Rapini Revisted

The big news around here? Mike's back went out from a combination of trying to pick up our 90 pound dog in order to keep the dog from falling down the stairs, and shoveling snow during last weekend's big snowstorm. He was in bed with his heating pad from Monday to Friday and in the beginning of the week he could barely move. By Wednesday he was able to move enough to come down to the kitchen for dinner, and in our house that is a feat because like all true Victorian row houses, our kitchen is in the basement and our bedroom happens to be on the third floor so it involved three sets of stairs. On Thursday Mike managed to walk around the block, and by yesterday he was actually able to move around pretty freely.

Mike missed a whole week of classes but a kind classmate recorded lectures for him so Mike was able to listen to lectures and do reading as he lay in bed with his heating pad while popping Ibuprofen. He also got a get well card from his classmates. One of them wrote: "Your dog will not be impressed if you can bench press him." Another one wrote: "I suggest you try to sue the dog." Several of them asked if the dog he was trying to pick up was a chihuahua.

The big beneficiary of Mike's back trauma was our cat Tigerlily who spent all day every day in bed with him. She really likes this new routine and is going to be pretty disappointed when he has to go back to school.

This past Thursday I made what I thought was a pretty delicious dinner and one which I thought was definitely worth a trip down three flights of stairs. I don't have a picture of that meal because: 1. The pictures of the food I've taken so far don't look all that good -- there's a strange quality to my food in extreme closeup pictures due mainly to my inadequacies as a photographer but also to my camera's limitations as a camera.  2. I was trying to get the meal served quickly and didn't want to take time to take pictures. 3. I had left the camera in the bedroom on the third floor and I didn't want to take the time or energy to go all the way upstairs and retrieve it.

Instead I have a picture of the store where this particular meal started. This is Trinacria's where I shop at least two times a week. Why we call it Trinacria's and not Trinacria, the name on the sign, is a mystery to me. I never really thought about it until just now when I looked at this picture.

No doubt you are looking at the picture and thinking it looks like a gritty and uninviting place. Its exterior definitely keeps expectations low, but inside is a wonderful old-fashioned Italian grocery store with wooden floors, bins of pasta, and shelves stacked to the ceiling with various Italian grocery goods. We buy all of our sandwich meat here which is sliced to order and wrapped in paper. We also buy sausage, cheese, wine, bread, olive oil, and all our macaroni products here. Also canned tomatoes, canned anchovies, capers, and various other pantry items. Everything is cheaper than it is anywhere else. In fact, this place is so wonderful that it deserves a future post of its own.

On one of my recent visits there I bought pancetta because I'd seen it before in recipes for rapini. I had some rapini in the house already, and on Thursday night I made

Rapini With Pancetta, Olives, and Pasta

1 bunch rapini

Salt

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon (or more) red pepper flakes

½ cup of pancetta in ½ inch dice

¼ cup chopped Kalamata olives

8 oz of pasta

Grated parmesan cheese

Begin heating water for pasta.

Meanwhile, rinse the rapini, cut off the bottom 1” of stems, and blanche for 1 minute in boiling water to which you’ve added a teaspoon of salt. Drain the rapini and rinse in cold water. Drain again, cut the large stems from the tender tops. Cut the large stems into 1” lengths and set them aside. Cut the tops into 2” lengths and set them aside separately.

When the pasta water is ready, add pasta and cook according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, in a skillet, heat olive oil and sauté garlic and red pepper flakes for about 30 seconds over medium heat, then add pancetta and continue sautéing for about two minutes, stirring to keep the garlic from burning.

Turn the heat up slightly and add the large stems and sauté for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tops and sauté and stir for a minute more. Sprinkle the rapini with ½ teaspoon of salt. Add the olives, turn the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook for about five minutes.

When the pasta is just slightly undercooked add it to the skillet along with a little of the pasta water. Turn the heat up to medium and stir for a minute.

Serve with grated cheese.

Makes 3 to 4 servings

My notes:

I used pappardelle for this. I'd never bought it before and while the shape didn't work wonderfully for this, it wasn't terrible and I liked how tender the pasta was. It's made with egg and is more delicate than something like rotini or penne. All of those macaroni-product (LOVE that term!) pastas like penne or rotini or rigatoni would also work well.

In a well-organized world you start your pasta water shortly after starting your water for the rapini. You are doing all your chopping and sauteeing while the pasta water is coming to a boil and cooking, and everything is timed so the last of the rapini is added to the skillet five minutes before the pasta is ready to be added.  This would not be my world. I can never time these things exactly but just keep in mind that the rapini-pancetta mixture will wait better than the pasta so if you are going to have one finished before the other, have it be that one.

If you don't like olives, leave them out. If you do like olives, their saltiness plays really well against the rapini's sharpness. Instead of pancetta, bacon or diced ham would also work, as would sausage. The amounts of garlic and red pepper can be tailored to taste. Sauteed sweet red peppers would also be a nice addition to this.

Comments

[~L.]

I feel his pain. We're moving and I was pretending that I can lift just as much as I could before I got pregnant yesterday. I now know that that's not true! Thankfully it wasn't that bad -- just some soreness and increased need for whining, but it's really annoying to not be able to do the stuff you always assume you can do...

Our 80 lb. dog was annoyed at me that I couldn't help him up onto our bed. He can make it if he tries, but he had his front legs up there and was whining and looking at me sadly.

[Cazza]

Why was the 90 pound dog trying to fall down the stairs?? Back pain is horrible but I couldn't help but swallow a giggle as imagined a grown man, large dog and a flight of stairs. It could be out of Monty Python.

My family love their pasta. I shall have to give this one a go.

Keep 'em coming.

[discount family oracle online]

The Rapini Growers of America thank you for your promotion of their delicious product! It's good and good for ya'.

[Julie]

L, pregnancy does nothing for your back. Also, moving does nothing for your back. Together it sounds like a formula for back hell. Whining can be very therapeutic in any health situation though, as can complaining in general.

Cazza, our dogs trap us in many Monty Python-esque moments here. Also Laurel and Hardy-esque moments.

family oracle, as Bob Novak is to the Bush Administration, I am to the Rapini Growers of America.

[rachel]

yum!