Meal Monday
On a recent trip to Italy and France with my husband I was reading the fabulous Elegance of the Hedgehog in which Renée, the fixedly proletarian concierge of a trés chére Paris apartment building, describes her disdain for a wealthy teen resident of the building who dresses like a poor person; "If there is one thing I despise, it is the perverse affectation for rich people who go around dressing as if they were poor...Not only is it ugly, it is insulting. There is nothing more despicable than a rich man's scorn for a poor man's longing."
She had grown up poor in rural France, and did not appreciate what she perceived as a mockery of poverty. I had my own years of attempting to deny my privilege by dressing like a bum, as we liberal bourgeoisie are like to do, until my years in rural Latin American clued me in to how insulting this attitude can be to the truly poor and working class.
And how, you may ask, does any of this relate to a food blog? As it happens, a similar, but distinct, phenomenon of the rich wanting to act poor seems to occur around culinary tastes, as well. The educated and privileged classes in the U.S. can't get enough of peasant food, especially Italian; arugula and fennel, rustic cheeses and breads, beans and bruschetta. The appeal of these foods is described beautifully in this article; we are essentially fleeing our over-scheduled and out-of-control lives by embracing the simple and wholesome foods of the peasantry.
This trend must be less insulting, but equally mysterious to peasants around the world who are finding bourgeoisie willing to pay up the wazoo for "culinary tours" of the simple (and cheap!) foods their families have been eating for hundreds of years. And despite my philosophical musings on the matter, I am in no way immune to this phenomenon. I shop at the farmers' market, grow a scraggly patch of garden and do a lot of cooking, all attempts to reconnect myself with the community and landscape in which I live through the frequent and inevitable practice of eating.
We were in the Northwestern most corner of Italy last week, and we stayed in a decidedly non-fancy hostel run by the Italian National Park service. Our hosts, an older married couple who had been raised in the surrounding mountains, cooked up some vegetable and bean soup (I had 2 bowls), tagliatelle with tomato sauce (how do you get pasta to have texture that perfect?), roasted turkey (I don't even eat turkey!), sautéed spinach (I ate an entire garden's worth) and a cheese plate that nearly lead me into raptures. The husband proceeded to tell us in his broken English how he made one of the cheeses with milk, vinegar, garlic and a few other things. What?!
The next day in a tiny restaurant in a tiny town in the farthest away corner of Italy, we had another astonishingly good meal. And trust me, it was no coincidence that we found the Slow Food bible on the bar there. A vegetable tartine with cheese sauce, penne with tomato sauce, tiny cheese raviolis with eggplant caponata, and pork that literally melted in my mouth (I don't eat pork, I swear!). And the best part of all, it was all good for me! I enjoyed eating it and felt good about eating it, which, for anyone who has ever eaten an entire bag of cheetos knows, are definitely not the same thing!
Anyhow, here is the basic recipe for Pasta e Fagioli (doesn't that sound more refined than "pasta and beans")? It is one of my favorite meals, especially when the weather starts to cool off. Its ease and flexibility make it a great "end-of-the-week" meal and it has the added bonus of being a meatless pasta dish that actually has protein.
Pasta e Fagioli Recipe (serves 6)
What you need:
1 lb small pasta (shells, elbows, etc.)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1-2 carrots, chopped
2 small zucchini, chopped OR 1 cup green beans, chopped
2 c. packed greens, chopped (spinach, chard, escarole, kale, etc.)
2 c. chopped plum tomatoes (15 oz. can), with liquid
2 15.oz cans cannellini, kidney, or pinto beans, with liquid
1/4 c. fresh parsley, chopped
Fresh basil, dried oregano and dried or fresh rosemary and thyme (optional)
Parmesan or pecorino
What to do:
Sauté the onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent. Add the garlic and any dried herbs and cook for 1 minute. Add the carrots and cook for 2 minutes over medium heat. Add the zucchini or green beans and continue to cook until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the greens and cook until wilted. Pour in the beans and tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add water to reach desired thickness. Add herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, while you cook the pasta.
Bring a generous pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. (It should be still firm but not hard in the middle). Drain and set aside.
Place a scoop of pasta on the bottom of a bowl and pour bean soup on top. Serve immediately. Pass fresh cheese at the table.
Note: You can also add lima beans, celery, or other vegetables you have on hand. A 28 oz can instead of 15 oz of tomatoes will make it more tomato-y (obviously!). Use vegetable broth instead of water as an added flavor booster.
Photo by Emily Rodman
Great article Em. When are we invited for it?
Posted by: Zack | Monday, October 05, 2009 at 10:04 AM