roughly
4 slices bacon, fat removed, chopped finely
125 ml cream
salt
dozen walnuts, cut into quarters
1 cup grated Provolone
½ cup fresh herbs – thyme, oregano, parsley — Use whatever you like, or have. Chives would be terrific. If you haven’t any of these, plant some for next time.
black pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup grated Parmesan for the cook, more for the table.
1
Cook the pasta until just done. Stop the cooking under cold running water, drain well, and set aside. This presumes you have no pasta left over from frustrated children.
2
Gently cook the onion, garlic, leeks and chilli in a little bit of oil until they soften.
3
Fry the bacon gently, stirring about the pan, and add the cream and salt. Cook over a low heat until the cream is cooked and has taken in the flavour of the bacon. Add the leeks, onions, garlic and chilli mix.
4
Mix the pasta, bacon- and onion- flavoured cream, walnuts and Provolone together. Add the herbs, nutmeg and black pepper.
5
Grease a baking tray and add the pasta mix so that it is just about level with the top of the tray.
6
Spread the pasta with half the Parmesan and cover with aluminium foil. (You can prepare to this stage and leave until later if you wish.) Cook in a 200°C oven for about 15 minutes until the mixture is well and truly cooked through. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and return to the oven, uncovered, for a few minutes, or place under a hot grill for 30 seconds, until the cheese melts.
7
Serve at the table, with some freshly grated Parmesan and roughly chopped herbs on the side.
WINE: A chardonnay with some acid backbone would go well -say a Hardys out of Padthaway, the top of the line Eileen Hardy if you can push your pocket. Others to try: Jamiesons Run chardonnay or Seppelt Black Label.