By now I hope you’re starting to figure out that I rarely make an isolated “dish” or “recipe”. Nearly everything I make starts out with something I already made before. I hesitate to call it a leftover. I have a very wide definition of mise en place. It’s all just fodder. As an example I give you Malfade, that started out as Mandilli di Sea or Handkerchief Pasta. Handkerchief Pasta is basically just small lasagne sheets. If you’re a detail oriented cook (not me), then perhaps you’ve taken the sheets you didn’t use and carefully wrapped them up and refrigerated them. I didn’t do that. I left them on the bedsheet. You can see in the photos below, the pretty fresh pasta drying on a bedsheet and the not so pretty or “badly made” pasta that curled up, broke etc. The malfade are wonderful for a quick dinner sauced with pretty much anything, but I particularly like to pair them with my version of Marcella Hazan’s famous Tomato Sauce with Butter.
It’s April in Los Angeles and that means that Wong Farms hydroponically grown Shady Lady variety tomatoes show up at the Hollywood and Santa Monica Farmers Mkts. They had some softies for $1/lb which was a good thing since I spent all my money buying baked goods at the Bakers Will Bake fundraiser. Let’s just stop for a moment to marvel at tasty, good textured tomatoes in April. The sweetness of the onion and buttery well, butter infuses the tomatoes with supercharged flavor and texture. If I were a more careful cook I would peel the tomatoes before chopping, but I’m not and I didn’t. If you are, then do.
Make the tomato sauce below. Cook the pasta. Toss the two together and garnish with grated Parmigiano Reggiano.