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What makes On Top of Spaghetti (HarperCollins, 288 pages, $25), the second cookbook from Al Forno founders Johanne Killeen and George Germon, even more fun to read than their first (Cucina Simpatico) is how there are even more stories. Anecdotes abound about how one or the other of them created a certain recipe, where in Italy (or France) they encountered an herb, a chef, or a dish that inspired an Al Forno version, or how they like to whip something up just for themselves.
Being trained in the arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, Killeen and Germon have always challenged each other to concoct inventive ways to dress up pasta dishes, especially in the wee hours of the morning, when they would come home from the restaurant, exhausted but hungry.
Thus were born the “midnight spaghetti” recipes, sauces that could be made as quickly as it took a pot of pasta to boil to al dente tenderness. In one, fresh spinach is wilted in olive oil; Gorgonzola and butter are mashed together; each in turn is tossed with the hot spaghetti. In another, four tablespoons of tomato paste are added to four minced and barely-browned garlic cloves. In still another, fresh basil leaves and cucumbers are finely chopped together.These recipes demonstrate several of the things I love about this book: tons of meatless pasta sauces, unusual uses of seasonal vegetables, and, of course, quick and easy preparations. The first and last of these factors are also countermanded by sections in On Top of Spaghetti that emphasize pasta with poultry, meat, and rabbit, pasta with seafood, or the tomato sauces that use meat. And some dishes, such as lasagna and baked pastas, not to mention made-in-your-kitchen pasta, involve more time and concentration.
But any home cook, beginning or experienced, will be encouraged by the presence of so many recipes with so few steps. One of the major caveats: use the right ingredients. Don’t cut corners on the freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. Do use fresh tomatoes in season when the recipe calls for it. Do pay attention to the introductory chapters on what items to have ready in your pantry and how best to cook pasta (“put the salt in the boiling water just before adding the pasta”).
Because their early experiences of eating in Italy and their continuing development of recipes at Al Forno emphasize the importance of fresh ingredients, Killeen and Germon have included many dishes that use local products from the summer and fall harvest, making it the perfect cookbook for these coming months.
“George’s spaghetti with raw cucumber and basil” was mentioned above, but Killeen also has a version: “Jo’s Spaghettini with cooked cucumbers and mint.” Lightly sautéed in butter, the cukes are tossed with cooked pasta and a cup of fresh mint leaves.
Indeed, mint crops up in two other appealing recipes, “Jo’s caper-and-mint-scented green tomato sauce” and “spaghettini with tomatoes, cinnamon and mint.” The latter uses fresh plum tomatoes, but I’m keen on the three possibilities for using up green tomatoes — always a backyard gardener’s pre-frost dilemma. The two other such recipes are a spicy hot green tomato sauce (with homemade chicken stock), and a linguine with clams and green tomatoes, a version of that perennial Rhody favorite: “ ’necks with gravy.”
Unusual variations of lasagna also stress local produce: zucchini flower lasagna (using 48 zucchini flowers — that’s one way to keep production of those green baseball bats down); fennel and endive; and an artichoke lasagna, with a Bechamel mint sauce. Pestos wrap up the section on “pasta with vegetables, legumes and herbs,” and some of them are very enticing: capers and almonds; green beans and parsley; roasted asparagus; roasted red peppers and anchovies; lemon basil with squash blossoms.
One of my favorite recipes is George’s “linguine with canned tuna,” not just because it’s straightforward, but because of the brief story that introduces it. It concludes with: “The lemon zest is Johanne’s addition . . . George adds it only when Johanne is there to enjoy it with him.”
To each his (or her) own — as it should be, in life or with pasta. On Top of Spaghetti is excellent reading and delicious in the kitchen.
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