10 Pappardelle With Tomato and Stewed Pancetta

Food is a central part of any culture or family, and this has always been true for my family as well. My parents are passionate about trying new foods, so I have always been open to trying new things. I was raised in Chicago, so I was exposed to a wide variety of cultures and foodways. Since coming to Indiana, I have had a very similar experience, as I have witnessed a large variety of cultural foodways in Bloomington. According to my mom, our family has roots in a large variety of European countries, but our food traditions are heavily influenced by our Italian roots. Growing up, I always thought of food as something that brought my family together and allowed us to spend time together during our family dinners every night. My parents have always cooked our family dinners together, and this has shaped my perception of what a marriage and a family should look like. Because of this, I decided to interview my mom to hear her perspective of what she considers to be our family recipes.

During the interview with my mom, we landed on a  family pasta recipe called “Pappardelle with tomato and stewed pancetta”. My family has always collected and prepared recipes from various places rather than writing our own. This is reflected through my mom having nearly an entire bookcase full of cookbooks. As I have learned to cook in college, this has been beneficial to me, because I have been able to make a lot of the recipes that I grew up with, and which remind me of home now that I am on my own. I believe it would be very hard to recreate some of these dishes if I was going by memory rather than following a recipe (Johnson,  2024).

This pasta recipe holds a special place in my heart, because it always reminds me of my mom making the dish for large gatherings. Therefore, I associate this pasta recipe with tight-knit communities and sit-down dinners. This is similar to Amish communities, where they have traditions of making the same types of food for large religious gatherings, which are made to feed a lot of people (Estaville, 2003). This was the first recipe I asked my mom to teach me how to cook, so I also view this recipe as the beginning of my cooking journey. As my cooking skills have developed, I have gained the confidence to make slight variations to the recipe every time I make it, causing it to taste slightly different each time. Similarly, the author of “Small Fires” made the same pasta dish 1000 times, and she explains that every small variation is intertwined and can make a significant difference in the final result (Johnson, 2024). I feel like her process of learning in this book has been very similar to my process of adapting this recipe. Over time, I have learned to be more careful about measuring certain steps, while I eyeball other steps and measurements. During the conversation with my mom, I found that she sees this recipe as representing many of the same things. She explained that she likes to make pasta for large gatherings, because it is easy to make very large portions. She also said that this is one of the recipes she’s gotten the best feedback on, so as she continued to make it, the pasta turned into a family tradition over time. My cousins and I always helped her make this recipe when we were younger, so she views it as something that brings the kids together by getting everyone involved.

Through my cumulative learning, the final product changes every time, and I slowly become a better cook as I continue to make it. These changes I’ve made over time have caused my version of the pasta to be slightly different than my mom’s. This difference relates to another one of our class readings about what is considered “authentic”. According to Helms (2016), authenticity is historically contextualized. I believe the food is still authentic if you are accurately following the recipe to create the same food, even if a member of that community is not the chef. With this definition, I believe my preparation of this pasta is authentic when I follow the recipe in order to reproduce it the same way my mom does. Making the pasta in this way reminds me of the family gatherings and preparing this pasta with my mom, which I believe is a sign of authenticity. However, through the elements that I have modified over time, such as adding diced red and yellow bell peppers, I think this changes the recipe and gives it a new context. I believe these adjustments have changed the recipe, and now I associate it with different memories. When I make the dish this way, it reminds me of cooking the pasta in my apartment in college, meaning that rendition of the recipe is authentic to that particular experience.

At the end of the day, I enjoy making the recipe both ways, and there are still many times I try to reproduce the recipe exactly as the recipe outlines, as this brings back memories of cooking with my mom and eating with my family around our dinner table. The memories my mom and I have associated with this recipe are what truly makes it a family recipe to us, and I think we will continue to create new experiences as we share this recipe with more people.

Pappardelle With Tomato and Stewed Pancetta

Ingredients

• 16 ounces dried egg pappardelle
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 ounces pancetta, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
• 8 whole canned tomatoes, preferrable San Marzano
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• ½ cup heavy cream
• Kosher salt

How to prepare

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet set over medium-low heat, Add Pancetta and red pepper flakes. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, stewing the pancetta until it turns gold.
3. Squeeze juice out of tomatoes, leaving flesh intact. Roughly chop tomatoes.
4. Add tomatoes to the sauté pan and season with salt. Cook at medium-low heat for 6 to 7 minutes, or until tomatoes caramelize and color the oil. Stir often and adjust the heat, if needed, to ensure the tomatoes do not burn.
5. Cook pasta until al dente, about 6 to 7 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
6. Stir cream into tomato sauce and continue to cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, or until sauce binds together, add pasta to pan and, using a wooden spoon, toss it around gently. Stir in half the Parmesan. Add just enough pasta water so sauce is glossy and coats the noodles nicely.
7. Serve with remaining Parmesan sprinkled over top.

References

Laurie Gormanous. Interviewed by David Gormanous. Bloomington, IN, November 10, 2024

Johnson, R. M. (2024). Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen. Pushkin Press.

Helms Tippen, C. (2016). History and memory: Arguing for authenticity in the stories of Brunswick stew. Food and Foodways, 24(1-2), 48-66.

Estaville, L.E., & Nostrand, R.L. (2003). Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.