12 May, 2008
“How to cure the flu” pasta
Posted by Che Tibby under food, how to | Tags: cheap meals, garlic overload, pasta, the mafiosa, vegetarian meals |This pasta has gone under a lot of different names, “anti-SARS”, “anti-bird-flu”, and my personal favourite, the Mafiosa. What they all have in common is a boat-load of garlic in them. It was first put together by an Italian chef I worked with in Melbourne. And it’s a cracker. Kept me out of colds for an entire season.
The ingredients are simple, and well under $15 for two people. I haven’t got exact prices because it’s all stuff I had in the pantry already. And that’s all of it. No matter what your income, this is probably one of the cheapest meals you can make.
What I have is some pasta, any kind at all. Just whatever you have lying around the house.
Some parmesan cheese, not a heck of a lot. Some parsley (high in vitamin C).
All the garlic we had.
About 150g of our own marinated olives (I’ll post on marinating your own olives next time I have to. We’ve been rolling through 3kg from the Mediterranean Warehouse since before Christmas. Total price? $28).
Some sun-dried tomatoes (about 50g).
And, some chilli powder (but fresh chillis are better).
So why’s this meal so cheap?! No meat.
The first thing to do is chop the parsley. Trim the stems off, then gather it into a tight bunch. Being careful of fingers, slice the bunch as closely as you can.
Then, place a hand on one end of the knife and chop all the air out of it, until it’s very finely chopped. The trick in this instance is to ensure that the parsley is a little dry. Really fresh parsley is too juicy and sticks to the knife, the board, itself…
Once it’s reasonably finely chopped, cut up the sun-dried (or semi-dried) tomatoes. What I didn’t know about these tomatoes when I bought them is how damn dry they are. They ended up being just ever so slightly chewy. Actually… really damn chewy. Almost beef jerky chewy. If anyone has a recipe for marinating and softening them, please let me know.
And the fun bit, peeling and chopping the garlic. Cut the tops off the cloves, then press them lightly with the side of the knife. This should allow you to take the skins off easily. Then, slice them roughly.
You’re aiming for at very least a tablespoon of garlic. Sounds like a lot?
It is.
Once you’ve got all your ingredients together you’re away. Put two tablespoons or thereabouts of decent olive oil, the best you can afford, into a frying pan and switch the element onto a low-medium heat. The idea is to very lightly fry the garlic, just so that it infuses the oil.
If you have any (we didn’t), add a small knob of butter as well. Not too much. It makes the dish a tiny bit richer, and stops the oil burning the garlic if your heat if right.
While you’re doing that, a pot of salted water for the pasta should be heating to a boil, and you want to grind your black pepper. You do have a wee mortar and pestle, aeh?
Your olives and sun-dried tomatoes have been sitting there diligently, and you can chuck them into the pan not long after the garlic, along with your red and black peppers. You probably won’t need salt. The olives have a lot already. Just stir the lot and allow the ingredients to heat through.
Again, do not fry the crap out of this dish.
When you put the olives and tomatoes into the dish, put your pasta on. When it’s al dente then dish has probably warmed enough. Bring the pasta out with a pasta spoon (or strain it), and all it to the pan. Then, add the parsley (bet you’d forgotten about that, hadn’t you?)
At this stage you should have turned off all the heat. The pan and the dish will do the rest. Once your parsley is in the dish, add a little, but not too much parmesan. Again, this just enriches the dish a little. You don’t need “American pizza” quantities of cheese to make something gooderer.
Finally, mix the whole lot together.
You want to get in there with some tongs and really mix the lot around. Make sure that the pasta soaks up as much of the residual oil as possible, and lifts all the little bits of garlic off the bottom of the pan.
This is a simple but extremely delicious dish that’s hard to get wrong, and 100% vegetarian.
Unless you add bacon, which I very nearly did…
So, serve into a bowl with some parmesan to garnish, and enjoy!
12 May, 2008 at 7:56 pm
$7.50 each? That’s not bad, and it does look delicious. But my chicken, tomato and olive hotpot from Fresh Take tonight was also very tasty, and cost $8.50. Pay an extra dollar, or spend 15 minutes staring at the kitchen wall while I prepare dinner? Generally if I’m too tired to east out, I’m too tired to cook, so a take-home or pre-prepared meal can be hard to beat, especially when one’s on one’s own.
Not that this is picking on you, but “one of the cheapest meals you can make”? C’mon, Che, I’m sue you can do one cheaper than that!
12 May, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Pack the dried tomatoes in a jar and fill with olive oil and whatever herbs - I use a clove or two of garlic and maybe a few basil leaves. Top up with oil as required.
In summer a favourite meal is warm cooked pasta stirred through with a couple of chopped fresh sunripened tomatoes (from the garden if you are lucky), a couple of shreaded basil leaves and the best olive oil on hand and then a grind or two of black pepper.
12 May, 2008 at 9:08 pm
i did say, well under $15. if i was to cost this meal, for two, i’d estimate about $7? for two people?
plus, it’s always cheaper to buy food cooked when you’re cooking for one. when i was flatting i hardly ever cooked.
but as soon as you’re cooking for a family, like the mcallister-sims then you’re better off never leaving the house
12 May, 2008 at 9:39 pm
How could you not add bacon? http://www.funnyphotos.net.au/images/im-hungry-what-should-i-eat-bacon-i-love-bacon-do-1.jpg
13 May, 2008 at 2:12 am
i just asked brian a week or so ago if restaurants still served parsley as a garnish here. it was ubiquitous in the 70s and 80s, but you never ate it (well, as a curious child, you took a bite at least once).
he couldn’t tell me if they (i guess i’m talking chain restaurants) still serve it, but i was interested to see you using it as a main ingredient. does it have much taste?
13 May, 2008 at 6:56 am
parsley is very fragrant. but then that’s exactly why i wanted to use it.
and generally you only see parsley as a garnish here to. but it’s a great herb who’s time has come!
mostly because it grows absolutely anywhere, is highly nutritious, and adds well to meals if used correctly.
13 May, 2008 at 7:33 am
It’ll be on our menu tonight! Thanks
13 May, 2008 at 7:41 am
Bizarre. I was taught a near identical recipe about 15 years ago, by a Italian friend of my ex-wife. That friend also claimed to have invented it, under the name “Spaghetti Michelle”.
I have since read that that particular combo (chilli + parsley + olives + sun-dried toms + garlic) is a Sicilian thing.
Maybe there is some sort of Italian chef shtik where they just claim to invent something everyone cooks at home?
13 May, 2008 at 8:37 am
I think if I had some of this it would blow my head off, or blow away all my friends!
13 May, 2008 at 8:37 am
lol. that explains why they kept calling it, “the mafiosa”.
PS. thanks art, will jar up some of those tomatoes this evening.
13 May, 2008 at 10:46 am
You keep promising to post on marinating olives, but this tibby guy on wellingtonista beat you to it.
13 May, 2008 at 7:52 pm
might have to keep an eye on that wellingtonista guy.. he’s obviously knicking my ideas.
16 May, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Cost: Sundried tomatos ~$1, pasta ~$0.50, parmesan is $6 for 250g, but you’re not using a lot - say $0.50 again?, parsley free (you grow your own, right?), chillis ditto (a plant costs $1.50 in Spring. Get one and put it in a pot. Yield depends on the weather, but they’re there and cheap). The only thing I’m not sure about is the garlic and olives (I was given both; about $4 all told if you had to pay?). So $6 - 7 allowing for fudge factor, butter and oil? Pretty cheap.