My years living in Bologna gave me many great memories and one of them is the quality of the food… if you have never been to Bologna you need to make a trip!  In the major tourist cities (Venice, Roma, Firenze, etc.) you need to get off the beaten track to find really good restaurants… in Bologna, you trip over them.  One of my favorite pastas that was introduced to me when I was there and is typical of the Emilia Romagna region is Garganelli.  They are not easily found here in the US unless you venture to a specialty store, so when I saw them recently at a local deli I had to buy them.  The brand is Delverde and the price on the box was $3.99 which is a little steep and when I took a closer look… it’s only 8.8 oz (250g) holy $h!t Batman!!  That’s close to $8 a pound for dry pasta!!  Of course I bought them.

We made them last night and sort of improvised with the ingredients.  Here’s what you’ll need.  (how much ingredients you ask?… a bit, a pinch and a splash.  All I can say is: feel the Garganelli… be the Garganelli!!)

Garganelli con piselli e maiale

• Garganelli pasta
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove diced
• a handful of diced sopressata (you can substitute with speck, prosciutto, pancetta or pork salt)
• pork meat chopped into small pieces
• tomato sauce (We use tomato sauce that we jar ourselves and it’s usually a little thicker then canned sauce.  You might want to add tomato past but that’s up to you.)
• salt & fresh ground pepper
• frozen peas
• a splash of chicken broth
• a splash of dry red wine
• a splash of heavy cream or half/half (live a little!)

Add the olive oil, onion, garlic and sopressata to your sauce pan and let it simmer for a few minutes.  {Take a second to enjoy the smell… close your eyes and pretend you live in a villa somewhere in the Italian countryside… ok back to reality before you burn the garlic.}  Add the pork and continue simmering until the pork is almost cooked through.  Then add your tomato sauce and chicken broth and let it simmer for a few minutes before adding the peas, salt, pepper and red wine.  This is usually when I drop the pasta (takes about 7 minutes for the Garganelli.) When the pasta is about half way cooked, add a splash of heavy cream or half/half to your sauce and let it simmer until the pasta is done.  There you have it… quick, easy and delicious.  enjoy and buon appetito!

I forgot to add one of my favorite things to the list below… actually I probably forgot many but one that I truly love and miss is the smell of roasting castagne (chestnuts) in the winter. The scene of the salesman camped out with his roaster on the corner as people bustled by to finish some last minute Christmas shopping or gather ingredients for dinner would always make me smile. The small paper bags (like the ones used for penny candy) they would put them in were perfect. The robust castagne were always the biggest I had ever seen and they selected them one by one as they counted them out to show they were giving you your money’s worth. I would buy a bag and sit to watch people go by or stroll slowly through the city center bundled in my coat and scarf. Simple and brilliant.