The Comforts of Pasta

Photo compliments of Jonathan Gill on Flickr

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my first post, but I’m a restaurant and wine publicist.   While there are definite perks to this job, including getting to dine out at some of the city’s best restaurants, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for down time or cooking at home.  This week was especially tough, as I launched Travertine (www.travertinenyc.com) in Nolita.

I was longing for a home-cooked meal and my good friend Jen, who is also a restaurant publicist, came over on Sunday to have a late afternoon catch-up and food collaboration.  We were both craving comfort food, which to us, means big bowls of pasta.  Luckily, I had lamb shoulder chops in my freezer, so we decide on a simple ragu.We seasoned and browned the chops in olive oil and removed them from the pan and then sautéed chopped onion, carrots and celery in the leftover fat.  We added two cloves of chopped garlic and a tablespoon of tomato paste and let it all cook together for a few minutes. To that, we added a cup of wine, a large can of diced San Marzano tomatoes and a mixture of chopped flat-leaf parsley, thyme and rosemary. The lamb was added back to the pot and we let the whole thing simmer for about two hours while we sipped wine and caught up.

Jen brought over some beautiful artisanal pasta from Italy shaped in large tubes.  While the water boiled, we shredded the lamb from the chops and returned them to the sauce.  We cooked the pasta short of al dente and added them to the mixture where it all cooked together for a minute or two more.

Once it was ready, we plated the ragu with a dollop of organic, grass-fed ricotta, some more fresh herbs and my favorite grated Pecorino Romano cheese.  We chatted bowls in hand and lamented about our stressful weeks and while the pasta was indeed comforting, so was the company.