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Cooking with Viggo

The Truth about Pasta

By Chef Viggo Anderson

May 03, 2000 --

When Caterina de Medici journeyed from Florence to France in 1533 for her marriage to the future King Henry II, French cooking was upgraded considerably. Caterina and her kinswoman, Maria de Medici, who followed her to become the queen of King Henry the IV in 1600, brought teams of expert cooks with them.

The culinary aristocrats gave to France the secrets of the most sophisticated cookery that had yet been developed.

Medici's cooks also prepared, for the first time outside of Italy, dishes that included now-familiar vegetables such as artichokes, broccoli, and the tiny peas that the French consider their own and that the world now knows as petit poise.

The first published reference to pasta appears in a book of cookery in the late 13th century by an anonymous author, with recipes for vermicelli, tortelli and tortelletti. The book was printed at least five years before Marco Polo returned from his historic journey across Asia, which disposes of the fable that he brought back the art of making noodles from China.

The fact is that 13th century Italians were already eating many forms of pasta, though it was by no means as important to their menus as it is today.

To many a non-Italian, the cooking of Italy means pasta--spaghetti, macaroni or noodles--these starchy staples have come to symbolize the Italian repertoire of food. But the Italian menu is much more lively and interesting, with stomach-warming soups and dazzling antipasti, subtle and sophisticated meat, fish and poultry and a profusion of delicious cheeses and desserts.

Styles of cooking pasta form a basis on which the whole country can be divided.

The north is the country of Pasta Bolognese, a flat ribbon noodle usually made with eggs.

The south is the territory of Pasta Napolitana, the macaroni of Naples, usually made without eggs.

Many names of pasta are untranslatable nicknames, often in a local dialect, but a lot of them are striking and colorful like Amorini (little cubes), Cannelloni (big pipes), and Farfalle (butterflies).

Pasta is anything but a simple dish. It is not difficult to master, but its diversity is inexhaustible.

And this time we will make Pasta al'uovo (homemade pasta) the basic dough for egg noodles.

This dough can be cut into into a variety of sizes and shapes to prepare cannelloni, tortellini, ravioli, fettuccini and lasagna.

Pasta al'uovo

(makes about 3/4 lb.)

6 oz unsifted flour
1 egg
1 egg white
2 1/5 teaspoon olive oil
1 scant teaspoon salt
a few drops of water
1. Start the pasta by breaking an egg into a cup-like well that you formed in a mound of flour on your table.
2. Add the oil and salt with the egg and fill up the well with flour pushed in from the edge of the mound.
3. Gather up the flour and begin to knead, adding drops of water if the crumbled mass proves too dry.
4. After 10 minutes of kneading, the dough becomes smooth, shiny and elastic. Divide it into two parts.
5. Complete the basic dough mixture by dusting each part with flour and rolling them out into paper-thin sheets.
6. To make Fettuccini, roll each of the thin sheets up like a long Swiss roll.
7. Now cut the rolled-up pasta into 1/4" slices and quickly unroll them into fettuccini strips before the layers of pasta stick together.

Now you can cook your pasta. This homemade pasta can keep it in the refrigerator for a few days or can be frozen.

Egg Noodles with Butter and Parmesan Cheese
4 oz softened butter
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2 oz grated parmesan cheese
8 to 13 pints of water
2 teaspoons salt
1 lb Fettuccini noodles
8 oz thin sliced mushrooms
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
1. Cream the 4 oz of butter in a mixer until it is light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the cream a little at a time, then beat in the grated parmesan cheese.
3. Transfer to a bowl, cover and set aside. If it not to be used at once, keep in the refrigerator until use, take out and bring to room temperature before use.
4. Preheat your serving dish in the oven while you cook the fettuccini.
Cook the pasta in boiling water until it is soft yet firm ( al dente). Stir the pasta while cooking so it does not stick together or to the bottom of your pan.
5. Drain the pasta into a colander. Make sure it is thoroughly drained.
6. Put the drained pasta into your preheated serving dish and add the creamed butter and cheese mixture. Toss it with the pasta until all is well coated, then add the sliced mushrooms and toss with salt and pepper. Serve at once with the extra grated parmesan on the side.

A good wine to go with this elegantly simple pasta dish would be: San Vincenzo Soave Classico Superior, a blend of 80 percent Garganega, 15 percent Chardonnay and 5 percent Trebbiano di Savo.

Viggo Anderson was named a Cordon Bleu Chef in 1980. Anderson's Ingeborg restaurant in Tonsberg, Norway, was listed as one of the 500 best restaurants in Europe by Eurocard. Anderson served as head chef at Schumsky's in Renton and the Sunitsch Canyon Lodge in Leavenworth WA. He is currently the deli manager at Fremont Fresh Market.

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