Using Your Noodle – Nonna Marcella

“Some love a book gloriously vain and shortsighted/Some must ask the Pointer Sisters if they are truly excited/But I love noodles.” David McGimpsey

We hear you, David McGimpsey!

In a previous post, we alluded to our consuming passion for all things noodle related, which may be ill-advised as the current zeitgeist has declared gluten, a formerly innocuous little protein from a cute little endosperm, public enemy #1 (we aren’t referring to folks with celiac disease, which is a very real and debilitating illness).

Given our mantra of everything in moderation (Italians have been eating pasta for millenia and do not seem the worse or fatter for it), we will continue to pontificate on our pasta passions.   If after this writing we are attacked and suffocated by marauding strands of gluten fibres, you can all chime in and intone “I told you so”.

At Ferris’ Oyster Bar, we found a dish that satisfied both our carbohydrate and carnivore cravings.  The dish, dubbed Nonna Marcella (and if there is a real Marcella out there who created this dish, bless her ever loving heart) is comprised of penne pasta with braised pork shoulder simmered with tomatoes, butter, fennel seed, chili and parmesan.  Some of you have remarked that you defer from ordering pasta in a restaurant as it can easily be made at home.  I concede that you are mostly correct.  In this case, the slow braised pork makes this more of a weekend dish. On a work night, when slow braising a shoulder of pork for several hours is probably out of the question.  Instead, let the restaurant do the work for you.  The subtle hint of liquoricey fennel, the fork tender strands of pork and the buttery, tomatoey juices sluicing over every penne noodle all coalesce in to one perfect dish.  Pair your penne with a glass of red wine and you have a feast fit for a king and the perfect antidote for a stressful and demanding work day.  As with most of the fare at Ferris’s, the portion is gargantuan, so you can either eat half and enjoy the leftovers the next day or go for the gusto and devour the whole thing.  I am sure Nonna would approve.

Do you have a favourite pasta or noodle dish?  If so, visit our Facebook or Twitter page and tell us about it.   In the meantime, keep on using your noodle, pretty ponies!  Have a wonderful weekend.

Love Monty and the whole gang at H.A.