Pasta & Noodles

Serve with a green salad.

I had these mini versions of stuffed cabbage, meatballs in radicchio, in Rome, near the Spanish Steps at Enotec’Antica (Ancient Wine Bar), which is a real haunt of mine when in the city. This is a total guess at their recipe, but it’s really tasty—try it, soon! It’s closer to you tonight than Rome is, I bet!

This stoup is a one-pot Swedish meatballs and egg noodle supper, but soupier!

I love noodle bowls! What’s not to like? This one makes plain chicken noodle soup seem, well, really plain. The next time you want either take-out Asian food or just a bowl of chicken noodle soup, make this instead. It rules!

In this dish, the hot pasta is served atop a mound of lemon-flavored ricotta cheese. The heat from the pasta will warm the cheese and send the lemony scent straight to your nose.

Thicker than soup, thinner than stew, this stoup combines sausage, ham, pepperoni, veggies, and arugula. It tastes like a giant Italian sub!

Serve with a green tossed salad.

One summer we worked as private chefs on a ranch in Montana. One of our jobs was to oversee the chefs in the employee kitchen. We watched as they lamented the crew’s love of ranch dressing, culminating one evening when a guy poured it on his lasagna. We were fascinated by how much people loved the flavor of ranch and slowly began to weave it into our repertoire just for fun. These gnocchi were one of our first experiments and are still one of the best.

When the French make noodle kugel, it is more delicate and savory than the rich, creamy confections that Americans know. This nudel schaleth or pudding is derived from the Sabbath pudding baked in the oven overnight. Here is where linguistic immigration gets all mixed up—some call it noodle schaleth, others noodle kugel.

People used to make 1-inch-long vermicelli by rolling tiny pieces of dough between their fingers. Make it by breaking dry vermicelli in your hand.

For this delightful and simple Moroccan dish, use fish fillets—monkfish or any firm-fleshed fish such as bream, turbot, haddock, cod—and have them skinned.

Roz bil shaghrieh is the everyday rice that accompanies stews, stuffed vegetables, and grills in Lebanon. People also eat it by itself with yogurt poured over. The short-grain rice from Egypt is the traditional rice used, but today basmati is preferred. Middle Eastern stores sell Italian “cut” vermicelli called filini and similar Turkish Şehriye, but otherwise you can buy vermicelli nests and break them in your hands into small 3/4-inch pieces.

This specialty of Fez—shaariya medfouna, which means “buried in vermicelli”—is a fabulous surprise dish—a chicken tagine hidden under a mountain of vermicelli. It is a grand festive dish, a kind of trompe l’oeil, as the vermicelli is decorated like a sweet dessert couscous (page 124), with alternating lines of confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon, and chopped fried almonds. It sounds complex, but it is really worth making for a large party. You can leave out the confectioners’ sugar if you think your guests are likely to prefer it without, and instead pass the sugar around in a little bowl for those who would like to try. The vermicelli is traditionally steamed like couscous, but it is easier to boil it. It is more practical to cook the chickens in 2 large pans and to divide the ingredients for the stew between them. In Morocco they also cook pigeons and lamb in the same way.

This simply flavored noodle dish is good served with Asian-style tofu dishes. See the menu suggested on page 135 with Sweet and Savory Sautéed or Baked Tofu as well as the one given here. If you can’t find Asian noodles, substitute linguine.

This nearly-instant dish is fun to eat with chopsticks. In China and Japan, long noodles in broth are “slurped” (yes, this is considered proper table manners); then, the broth is eaten with a spoon. Look for Japanese-style frozen vegetables where other frozen vegetable medleys are shelved in well-stocked supermarkets.

Gnocchi are hearty dumplings made with potato flour and semolina. You’ll find them in the frozen foods section of most any supermarket, shelved near ravioli and other frozen pastas. Have the spinach or chard washed and chopped before starting so this dish can come together quickly.

This tasty Slavic dish can be made in a snap with shredded coleslaw cabbage. For a complete meal, accompany each serving with a couple of links of sautéed soy “sausages” and a salad of dark green lettuce and tomatoes.