Paccheri with Summer Vegetables

When temperatures creep up into the 90s and beyond with equal humidity it’s like we’re being steamed or roasted ourselves so the need to cook to make a meal seems like a task for a masochist.  Unless you use a pressure cooker.  I know that some friends like to use slow cookers during the summer, but the idea of adding that heat to the kitchen for hours just isn’t something I can embrace.  Even the pervasive aromas that emanate from a slow cooker can kill a picky summer appetite.

The pressure cooker however operates in a different way.  It takes very little heat/time to bring the food inside “up to pressure”, and even less to maintain pressure for the few minutes (yes minutes) it will take to cook your food.  And aromas pretty much stay in the pot.

The meal you see above was the result of cleaning out the produce drawers and adding some very sturdy pasta that is more likely to remain al dente-ish in the fast, very hot cooking environment.  I ended up eating the meal at room temperature, another effective way to maintain an appetite when it’s still 85 degrees at 7pm.

I started out with a healthy film of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of the pot.  I peeled an eggplant and cut it into thick spears and lightly browned them in the olive oil.  Then I added lengthwise cut zucchini,  a handful of cherry tomatoes, a few whole garlic cloves and about a cup of tomato sauce.  I had two sad looking artichokes whose leaves were browning and dried out, so I trimmed them down and nestled them into the pot atop the other ingredients.  After a drizzle of olive oil, a good sprinkle of salt and some Aleppo pepper (my go to chile flakes these days) I added 1/4 cup of water out of paranoia and closed up the pot.  I set it to cook to high pressure.

Ready for pressure

In about 10 minutes the pot came to pressure (the little button pops up) then I lowered the heat so the pot could just maintain pressure and I set the timer for 10 more minutes.  When the timer went off I took the still latched pot to the sink and ran it under cold water.  This causes the pressure to drop immediately.

Look at all that broth!

Then I simply unlatched the top.  I trimmed off the chokes of the arties (so much easier to do once cooked then raw).  I lifted everything out of the pot leaving behind the tasty broth created out of the oil, tomato sauce and vegetable liquid, threw the pasta in and repeated the process, cooking the pasta for 8 minutes on low pressure.  My rule of thumb is only to use very sturdy high quality pasta in the pressure cooker.  This is Paccheri from Benedetto Cavaglieri, one of my favorite pastas.  It takes 16 minutes to cook in boiling water.

I served the appetizing mess with a sprinkle of shaved parmesan.

The trick is getting to know how to use your pressure cooker when you yourself aren’t under pressure.  There are several brands out there.  I have three Fagor pots of different sizes which I now use with the accompanied un-pressure lid for other cooking requiring heavy pans.