Delicious Dining For Tight Times
That these continue to be tough economic times for many Americans is no question. Even for those of us lucky enough to have the security of a roof over our heads with a rent or mortgage we can afford and steady job to pay for it, recent personal financial troubles or the difficulties faced by friends are still raw wounds. Even as these wounds heal and hope returns to our economy, lessons of austerity, particularly when it comes to our basic needs like food, are lessons worth remembering.
Anyone with a parent or grandparent who lived through the Depression knows that those memories of lean meals and tough times do not fade easily. My great grandmother, a teacher and mother of two, carried those Depression-era austerity lessons with her for so long that even I, as a young child, played audience for her tales involving far off lands, princesses, and waste. As she let me scrape the mixing bowl with a spatula, transferring cake batter into a buttered and floured pan, she told a story of a prince who searched the land for his perfect mate. As a test, each potential princess would have to bake him a cake to express her love. Young ladies from the kingdom would construct elaborate creations of butter, flour, and frosting. The prince would inspect one masterpiece after the next and the bowls that were left behind dismissing each girl.
After many cake-baking potential princesses had come and gone, a poor and rather plain girl who had loved the prince from afar presented him a simple one-pan cake made of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. The prince saw her cake and the kitchen. The girl having grown up with little had scraped the mixing bowl clean of every last drop of batter to fill her pan. Finally the prince had found his love. A girl who would value the batter of a simple cake enough not to waste a drop would not squander his love.
These days, putting a healthy dinner on the table in a cost efficient manner while wasting as little as possible is the same thing my great grandmother struggled with during the Depression. But even she knew that tough times still call for delicious food, and even the occasional simple cake. If we are careful with money, conscious of how we shop, and certain to cook what we buy, there should be enough to keep eating tasty food even while on a budget.
A friend of mine who had been out of work for six months told me she survived by cutting coupons and eating cans of tuna and bowls of oatmeal so often that the sight of either food now disgusts her. Tuna is certainly an inexpensive protein that works well in austere times, but even that humble can of fish can transform into something more magical with a few other pantry staples. Should her budget run tight in the future, a can of tuna with olives, capers, anchovies, and sun dried tomatoes makes for a tasty twist on Puttanesca sauce when served with some inexpensive dry pasta.
There are other forms of protein to help get through time times. Eggs can make left over jasmine rice into a filling day-after dish of fried rice. Vegetarians know beans are cheap, plentiful, and store well in the freezer once cooked up in soups and stews. Even chicken can last a while. I recently cooked up two boneless skinless fillets to last me through a week of lunches. Those chicken breasts made appearances in salad, atop pizza, even chopped up and thrown into a quick homemade soup of broth and veggies left over from my fridge--five weekday quick meals from $6 worth of chicken.
We will emerge from these tough times and when we do, just like those who came before us during the Great Depression, we will take with us the lessons of doing more with less. And maybe with our new creative, austere cooking style, we’ll be better cooks for it. I’d like to think my great grandmother was.
Made with sun-dried tomatoes, water, farfalle pasta, salt, anchovy fillets, garlic, olive oil, red chili flakes, olives, capers
Serves/Makes: 4
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 cup hot water (from the tap)
- salt
- 3/4 pound farfalle pasta
- 3 anchovy fillets
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 6 olives such as kalamata, pitted
- 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup chopped canned tomatoes or Roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 can (6 ounce size) tuna packed in oil (dolphin safe)
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- black pepper
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with the hot water. Let sit for 15 minutes to soften.
When large pot of water comes to a boil, salt the water and add farfalle. Cook till about 2 minutes shy of done. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water then drain pasta and set aside.
While pasta is cooking, heat a large saute pan over a medium flame with the olive oil. Mince garlic and rinse anchovies. Add garlic and anchovies to oil and cook for about two minutes, breaking up the anchovies in the oil to help it dissolve. Chop tomatoes if using fresh and chop olives roughly. Add tomatoes, olives, and capers to garlic along with chili flakes.
Remove sun-dried tomatoes from the soaking liquid and add half the liquid to the saute pan. Save the remaining liquid. Thinly slice sun-dried tomatoes and add to the sauce along with one half cup reserved pasta water. Drain tuna and break up lightly with a fork. Let pasta sauce simmer until reduced by half. Add tuna, pasta, and remaining pasta water along with pepper to taste. Let simmer for another two minutes until pasta is al dente, tuna is heated through, and ingredients are all nicely distributed. If the pasta looks too dry, add remaining sun-dried tomato liquid.
Remove from heat and stir in chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
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