Rigatoni alla Pastora

October 6, 2010

This is not only a great fast supper, but it is exactly the sort of dish you'd be digging into if you were sitting down to supper in the home of an Italian friend. A few good ingredients, a little pasta water to help them become a sauce, that's what Italian food is all about. If you double up on this recipe, you could have a second supper by moistening the pasta with some broth and baking it in a covered casserole.  This humble recipe uses the ingredients a Calabrian shepherd might have on hand: fresh, homemade ricotta and a little sausage. An even more austere version calls for ricotta only. I pass the ricotta through a sieve to make it creamier, although most Calabrian cooks don't. They simply beat the ricotta with a fork and thin it with hot pasta water. Be sure to use a ridged pasta shape, such as rigatoni or penne rigate, to hold the creamy sauce, and be generous with the black pepper.

Suggested Wine: Salvatore Moletierri Aglianico "Cinque Querce," Irpinia, Campania, a rustic, medium-bodied red wine with a fragrance of black fruits, mint, and baking spices.

Alternate: Syrah

Rigatoni alla Pastora: Shepherd's-Style Rigatoni with Ricotta and Sausage

Reprinted with permission from My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy's Undiscovered South by Rosetta Costantino with Janet Fletcher (W. W. Norton & Company; November 8, 2010). Copyright © 2010 by Rosetta Costantino and Janet Fletcher; wine suggestions copyright © 2010 by Shelly Lindgren; photographs copyright © 2010 by Sara Remington. All rights reserved.

Serves 6 to 8

3/4 pound (350 grams) fresh sweet or hot Italian sausage

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 pound store-bought whole-milk ricotta

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound (450 grams) rigatoni or penne rigate

Freshly grated pecorino cheese, optional

Ground hot red pepper, optional

Remove the sausage casings. With a table knife, break the sausage up into small chunks about the size of an olive. Heat the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until browned all over, about 2 minutes. Keep warm.

Press the ricotta through a sieve into a large serving bowl. Add salt to taste and several grinds of black pepper.  (Not sure why this is done.)

Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil in an 8-quart pot over high heat. Add 1/4 cup kosher salt, then add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 10 minutes. Just before the pasta is done, whisk a few tablespoons of the hot pasta water into the ricotta to warm it and make it creamy and saucelike.

Set aside about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the skillet with the sausage and toss over high heat just until hot throughout. Transfer the pasta and sausage to the bowl with the ricotta and mix well, adding some of the reserved pasta cooking water if needed to moisten the pasta. Add pecorino and hot pepper if desired. Serve immediately.

LYNNE'S TIPS

Pecorino is sheep's milk cheese. Hundreds of different ones are made throughout Italy, but the type I think is being referred to here is an aged style that is a grating cheese. Pecorino Romano, which isn't hard to find, would work. If you can find the Sini Fulvi Sini brand, you'll have a superior example.

Fresh ricotta cheese has soft, nearly melting curds and tastes clean and almost sweet in its creaminess. Most of what we have here is a cow cheese, but in southern Italy it's often done with sheep's milk. Freshness is essential with ricotta. If at all possible, taste the cheese before buying. If premium ricotta isn't unavailable, look for whole-milk Polly-O, available in many supermarkets. A sound sheep's milk ricotta is produced by Old Chatham Sheepherders in Old Chatham, New York.

Come to think of it, making your own ricotta is pretty easy.

Homemade Ricotta

For about 1-1/2 pounds of cheese, pour 3 quarts, plus 3 cups whole milk into a stainless steel pot with 1 cup heavy cream (not ultra pasteurized). If possible make them both organic. Line a large sieve with cheese cloth or a thin towel and set it over a medium bowl.

Bring the milk and cream to a very gentle simmer, stir in 2 teaspoons salt and 1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed). Simmer 1 or 2 minutes or until you have cloud-like clumps floating in almost clear liquid. Don't let them cook until they are hard. Scoop them up and into the sieve. Gently press out excess moisture so the cheese isn't soupy. Put into a storage container and chill.