Pasta Alla Formiana Food

PASTA ALLA LADD

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until starting to turn translucent, a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and stir, cooking 1 minute, making sure not to brown the garlic.
• Add the ground beef and cook until brown. Drain off most of the excess fat. Add the ground thyme, red pepper flakes and some salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Dump in the canned tomatoes with their juices. Stir, reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Uncover the pot and cook an additional 30 minutes.
• Cook the rigatoni according to the package directions--don't overcook! Drain and place individual portions into bowls.
• Stir 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan into the sauce. Check and adjust the seasonings. Ladle the sauce over the cooked pasta, top with more Parmesan and serve with extra Parmesan for sprinkling.

PASTA ALLA FORMIANA

Steps:

• Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Set aside. In a food processor, blend together the crushed tomatoes and garlic. Pour into a medium bowl and add the uncooked pasta, 1/3 cup olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Toss until all the ingredients are coated. Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish with tomato slices. Pour the pasta mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Arrange the remaining tomato slices in an overlapping layer on top of the pasta mixture, making sure the mixture is completely covered. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the tomatoes are slightly crispy and the pasta is cooked, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

PASTA ALLA BOSCAIOLA

Steps:

• Place a large pot of water on to boil for pasta.
• Place dry mushrooms in stock in a saucepan and bring to low boil to reconstitute. Reduce stock by half, then set aside.
• Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO in a large pan over medium-high heat, add pancetta, guanciale or sausage and render. When pancetta starts to brown, add the fresh mushrooms.
• Strip and finely chop rosemary. Strip and stack sage leaves and very thinly slice. Add shallots, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs to fresh mushrooms, add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine and reduce by half. Add tomatoes and passata. Remove porcini mushrooms with slotted spoon from stock and add all but the last few tablespoons of stock (where grit may have settled) to the sauce. Reduce the heat under sauce to low simmer. Chop porcini mushrooms and add them to the sauce. Add heavy cream if using and stir.
• Add pasta and salt to boiling water and cook pasta 1 minute less than package direction. Reserve 3/4 cup pasta water and drain pasta.
• Return pasta to hot pot, add some pasta water, the cheese, a little EVOO or butter and half of the sauce and toss vigorously 1 full minute to combine. Use more of the hot reserved water as necessary to loosen sauce if it becomes too thick. Serve family style or in shallow bowls topped with remaining sauce. Garnish with parsley.